Obsession with Youth

Obsession with Youth

EXHIBITIONEXTRASABOUT
Intro Twenties Nostalgia Dreams and Discontent Obsession with Youth Music Mania Cultural Appropriation Mode and Modernity
Timeline Curator Walkthrough Jazz and Twenties Black Glamour One Hour Dress Vintage Style, not Vintage Values The Plus Pattern Project Educational Material
Student Bios Credits Process
Obsession with Youth
“The desire to look as young as possible is the real explanation for the entire mode of to-day.”
—- Marjorie Howard, Harper’s Bazaar, April 1927
Youth was a driving force behind the fashions of the 1920s and the 1960s. Fashion-forward styles were designed almost exclusively for the young, galvanizing the decades’ shared spirit of rebellion. Young people during these eras desired to both look and behave differently than their parents. They created subcultures to define their social groups, affiliations with modernity, and their style. Mainstream society and the media often misunderstood youth cultures and critiqued them for dressing solely for entertainment and shock value rather than recognizing their dress as a form of expression and liberation.
Strouse, Adler Co. girdle
Brocaded satin, elastic, and ribbon,
c. 1920,
USA
Vanity Fair lingerie set
Printed nylon and elastic,
c. 1960,
USA
During the 1920s and 1960s young women rebelled against the beauty ideals of their mothers’ generations. Youth was expressed in both decades by slimmer fashionable bodies, which undergarments helped to achieve. The ideal figure of the 1920s was less curvaceous than the hourglass silhouette of the turn-of-the-century. Fashion historian Valerie Steele wrote in Fifty Years of Fashion that the new physical ideal of the 1960s was “slender and almost preadolescent,” an even more extreme iteration of the 1920’s fashionable thinness.
A group of six women are in focus against the backdrop of an auditorium in Washington DC, circa 1920
Howard University students
c. 1920s,
Washington, D.C.,
Photograph by Addison N. Scurlock
A row of British models stand against the wall of a building in London wearing miniskirts, 1967
A group of British models wearing mini skirts
September 1, 1967,
London, England
Youth was the driving force behind rising hemlines. Twenties frocks with short skirts and low waists resembled Edwardian childrenswear. In 1966, The New York Times reported that young women were wearing alarmingly short miniskirts. It was observed that women of all ages shortened their skirts “to look as young as possible.”
1926 Life magazine cover with a pink background shows an old man dressed in white tie dancing with a flapper
John Held Jr. illustration on Life magazine cover showing a well dressed old man dancing with a flapper
Photomechanical print,
February 18, 1926,
USA
André Courrèges dress
White silk organza,
1967,
France
While the idea of the flapper began as a symbol of a highly scrutinized youth culture, she came to personify the spirit of the 1920s. Illustrator John Held Jr. is widely credited with the flapper’s image in popular culture. His Life magazine covers frequently featured short-haired, short-skirted depictions of this new modern woman.
The miniskirt is inextricably linked with 1960s fashion, although its “inventor” is contested. French fashion designer André Courrèges has been credited with introducing the miniskirt into haute couture. However, it was considered by some to be a British import designed by Mary Quant. Quant herself credited the invention to a population of young girls wearing the style on the streets of London.
A 1924 advertisement for Winx Cosmetics with the heading, Long Dark Lashes Will Make Your Eyes Alluring, a drawing of the face of a young woman with long lashes, text and an image of the product
Advertisement for Winx cosmetics in Cosmopolitan
June 1924
A 1967 advertisement for Yardley's Twiggy Lashes with the heading Introducing Twiggy Lashes By Yardley, which feature a photo of Twiggy's face, some text, and the product
Advertisement for Yardley’s “Twiggy Lashes” in Seventeen
October 1967
Makeup of the 1920s and the 1960s emphasized youthfulness by magnifying the eyes and eyelashes. In a 1967 advertisement for Yardley false eyelashes, the model Twiggy bears a striking resemblance to a girl illustrated in a 1924 advertisement for Winx mascara. Her iconic, drawn-on eyelashes were inspired by those of a child’s doll.
A young woman sits in a chair while a barber bobs her hair, circa 1920
A young woman getting her hair "bobbed" in a men's barber shop
1920s
Vidal Sasoon trims the bangs of designer Mary Quant's short haircut, 1966
Fashion designer Mary Quant received a haircut from Vidal Sasson
November 12, 1964
Anges Thomas sit facing the camera with her hand on her knee. She is wearing a flapper style dress with heavy embellishments and a long strand of pearls, circa 1920.
Agnes Thomas wearing a dress with heavy embellishments and a long strand of pearls
c. 1920s,
Photograph by Addison N. Scurlock
A close up of model Jean Shrimpton's face with her long, bouffant-style hair on the cover of a 1965 Newsweek
Jean Shrimpton with a long, bouffant-style hair cut on the cover of Newsweek
May 10, 1965,
USA
Bobbed hair was a children’s style before it became popular for young women and adults during the 1920s. These practically ubiquitous short cuts were a youthful break from preceding decades, which largely featured long hair worn up. Cropped hair was also fashionable in the 1960s, seen in this 1964 photograph of British fashion designer Mary Quant receiving a haircut from Vidal Sasson. On a 1965 cover of Newsweek, British model Jean Shrimpton depicts another youthful trend. Rather than wearing her hair in a 1950s-style chignon, Shrimpton famously wore her hair long and straight. Inside the issue, an article details how American school girls mimicked Shrimpton’s tousled locks.
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