1920's make up

The attitudes to make up and women wearing make up made a dramatic switch in and around the 1920’s, before that, it was not really socially “proper” for young girls to wear make up. If make up was worn at all it was muted in colour and generally hidden away.

However the roaring 20’s saw a massive change in the entire make up industry, not only were harmful chemicals such as mercury, lead and sulphur removed from most products, but colours began to explode onto the scene.

Eyes: 1920’s

The eye make up of the 1920’s was dark and dramatic, the eyelids were covered with a dark eyeshadow such as grey or green, this was applied liberally and heavily.

Kohl was then a mixture of soot, lead and goose fat and was applied all around the eye and smudged outwards.

Mascara was also applied, but in the 20’s it came in a block form, it had to be heated up and applied with a stick or wand. In fact the mascara in tubes that we know and love today was not invented until the 1950’s.

False eyelashes were also popular in the 20’s, they were applied and then styled with mascara.

Eyes: Modern Day

Thankfully make up is a lot safer and much more practical now, no lead or goose fat for us!

To achieve a 1920’s look, first start by applying foundation over your eyelids, this gives a nice even base for your eyeshadow. Apply a grey shadow all over your eyelid and blend slightly upwards into the crease.

Draw a line in pencil eyeliner along your top and bottom lashes, make it nice and thick, don’t worry about keeping a neat line.

Smudge it outwards all around your eye, for a wider eyed, more dramatic effect, make sure you smudge the line out further at the bottom and top outer corners of your eye.

Apply mascara liberally to your top and bottom lashes, if you are using false lashes; apply them to your top lashes only.

Face Powder: 1920’s

Prior to the 1920’s face powder had been very pale and pasty, but with the changes in social attitudes it was now more socially acceptable to be outdoors. Colours were now much more natural than the previous muted ivories and pale whites that were available. It is alleged that when Coco Channel fell asleep in the sun, tanning became incredibly fashionable.

Face Powder: Modern day.

Apply powder in a natural colour that best matches your skin tone, use a large round brush or a sponge.

Blusher/rouge: 1920’s.

Blusher was known as rouge in the 20’s and came in many forms, powders, creams, liquids and even papers were used to add colour to the cheeks.

Powder form eventually became the most popular, it was applied to the face with a brush but not blended so a visible circle was left giving a doll like appearance.

By the middle of the 1920’s orange was the most popular colour of rouge.

Blusher/rouge: Modern day.

It’s very difficult to get orange blusher anymore, thankfully! But you can get bronzers that still have a hint of orange in them, apply only to the apples of the cheeks in a circle.

If you don’t like the idea of having orange cheeks, stick with darker colours such as rose.

Lips: 1920’s.

Lips were an incredibly important part of the make up of the 1920’s and the key to the look.

Many women would line their lips in liquid rouge to give a more dramatic effect and so that they could re draw the shape.

Red lipstick was really the only colour that was available, it came in a few different shades and was applied to the upper lip and taken slightly above the natural lip line, the same was done with the bottom lip.

In the early 20’s the lips were not coloured right into the corners of the mouth, instead the colour stopped quite dramatically.

In the later 20’s lips were coloured right into the corners of the mouth and the colour on the top lip was taken above the lip line either side of the cupids bow and the middle was left uncoloured, giving the look that the lip was kind of split in half.

Lips: Modern day.

Line your lips in a colour that is close to the lipstick, not your lip colour. Apply lipstick, but don’t apply colour near the corners of your mouth.

Or you can line your lips, taking the colour past your natural lip line, over emphasise the tips of your cupids bow, but leave the middle. Add colour all over the lips and keep to the lines you have drawn.

By 3cardmonte

Coco Chanel (1883–1971)

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." - Coco Chanel

Fashion designer. Born on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. With her trademark suits and little black dresses, Coco Chanel created timeless designs that are still popular today. She herself became a much revered style icon known for her simple yet sophisticated outfits paired with great accessories, such as several strands of pearls. As Chanel once said,“luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.”

