Women in Wartime: Dress Studies from Picture Post 1938–1945

Howell, Geraldine. "Beauty’s Blueprint." Women in Wartime: Dress Studies from Picture Post 1938–1945. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019. 25–40. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 25 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350000957.ch-002>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 25 September 2021, 18:38 UTC. Copyright © Geraldine Howell 2019. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 1 BEAUTY’S BLUEPRINT Introduction In this first chapter the focus will be on what Picture Post can tell us about conceptions of female beauty and the faces and figures considered to comprise beauty’s blueprint during the last year of peace and earliest years of war. If a blue print offers a plan or guide to the making of something, then fashion’s blueprint starts with the underlying body contours around which the shapes and silhouettes of a season are styled. These contours reflect the types of figure most prized at any one time and, in concert with current fashions, inspire complementary hairstyling and grooming practices. As a picture magazine Picture Post was in an ideal position to capture these forms and their reciprocal fashions both directly, through features on fashion, and indirectly, through lifestyle stories. Picture Post was not in the business of being a fashion magazine or of catering exclusively for women. It did not, therefore, contrive to dictate what the fashionable silhouette might be or attempt to lay down rules for beauty. The information that Picture Post gives us about these two aspects of fashion comes rather from photo-stories or illustrated advertisements that by design, or by the way, conveyed what was happening in the contemporary world of clothing and body culture. It visited fashion mannequins in training and glamour girls taking to the stage, reviewed trends in corsetry and carried advertising for contemporary slimming aids. It explored current treatments in beauty parlours and investigated developments in hair styling. All of these help to establish for us today the various elements of the beauty blueprint as they came together in the shadow of war and something of how they might be achieved. The fashionable figure The nature of bodily grace and beauty and the relationship between the two are well- established in an article from December 1938 when Picture Post visited a training school for young women wanting to become fashion models. The article called ‘The Making of a Mannequin’1 was photographed by Kurt Hutton, who followed a new pupil through the various stages of a three-week training course, for which she had paid the not inconsiderable sum of fifteen pounds. Some girls, readers were told, entered the field untrained because they had been ‘noticed’, serving in shops or in some other way demonstrating ‘the instinctive poise and grace’ required of a model. But for girls who 26 WOMEN IN WARTIME: DRESS STUDIES FROM PICTURE POST 1938–1945 chose to train, courses like this were the first step on a potentially lucrative career path where freelance earnings could reach as high as fifteen to twenty pounds a week.2 The new student was ‘a good height’ at 5 feet 9 inches in high heels3 and was pictured undergoing a variety of exercises, all in a one-piece swimsuit and heels, to acquire the good posture, poise and elegance essential for the successful mannequin. No mention was made of an ideal weight or body shape, and readers were left to suppose that the model represented the right shape with her height and slender figure and without the ‘unflattering curves’ that no aspiring model must have.4 On a similar theme Picture Post returned to a modelling school in November 1940, this time in America.5 As Britain descended into its second winter of war, and the first of open hostilities, readers were introduced to Mariana Smillie’s New York Empire Mannequin School, Beach Unit, where young women learnt the art of outdoor modelling in response to a demand from beach clubs and private beaches. The girls, in a variety of fashionable swimwear, practised exercises that strengthened ‘ankles and feet, limber[ed] the calves and reduce[d] over-abundant curves’,6 to achieve the correct balance of slender physique with graceful movement. Beach fashions ranged from a figure-hugging polka-dot-and- Figure 7 ‘Outdoor Mannequins in Training on the Beach: First Lesson is to Acquire Poise. Mariana Smillie, director of the Mannequin School, shows one of her Beach Unit students how to stand well. Stomach and hips should be drawn in, the chest carried high. All very well in the showroom. Not so easy on the shore.’ ‘School for Models’, Picture Post, 23 November 1940, p. 26. IPC Magazines/ Hulton Archive/Getty Images (51677372). BEAUTY’S BLUEPRINT 27 plain halterneck swimsuit to various satin pleated bathing dresses and playsuits, while shoe choices included an espadrille, soft sneaker and open-toed sandal with ankle strap. Hair appeared mostly wavy or curled, to suit the windblown nature of al fresco modelling, and lipstick was revealed as the most essential make-up item to use when facing up to the sun. This successful combination of the sportif, lithe figure with good balance and poise might earn these sea-shore models around the equivalent of thirty pounds a week – rather more than the pre-war freelance British rate. Elegance and good posture were clearly essential attributes to make the most of the fashionable willowy figure. The relationship between staying slim and diet was broached, if not with any great conviction, in an article on London’s ‘Workhouse’ restaurant in the West End where professional models went to eat.7 Photographer Kurt Hutton captured the informal, stylish atmosphere of the restaurant that was populated by well-dressed and well-groomed fashion models, businesswomen and actresses, all of whom placed a premium on looking good and eating to keep that way. The ‘Workhouse’ was a ‘new type of restaurant’8 in offering figure-conscious food. Few details surfaced as to the type of dishes on offer, however, nor were there any helpful tips on nutrition for readers. What did emerge very clearly through the photo-story was the sense of style emanating from the diners and the careful attention to details of dress and Figure 8 ‘Lunch-Time in the Bond Street Mannequins’ Restaurant: ‘Most of the girls who come to this little restaurant every day are mannequins. Here they get a meal with which everyone can be satisfied, and on which no one will get fat’. From ‘Where The Beauties Go For Lunch’, Picture Post, 3 December 1938, p. 33. Kurt Hutton/Getty Images (2669904). 28 WOMEN IN WARTIME: DRESS STUDIES FROM PICTURE POST 1938–1945 accessories that were intrinsic to this. The photographer’s eye captured smart tailored suits and coats, neat silk blouses and fashion hats ranging from pill box, soft brim and wide beret to gauze veiled, fur fascinator and miniature tricorn. Here was what it meant to be well turned out, to be part of a fashionable lifestyle. As far as the food was concerned the lemon cakes and devil chocolate cakes – mentioned as the house specialities – no doubt went some way towards explaining the restaurant’s popularity although, in the absence of information on calories or portion sizes, not necessarily its capacity to keep customers slim. The ideal figure and the nature of glamour While mannequins of one sort or another identified the fashionable form as both svelte and graceful, Picture Post introduced another perspective on beauty in terms of its association with ‘glamour’. The photo-story of ‘A Glamour Girl’s Day’ followed the young Chester Hale American dance troupe through their normal daily routine, before appearing on stage in two evening shows at the Dorchester Hotel.9 Considered to be the ideal height and weight for their work at five foot six and eight stone eight pounds, these girls offered a slightly different form of physical beauty and one closely associated with their intensely active life. Here glamour was fashioned from a light, athletic figure achieved through hard Figure 9 ‘Glamour Girls as the Audience Sees Them – With all their Glamour’. From ‘A Glamour Girl’s Day’, Picture Post, 22 October 1938, p. 13. Picture Post/Getty Images (2636493). BEAUTY’S BLUEPRINT 29 work and dedication.10 A glamorous stage lifestyle was the icing on the cake of physical endurance and professional rigour. In this case fit was an essential part of the beauty blueprint. A rather different view of glamour emerged in a story from May 1939 entitled ‘The Making of a Glamour Girl’11 when Picture Post joined a group of young women hopefuls arriving to audition as glamour-girls for a new floor-show at the London Casino. Requiring no training or specific qualifications the work required a good face, a tall slim figure and the ability to wear clothes well. The girls could be seen auditioning mostly in swimwear, de rigueur for this type of selection procedure it would seem, and thereafter – for those offered work – attending costume fittings before appearing on stage in bespoke Paris gowns.12 Training seemed to largely focus on learning the movements required to parade on stage in extravagant and opulent costumes, for which the girls were able to earn ‘not less than £5 per week’.13 Largely young again, many ‘only 16 or 17’, and with past experience modelling or on the stage in common, few, we are told, had any other ambition than to continue ‘to be just glamorous’.14 The writer reminded readers that the job, however, only lasted as long as the good looks and figure.15 The idea of glamour that emerged here, almost entirely based on the fortuitous possession of the right physical attributes, was in contrast to that reflected through the Chester Hale girls, where glamour was a hard-won accolade resulting from skill and ability.

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