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1950s Housewife Era and Rock and Roll Inspired Makeup Trends
and Vintage Fashion Styles
If you ever watched the TV hit series, "Happy Days", you have
some good ideas about Fifties fashions during that fabulous
decade. Teenage girls' costumes included cashmere twin sets and
poodle skirts for date nights, nice, mid-calf length dresses to
school and simpler skirts or even blue jeans at home. Trends
were conservative, although rock and roll would soon change
that. The casual hairstyle was a ponytail, wrapped in a scarf.
When you washed the car, you might substitute the scarf for a
bandana, which was easier to wash than chiffon.
Fabulous ?Nifty? Fifties Trend Background
The Nifty Fifties were a continuation of Forties femininity,
with a little added paranoia. Those men left alive had come
home from war. The unusual thing about WWII was that for the
first time, women's work had expanded to all sorts of jobs?not
just teaching or nursing. Women had worked in munitions
factories, shipyards, banks?everywhere a man had gone to war, a
woman had taken his place. But when the war ended, the factories
and industries employing women dismissed them summarily and en
masse. Women were sent home?even the single ones, the widowed
with children, the ones who wanted and needed to work. Many
women were delighted to return to housework and wifehood after
years of hard work and privation. Some were angry and hurt at
the change from wage earner to housewife. All were
disenfranchised.
Soon, babies were created and born in enormous numbers. The Baby
Boom forced the country into something resembling normalcy:
after all, kids require diapers and kindergartens and puppies
and homes in the suburbs. It's hard to hang onto the vintage
past when the future is cooing in your face.
50?s Feminine Fashions Meant Lookin? for a Husband
Fashion changed with the country. Once again, a woman's main
occupation was in the marital hunt, and after the hunt, bliss
and childbearing. For the hunt, women needed the tools of the
trade?makeup, perfume, high heels, ultra-feminine wardrobes. In
contrast to the scaled-down fashions of WWII, Fifties styles
were fluffy with petticoats, bosomy and leggy. The Forties
figure was slim and straight, with shoulder pads to make a
bolder, more responsible appearance. The ideal Fifties era
figure was rounded, curvy and made for love. Smart girls
pretended dumbness and dumb girls reveled in being pretty.
Movies started an odd trend, though. Eyeglasses became
fashionable. Cat's eye styles, rhinestones and bizarre shapes
brought attention to the eyes. In "How to Marry a Millionaire",
Marilyn Monroe taught the world that men would make passes at
girls who wore glasses?even rich men. (But in the movie,
Marilyn's character got the line wrong, saying, "Men aren't
attentive to girls who wear glasses".
The 1950?s Married Housewife Glamour Girl
The quintessential '50s married glamour girl was Lucille Ball,
whose fashion sense was as rigorous as her business acumen
proved to be. Lucy's poodle haircut was perfect for the day;
shorter, but perfectly controlled by permanent and frequent
trips to the salon. Hair spray became commonly used, making
more complicated hair styles possible. Peaches and cream make
up replaced any previous vamp-styled pallor. Lips were rosy
pink or red and welcoming; eyes were lined in mascara (the one
cosmetic that has never gone out of fashion). Eyeliner made an
appearance at night, as well as pastel nail color and eye
shadow colors in blue and green. Foundation was de rigueur.
Evening Makeup Looks and Trends for the 50s
Evening cosmetics shimmered in shades of pink for lips and eye
shadow reaching past the lid. Eyebrows were plucked thin and
slightly high, as if to underscore the naiveté of the woman
below them. Dimples were revered, but not freckles, unless you
were a child. Bangs often consisted of pincurls, finger fluffed
into a fringe. Women looked like dolls?the girl next door for
daytime became an elegant Parisian model by night. For a nation
returning from war, it was a return to a safe, romantic fantasy.
1950s teen party themes might include the sock hop, with
dancers wearing rolled up jeans and penny loafers or vintage
circle skirts and Oxford shoes.
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