Her early years, however, were anything but glamorous. After her mother’s death, Chanel was put in an orphanage by her father who worked as a peddler. She was raised by nuns who taught her how to sew—a skill that would lead to her life’s work. Her nickname came from another occupation entirely. During her brief career as a singer, Chanel performed in clubs in Vichy and Moulins where she was called “Coco.” Some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing, and Chanel herself said that it was a “shortened version of cocotte, the French word for ‘kept woman,” according to an article in The Atlantic.

Around the age of 20, Chanel became involved with Etienne Balsan who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris. She soon left him for one of his even wealthier friends, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Both men were instrumental in Chanel’s first fashion venture.

Opening her first shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910, Chanel started out selling hats. She later added stores in Deauville and Biarritz and began making clothes. Her first taste of clothing success came from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey on a chilly day. In response to the many people who asked about where she got the dress, she offered to make one for them. “My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville,” she once told author Paul Morand.

In the 1920s, Chanel took her thriving business to new heights. She launched her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, which was the first to feature a designer’s name. Perfume “is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion. . . . that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure,” Chanel once explained.

In 1925, she introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. Her designs were revolutionary for the time—borrowing elements of men’s wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions. She helped women say good-bye to the days of corsets and other confining garments.

Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel’s little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for eveningwear. In addition to fashion, Chanel was a popular figure in the Paris literary and artistic worlds. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and for Jean Cocteau’s play Orphée, and counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends. For a time, Chanel had a relationship with composer Igor Stravinsky.

Another important romance for Chanel began in the 1920s. She met the wealthy duke of Westminster aboard his yacht around 1923, and the two started a decades-long relationship. In response to his marriage proposal, she reportedly said “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster—but there is only one Chanel!”

The international economic depression of the 1930s had a negative impact on her company, but it was the outbreak of World War II that led Chanel to close her business. She fired her workers and shut down her shops. During the German occupation of France, Chanel got involved with a German military officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. She got special permission to stay in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz. After the war ended, Chanel was interrogated by her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator. Some have wondered whether friend Winston Churchill worked behind the scenes on Chanel’s behalf.

While not officially charged, Chanel suffered in the court of public opinion. Some still viewed her relationship with a Nazi officer as a betrayal of her country. Chanel left Paris, spending some years in Switzerland in a sort of exile. She also lived at her country house in Roquebrune for a time.

At the age of 70, Chanel made a triumphant return to the fashion world. She first received scathing reviews from critics, but her feminine and easy-fitting designs soon won over shoppers around the world.

In 1969, Chanel’s fascinating life story became the basis for the Broadway musical Coco starring Katharine Hepburn as the legendary designer. Alan Jay Lerner wrote the book and lyrics for the show’s song while Andre Prévin composed the music. Cecil Beaton handled the set and costume design for the production. The show received seven Tony Award nominations, and Beaton won for Best Costume Design and René Auberjonois for Best Featured Actor.

Coco Chanel died on January 10, 1971, at her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. She never married, having once said “I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.” Hundreds crowded together at the Church of the Madeleine to bid farewell to the fashion icon. In tribute, many of the mourners wore Chanel suits.

A little more than a decade after her death, designer Karl Lagerfeld took the reins at her company to continue the Chanel legacy. Today her namesake company continues to thrive and is believed to generate hundreds of millions in sales each year.

In addition to the longevity of her designs, Chanel’s life story continues to captivate people’s attention. There have been several biographies of the fashion revolutionary, including Chanel and Her World (2005) written by her friend Edmonde Charles-Roux.

In the recent television biopic, Coco Chanel (2008), Shirley MacLaine starred as the famous designer around the time of her 1954 career resurrection. The actress told WWD that she had long been interested in playing Chanel. “What’s wonderful about her is she’s not a straightforward, easy woman to understand.”

