Welcome to HOW RETRO, which is all about the 20th century - films, fashion, TV, people, popular culture and more.
Like Lot's Wife, we just can't help looking back...
Luscious 1940s Lips
In old black and white films from the 1940s, women's lips often appear dark and smouldering, rather than dewy and glistening. This is because the Hollywood lip fashion for that era was for deep reds in a matte lipstick. The look was soft and sensuous, making the lips look like kissable red cushions.
Among the general population lipstick wearing had an ambiguous status. It was regarded as adult and reflective of female sexuality and some regarded it with suspicion. Although the roaring 20s, Hollywood and Elizabeth Arden had done much to make coloured lips seem desirable, lipstick was still regarded as way too racy in some quarters, particularly among the older crowd who decried lipstick use on teenage girls. Nonetheless, despite the dire warnings that lipstick was a 'provocation to men', or perhaps because of it, there were still plenty of young women who rebelled and took the decadent plunge and painted their mouths in thick, matte, smudgy red hues.
Lana Turner. Still from The Postman Always Rings Twice
Although they were a popular item in the 1940s and can be convenient for disguising hair loss, I can't see that particular style of turban making a major mainstream comeback - partly because they have that "just got out of the shower and rolled a towel around my head" look, despite the fact that Lana Turner does look pretty attractive in the still photo above. Of course there are turbans and there are turbans - those brightly coloured, interestingly knotted turbans many African women wear look sensational and on the right head, anything can look good. Plus, just a simple silk scarf can look very spiff tied in a turban style.
Still from White Mischief
Turbans for women were nothing new and they were frequently worn by European women in the 1700s. However, 20th century fashion turbans on Western women were inspired by far-way places like Africa and the Middle-East and various versions were also relatively popular in the daring 1920s, when there was a particular penchant for the exotic. In the 40s, a relatively subdued Hollywood version of the turban, as seen on Lana above, was the predominant style, though there were many elaborations to this basic style...some wildly extravagant.
40s styles could range from a headband form with a turban knot, or a turban
cap which covered the whole head (sometimes with a heavy, rolled fringe
poking out) and more structured turban hats such as the green number
with a gold clasp in the photo above right, worn by Greta Scacchi in the
film White Mischief, set in 1940s colonial Africa. Singer and actress Carmen Miranda eccentrically piled a tower of fake fruit on her turban and it became her trademark. I suppose in the loosest sense, it's a style that never really dissappeared, since there are scores of women who wear some version of the turban in many different parts of the world.
1940s hairstyles concentrated on glamour and height. It was a highly stylised 'oomph' period and to achieve the perfect look required considerable time and effort. Barely anyone wore dead straight hair so if you lacked bounce in the curl department, you would have needed a perm and/or a set with rollers. Often the hair was worn wavy and loose, to chin or shoulder length, either with the top pulled back very loosely from the forehead to provide bouncy height and secured with pins or with an elaborate rolled fringe (bangs) to give a smoother, sleeker stylistic effect.
Betty Grable with ionic pincurls
Stylistic influence?
Fringes were never left flat and straight and in some cases the bouffy bangs emulated the decorative features of an ancient Greek column - note Betty Grables ionic-style forehead curls.
As by far the vast majority of women wore hats in the 1940s, the crown part of the head, behind the 'pompadour' front was left smoothish. As an alternative to a hat, sometimes all the loose hair was gathered into a snood.
Although short hair had been the hot fashion choice of the preceding decade (the 30s), in the 1940s women's hair got distinctly longer, partly because there was a move back to voluptuous femininity and away from the boyish figures and styles that had so dominated the 20s and 30s.
Stylistic influence?
An alternative style was to pile everything on top of the head in a mass of heavy curls - the hair was stretched up at the back and sides and secured with clasps and pins in a top-notch toward the front of the head. It was an uplifting, glitzy style but gave the wearer a bit of a top-heavy look.
Attractive? If you want one, contact the Snood Lady
A kind of half cap and half hairnet, the snood was a popular fashion accessory of the 1940s and could be worn casually for day wear or fancied up to pair with an evening dress.
Ugly name and in this writer's opinion at least, an ugly style. It seems some things just aren't destined to make a return appearance on the everturning wheel of fashion reycling and I'm hoping the snood might be one of them, though in truth, I have to admit some people do love them.
In any case, the snood was a very popular fashion item in the 1940s, not least because of the practical aspect. When you consider the large numbers of women moving into traditionally male factory jobs, working with machinery, they were a convenient solution to keeping pesky female locks under wraps. Another saving grace of the snood was, what with such complicated, fiddly hairstyles as those of the 1940s, the snood was a great way to hide those bad hair days.
Still don't like it. Vintage crochet pattern from Etsy
