VINTAGE FASHION WEEK - on the Maybelline Blog

Fashion Week may be over, but I'm still reminded of how designers pulled some of their stunning creations, from the 1920s.  

Designers showed their 2012 creations last week.

Designer, Marc Jacobs added a splash of 1920s flavor to his collection at Fashion Week and this collection reminded me of my fashionable grandmother, Evelyn Boecher Williams, and her two sisters, Verona and Bunny.  

My great aunt, 19 year old Bunny Boecher, bobbed her hair, shortened her skirt and kicked up her heals after women got the vote...Prohibition was in full swing, the Jazz age exploded and "The Vamp" was born.

Maybelline mascara was available for girls, ready to hop on the band wagon and flirt with boys.

 Girls rolled up their skirts, rolled down their stockings and made up their eyes in rebellion of the Victorian age.

Tight fitting clothes gave way to loose fitting chemise dresses inching higher by 1922. 

By the Spring of 1922, aunt-Bunny wore eye make-up, lipstick, rough, earrings and a curled up Bob.

The Boucher Sister's, were never shy to say the least and caught onto the latest fad... including this new style bathing suit made for the brave fashionista.

All three sisters had beautiful legs and ready for any photo-op to show them off.

Fall of 1922 meant fur, fur and more fur in Chicago and Bunny and her sisters had a closet full.

The Bocher sisters were known as spoiled rotten daddy's girls, clothes horse's and born with a silver spoon in their mouth, around Chicago.  Here is my grandmother Evelyn, on the left with Verona and Bunny, wearing basic black accessorized from top to bottom.

 

While most young ladies were still wearing their skirts mid-calf, the Boucher sisters turned heads with their early Flapper silhouettes.

Compare Bunny's short skirt with the pictures of fashion in 1922, just click for images of ladies fashion.

My grandmother Evelyn and her sister's, Verona and Bunny, play a big part in my book, The Maybelline Story. I hope you'll buy a copy today.  I guarantee,  you won't be able to but it down.

Maybeline New York, getting hair and make up ready for Fashion Week.  Click on video.

Stay tuned for more Fashion Week tomorrow, as I take you through the 1920s with the Ladies from the, Maybelline Story.

Maybelline and the Gibson Girl, 1915.

Queen Victoria set the standard for women at the turn of the Century. The Gibson Girl with hair piled high on her head, a squeaky clean face and a pinch of the cheek for color, was the image set in advertising.  Virtue replaced makeup - while remaining a long suffering childlike woman - was promoted in early silent films.  In other words it was a tough audience when Lash-Brow-Ine was introduced in 1915, and Maybelline in 1916.   How did it make it?

Noel Williams future wife second on left, Frances Allen Williams, 1910.

This was the audience Lash-Brow-Ine faced in 1915.

Lash-Brow-Ine became Maybelline in 1916

Tom Lyle Williams with his father TJ and his sister Mabel, name-sake for Maybelline, 1916.

First Lash-Brow-Ine ad in 1915.

First Maybelline ad in 1916.

First box of Maybelline 1916.

Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline advertised in Photoplay magazine here seen with Mary Pickford the ultimate childlike woman in 1915.                                  

It was advertising that made Maybelline the most popular eye beautifier in the world, and it was Tom Lyle Williams who was the King of Advertising from 1915 to 1968 when Maybelline sold to Plough Inc.,  and left the Williams family after 53 years.  Today Maybelline New York is owned by the French company L'Oreal.


Read all about it in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.