© 2008 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

1920s Fashion

The 1920s was the decade in which fashion entered the modern era. It was the decade in which women first liberated themselves from constricting fashions and began to wear more comfortable clothes (such as short skirts or pants). Men likewise abandoned overly formal clothes and began to wear sport clothes for the first time. The suits which men wear today are still based, for the most part, on those which were worn by men in the late 1920s.

The 1920s were characterized by two distinct periods of fashion. The early 1920s where nature and change progressed slowly as many were reluctant to adopt the new styles. From 1925, the styles that have been associated with the Roaring Twenties were passionately embraced by the public and would continue to characterize fashion until early in 1932.

Womenswear

After World War I, America entered a prosperous era and, as a result of its role in the war, came out onto the world stage. Social customs and morals were relaxed in the optimism brought on by the end of the war and the booming of the stock market. Women were entering the workforce in record numbers. The nationwide prohibition on alcohol was ignored by many. There was a revolution in almost every sphere of human activity[citation needed], and fashion was no exception.

Clothing changed with women's changing roles in modern society, particularly with the idea of new fashion. Although society matrons of a certain age continued to wear conservative dresses, forward-looking and younger women now made sportswear into the greatest change in post-war fashion. The tubular dresses of the 'teens had evolved into a similar silhouette that now sported shorter skirts with pleats, gathers, or slits to allow motion. Underg

arments began to transform after World War I to conform to the ideals of a flatter chest and more boyish figure. The corset was diminishing and the bandeau, flattening style was prevalent in the early 1920s. During the mid-twenties all-in-one lingerie became popular, leaving behind the corset and moving into the curvier brassiere era of the 1930s.
Elisabeth Gabriele of Bavaria, Queen of Belgium, 1920
Louise Brooks in 1927 wearing a cloche hat

The women's rights movement had a strong effect on women's sexual fashions. Most importantly, the confining corset was discarded, as undergarments changed to suit the new fashions in this decade. Instead of drawers and knickers women were now able to wear panties which were more comfortable. The chemise or camisole was employed in place of the corset. During the early part of the decade, chemises paired with bloomers kept a woman covered beneath her outer garments. For the first time in centuries, women's legs were seen with hemlines rising to the knee and dresses becoming more fitted. A more masculine look became popular, including flattened breasts and hips, short hairstyles such as the bob cut, Eton Crop and the Marcel Wave. One of the first women to wear trousers, cut her hair and reject the corset was Coco Chanel. Probably the most influential women in fashion of the 20th century, Coco Chanel did much to further the emancipation and freedom of women's fashion.

The straight-line chemise topped by the close-fitting cloche hat became the uniform of the day. Women "bobbed," or cut, their hair short to fit under the popular hats, a radical move in the beginning, but standard by the end of the decade. Low-waisted dresses with fullness at the hemline allowed women to kick up their heels literally in new dances like the Charleston.

Jean Patou, a new designer on the French scene, began making two-piece sweater and skirt outfits in luxurious wool jersey and had an instant hit for his morning dresses and sports suits. American women embraced the clothes of the designer as perfect for their increasingly active lifestyles.

By the end of the Twenties, Elsa Schiaparelli stepped onto the stage to represent a younger generation. She combined the idea of classic design from the Greeks and Romans (think "tunic") with the modern imperative for freedom of movement. Schiaparelli wrote that the ancient Greeks "gave to their goddesses ... the serenity of perfection and the fabulous appearance of freedom." Her own interpretation produced gowns of elegant simplicity. Departing from the chemise, her clothes returned to an awareness of the body beneath the gown.

In the world of art, fashion was being influenced heavily on art movements such as surrealism. After World War I, popular art saw a slow transition from the lush, curvilinear abstractions of art nouveau decoration to the more mechanized, smooth, and geometric forms of art deco. Elsa Schiaparelli is one key Italian designer of this decade who was heavily influenced by the "beyond the real" art and incorporated it into her designs.

