A new image of the the American woman in 1924..... brought to you by Maybelline.

    1924 Vogue cover, with a beautifully made-up face.

Illustration of "IT GIRL"  Clara Bow.

MGM, formed in 1924, becoming the dominant studio during Hollywood's Golden Age and influencing images of girls around the world. 

Maybelline's Illustration of Vamp, Louise Brooks.

Tom Lyle Williams, contributed to the Hollywood Star System by featuring Stars in Maybelline ads, in movie and fashion magazines, newspapers and radio shows.

Mabel with her brother-in-law, Chester Arthur Haines, at his wedding to her sister Eva, in 1924.  

Mabel may have put  the "M" in Maybelline, but, she had no interest in being just another "It Girl," or "Vamp."  She was a traditional, 32 year old, Southern Lady, waiting for her man to come along.  

Unbeknownst to her, Chester Randolph Hewes, was living in Chicago and working at Montgomery Wards, in the automotive, advertising department.

At the time Chester, was involved with an English girl he'd met in England, while in the Navy, during
WW l.  He had said goodbye to her and her family after his stint was over and headed back to the US, got a job and was busy working.  When all of a sudden, Connie, her mother and several grown brothers showed up on his doorstep.

He told her he did not want to marry her, but being a gentleman, arranged for an apartment for the family and  jobs for her brothers.  After awhile she realized Chester, just wasn't that into her, so, packed up her family and sadly, headed back to England.

Mabel met Chester, through his sister Bonnie when he came to pick up Bonnie at a bridal shower given at the home of Chester's then girlfriend.  Mabel was also a guest and after Chester met her, he told a friend, Mabel was the girl he was going to marry.

Story by Chet and Mabel's daughter, Shirley Hughes, who passed away recently at 95 years if age.

Maybelline and the "New Woman" in 1920

Girls, I don't think we're in Kansas any more!

Vogue, Nov, 1920 reveals the new, modern woman.

Two major shifts, in culture and conscienceness, took place in 1920;  Prohibition and American women winning the right to vote.


Women's contempt for Prohibition was a factor in the rise of the flapper.  With newly bobbed hair and heavily made up eyes, the modern woman embraced Maybelline, endorsed by Hollywood Stars,  like Ethel Clayton in 1920.

Social mores in place for a century were obliterated among young women in 1920.  Liquor consumption sky rocketed, skirts shortened, music heated up and America's Sweetheart morphed into The Vamp.

Women, like my great aunt Bunny, discarded old, rigid ideas about roles and embraced consumerism and personal choice.  They were often described in terms of representing a "culture war" of old versus new.

"New Style" feminists, admitted that a full life,

called for marriage and children - 

but had an irresistible compulsion to be 

individuals in their own right."

Read more about Maybelline and it's effect on the modern woman during the 1920's in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Signed copy available.

Maybelline, 100 years ago!

100 years ago here is what was going on. 

 The ideal woman on the cover of Vogue Magazine, December 15, 1911.

Internatio​nal Women's Day 100th anniversar​y on March 8, 2011, we celebrate a century of hard fought  achievemen​ts for women around the world. 
 

In 1911, Mary Pickford played the stereotype role
 of mothers, ingenues, spurned women, spitfires, slaves, native Americans, and a prostitutes.  However, women began to identify with the "The Girl with the Golden Curls," "Blondilocks" or "The Biograph Girl," and she became the most famous woman in the world. ushering in a new era for women in film.
  

 Owen Moore and Mary Pickford;  from The Lonely Villa (Biograph, 1909)
 
Moore and Pickford married in 1911 and divorce in 1920.
 

Victorian Age, Gibson Girls, 1911.

Image of the helpless, long suffering woman, and the
 tyrannical old man in 1911.

At the same time, all this was going on in 1911,

 a 15 year old boy, named Tom Lyle Williams, bought a second hand motorcycle for $40.00, drove it work, at the nickelodeon, and earned $6.00 a week.  It was here he noticed Mary Pickford and was inspired.  

 
After a year, he sold his motorcycle by advertising it, in the classified section of Popular Mechanics Magazine.  Astounded by the response from people willing to pay $50.00, a young entrepreneur was born, who planned to make advertising his life's work. 
 
At that time Tom Lyle, had no idea the role he'd play in establishing women's identities, for the next 100 years.  Maybelline will be 100 years old in 2015.
 
Read more about Tom Lyle Williams, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

BEVERLY JOHNSON FIRST BLACK COVER GIRL 1970

 By the 1970's, African-American models became mainstream, when the phrase, Black is Beautiful was coined.

 Beverly Johnson, made history when she rose to fame as the first black model to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974 (August issue).  A year later, she became the first black woman to appear on the cover of the French edition of Elle magazine.

 32 years later, Beyonce, one of the most beautiful women in the world, is sought after to grace the covers of magazines everywhere.

And it all started with Tom Lyle Williams and Maybelline. I believe that Tom Lyle, deserves The Medal of Honor, for his tremendous contribution to the American Spirit!

VOGUE - DIANA VEERLAND - MAYBELLINE.

With the new release of Vogue Editor, Diana Vreeland's, new book, The Eye Has to Travel, I give this tribute.

Vogue, 1920's. Flapper.

Maybelline 1920's flapper.

                                              Vogue, 1930's, Art Deco.

Maybelline, 1930's, Art Deco.

Vogue, 1940's.

Maybelline, 1940's.

Vogue, 1950's.

Maybelline, 1950's.

  

Vogue 1960's.

Maybelline, 1960's.

“There is only one thing in life and that’s the continual renewal of inspiration.” Diana Vreeland

Diana Vreeland was one of the great figures of the New York City fashion and art world until her death in 1989.

Diana Vreeland, Vogue

Like Vogue Magazine, Maybelline, is an American Icon, a Fashion leader, and a large part of the world's, culture.  

Autographed copies of The Maybelline Story for $14.99, available for the Holiday's at www.maybellinestory.com.

Art Deco, Vintage Hollywood fashion, make-up bag's coming soon at www.maybellinestory.com.

Check back next week for Maybelline;
Fashion, Beauty and Women of Color.