During the Twenties, Tirocchi clients asked for designs by known designers rather than work with Madame Tirocchi directly to create gowns for them. Most of these dresses were copies produced by New York fashion houses like Harry Angelo and Maginnis & Thomas, although some came from the New York City department stores B. Altman and Lord and Taylor.

Some Tirocchi clients purchased designs by old favorites from the 'Teens, like Agnes, Callot Soeurs, Jeanne Lanvin, Poiret, and others. However, they bought a lot from the new designers Chanel and Patou (who was the special favorite of the young set).

The technological development of new fabrics and new closures in clothing were affecting fashions of the 20s. Natural fabrics such as cotton and wool were the abundant fabrics of the decade. Silk was highly desired for its luxurious qualities, but the limited supply made it expensive. In the late 19th century, "artificial silk" was first made from a solution of cellulose in France. After being patented in the United States, the first American plant began production of this new fabric in 1910; this fiber became known as rayon. Rayon stockings became popular in the decade as a substitute for silk stockings. Rayon was also used in some undergarments. Many garments before the 1920s were fastened with buttons and lacing, however, during this decade, the development of varieties of metal hooks and eyes meant that there were easier means of fastening clothing shut. Hooks and eyes, buttons, zippers or snaps were all utilized to fasten clothing.

Menswear

In menswear there were two distinct periods in the 1920s. Throughout the decade, men wore short suit jackets, the old long jackets (on morning suits and tail-coats) being used merely for formal occasions. In the early twenties, men's fashion was characterized by extremely high waisted jackets, often worn with belts. Lapels on suit jackets were not very wide as they tended to be buttoned up high. (This style of jacket seems to have been greatly influenced by the uniforms worn by the military during the First World War.) Trousers were relatively narrow and straight (never tapered) and they were worn rather short so that a man's socks often showed. Trousers also began to be worn cuffed at the bottom at this time.

By 1925, wider trousers commonly known as "Oxford Bags" came into fashion, while suit jackets returned to a normal waist and lapels became wider and were often worn peaked. Loose fitting sleeves (without a taper) also began to be worn during this period. During the late 1920s, double breasted vests, often worn with a single breasted jacket, also became quite fashionable. During the 1920s, men had a variety of sport clothes available to them, including sweaters and short trousers, commonly known as knickers. For formal occasions in the daytime, a morning suit was usually worn. For evening wear men preferred the short tuxedo to the tail-coat, which was now seen as rather old-fashioned and snobby.

History of Swing Dancing

The history of swing dates back to the 1920's, where the black community, while dancing to contemporary Jazz music, discovered the Charleston and the Lindy Hop.

On March 26, 1926, the Savoy Ballroom opened its doors in New York. The Savoy was an immediate success with its block-long dance floor and a raised double bandstand. Nightly dancing attracted most of the best dancers in the New York area. Stimulated by the presence of great dancers and the best black bands, music at the Savoy was largely Swinging Jazz.

One evening in 1927, following Lindbergh's flight to Paris, a local dance enthusiast named "Shorty George" Snowden was watching some of the dancing couples. A newspaper reporter asked him what dance they were doing, and it just so happened that there was a newspaper with an article about Lindbergh's flight sitting on the bench next to them. The title of the article read, "Lindy Hops The Atlantic," and George just sort of read that and said, "Lindy Hop" and the name stuck.

In the mid 1930's, a bouncy six beat variant was named the Jitterbug by the band leader Cab Calloway when he introduced a tune in 1934 entitled "Jitterbug".

With the discovery of the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug, the communities began dancing to the contemporary Jazz and Swing music as it was evolving at the time, with Benny Goodman leading the action. Dancers soon incorporated tap and jazz steps into their dancing.

In the mid 1930's, Herbert White, head bouncer in the New York City Savoy Ballroom, formed a Lindy Hop dance troupe called Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. One of the most important members of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers was Frankie Manning. The "Hoppers" were showcased in the following films: "A Day at the Races" (1937), "Hellzapoppin" (1941), "Sugar Hill Masquerade" (1942), and "Killer Diller" (1948).

In 1938, the Harvest Moon Ball included Lindy Hop and Jitterbug competition for the first time. It was captured on film and presented for everyone to see in the Paramount, Pathe, and Universal movie newsreels between 1938 and 1951.

In early 1938, Dean Collins arrived in Hollywood. He learned to dance the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy and Swing in New York City and spent a lot of time in Harlem and the Savoy Ballroom. Between 1941 and 1960, Collins danced in, or helped choreograph over 100 movies which provided at least a 30 second clip of some of the best California white dancers performing Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy and Swing.

In the late 1930's and through the 1940's, the terms Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy, and Swing were used interchangeably by the news media to describe the same style of dancing taking place on the streets, in the night clubs, in contests, and in the movies.

By the end of 1936, the Lindy was sweeping the United States. As might be expected, the first reaction of most dancing teachers to the Lindy was a chilly negative. In 1936 Philip Nutl, president of the American Society of Teachers of Dancing, expressed the opinion that swing would not last beyond the winter. In 1938 Donald Grant, president of the Dance Teachers' Business Association, said that swing music "is a degenerated form of jazz, whose devotees are the unfortunate victims of economic instability." In 1942 members of the New York Society of Teachers of Dancing were told that the jitterbug (a direct descendent of the Lindy Hop), could no longer be ignored. Its "cavortings" could be refined to suit a crowded dance floor.

The dance schools such as The New York Society of Teachers and Arthur Murray, did not formally begin documenting or teaching the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy, and Swing until the early 1940's. The ballroom dance community was more interested in teaching the foreign dances such as the Argentine Tango, Spanish Paso Doblé, Brazilian Samba, Puerto Rican Merengue, Cuban Mambo and Cha Cha, English Quickstep, Austrian Waltz, with an occasional American Fox-trot and Peabody.

In the early 1940's the Arthur Murray studios looked at what was being done on the dance floors in each city and directed their teachers to teach what was being danced in their respective cities. As a result, the Arthur Murray Studios taught different styles of undocumented Swing in each city.

In the early 1940's, Lauré Haile, as a swing dancer and competitor, documented what she saw being danced by the white community. At that time, Dean Collins was leading the action with Lenny Smith and Lou Southern in the night clubs and competitions in Southern California. Lauré Haile gave it the name of "Western Swing". She began teaching for Arthur Murray in 1945. Dean Collins taught Arthur Murray teachers in Hollywood and San Francisco in the late 1940's and early 1950's.

After the late 1940's, the soldiers and sailors returned from overseas and continued to dance in and around their military bases. Jitterbug was danced to Country-Western music in Country Western bars, and popularized in the 1980's.

As the music changed between the 1920's and 1990's, (Jazz, Swing, Bop, Rock 'n' Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Disco, Country), the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy, and Swing evolved across the U.S. with many regional styles. The late 1940's brought forth many dances that evolved from Rhythm & Blues music: the Houston Push and Dallas whip (Texas), the Imperial Swing (St. Louis), the D.C. Hand Dancing (Washington), and the Carolina Shag (Carolinas and Norfolk) were just a few.

In 1951 Lauré Haile first published her dance notes as a syllabus, which included Western Swing for the Santa Monica Arthur Murray Dance Studio. In the 50's she presented her syllabus in workshops across the U.S. for the Arthur Murray Studios. The original Lauré Haile Arthur Murray Western Swing Syllabus has been taught by Arthur Murray studios with only minor revisions for the past 44 years.

From the mid 1940's to today, the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Lindy, and Swing, were stripped down and distilled by the ballroom dance studio teachers in order to adapt what they were teaching to the less nimble-footed general public who paid for dance lessons. As a result, the ballroom dance studios bred and developed a ballroom East Coast Swing and ballroom West Coast Swing.

In the late 1950's, television brought "American Bandstand", "The Buddy Dean Show" and other programs to the teenage audiences. The teenagers were rocking with Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry leading the fray. In 1959, some of the California dance organizations, with Skippy Blair setting the pace, changed the name of Western Swing to West Coast Swing so it would not be confused with country and western dancing.

In the 1990's, dancers over 60 years of age still moving their Lindy Hoppin', Jitterbuggin', Swingin', and Shaggin' feet.

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-swing-dance

http://www.monkeysee.com/play/558-dance-the-lindy-hop-follower-s-basic-footwork

The last day of school

What to say about it? It was definetly a very interesting experience. Going to school with people younger then you can be really though at times but incredibly funny if you find the right friends and luckily for me I did. Now that this year is over I am enjoying my summer vacation and hopefully I'll find a job soon but I must admit life is pretty boring without them around. See ya next year guys!

Neil's New Book "Stories: All New Tales"

"The joy of fiction is the joy of the imagination. . . ."

The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.

Stories is a groundbreaking anthology that reinvigorates, expands, and redefines the limits of imaginative fiction and affords some of the best writers in the world -- from Peter Straub and Chuck Palahniuk to Roddy Doyle and Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O'Nan and Joyce Carol Oates to Walter Mosley and Jodi Picoult -- the opportunity to work together, defend their craft, and realign misconceptions. Gaiman, a literary magician whose acclaimed work defies easy categorization and transcends all boundaries, and "master anthologist" (Booklist) Sarrantonio personally invited, read, and selected all the stories in this collection, and their standard for this "new literature of the imagination" is high. "We wanted to read stories that used a lightning-flash of magic as a way of showing us something we have already seen a thousand times as if we have never seen it at all."

Joe Hill boldly aligns theme and form in his disturbing tale of a man's descent into evil in "Devil on the Staircase." In "Catch and Release," Lawrence Block tells of a seasoned fisherman with a talent for catching a bite of another sort. Carolyn Parkhurst adds a dark twist to sibling rivalry in "Unwell." Joanne Harris weaves a tale of ancient gods in modern New York in "Wildfire in Manhattan." Vengeance is the heart of Richard Adams's "The Knife." Jeffery Deaver introduces a dedicated psychologist whose mission in life is to save people in "The Therapist." A chilling punishment befitting an unspeakable crime is at the dark heart of Neil Gaiman's novelette "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains."

As it transforms your view of the world, this brilliant and visionary volume—sure to become a classic—will ignite a new appreciation for the limitless realm of exceptional fiction.

Boogie Woogie

Lately I have gotten interested in a lot of different things thanks to Lackadaisy, like fashion, Steampunk, Jazz and therefor to the 1920s -1950s dances.
I was thinking to do a course and learn to dance the boogie woogie!
I really hope to find one near where I live!

At the moment all I found was this site http://www.cotton-club.it/ and I tried sending a couple of mails asking for info to a couple of school. Wish me goodluck!

Lackadaisy

A couple of weeks ago I walked into my local bookstore to see a bunch of comics on sales, while looking through the books something got my eye and it was this lovely comic with characters that resemble cats. I loved the art right especially because I had a very similar idea for a comic (even though I am not as good as the author of Lackadaisy) so I bought it.

Lackadaisy (also known as Lackadaisy Cats) is a webcomic created by artist Tracy J. Butler, which has won a Web Cartoonist' Choice Award in 2007 and 2008. The comic is set in a Prohibition-era 1927 St. Louis with a population of anthropomorphic cats. The plot chronicles the fortunes of the Lackadaisy speakeasy after its founder is murdered.

• Lackadaisy Site
• Tracy Butler's gallery on Foxprints
• Tracy Butler's gallery on deviantART
• Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards 2007

Enjoy.