Fashion models of the Golden Era - Top Models or normal women advertising clothes?

[Unlucky Berman]

While I was reading and rummaging through the scans of the Life Magazine in google books and looking for clothes and inspirations through various sources I was wondering a bit how it worked then.

Were they famous faces and well known stars in their era or did the magazines and agencies just "catch" nice people for a shooting from the streets nearby?

What I mean is, compared to nowadays the ladies don't look like those extramundane and child-like models or the overstyled dolls seen in modern magazines and posing on the billboards.
The pictures of the old mags are much more like the girls and woman you could have met walking through your city and some had what the "people of the fashion industry" would call a problem area (and in real is just the normal weight and profile of an adult person).

Some links, just for the case you need pics to see what I am talking about:

http://books.google.com/books?id=P0...t&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=true

http://images.google.com/images?hl=...1940s+source:life&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

http://images.google.com/images?hl=...otton+source:life&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Besides, they had nice knit sweaters and clothes then. Why does my aunt always make boring sox today?

 

[Packin' Heat]

My guess is they're professional models. I doubt a clothing agency would pick someone random to model clothing. We just have a lamer concept of aesthetics today.

 

[scottyrocks]

There were models in the 40s. But back then there was no breast augmentation (aside from external) or botox, etc, so people tended more, um, real.

 

[MPicciotto]

There were models in the 40s. But back then there was no breast augmentation (aside from external) or botox, etc, so people tended more, um, real.

And no photoshop. Ever see the Dove commercial about that?

Matt

 

[kampkatz]

Nowadays, the models all look so perfect. Our expectations have been distorted , as "normal " people can't achieve such artificial proportions.

 

[Trenter]

It should be noted that image retouching existed prior to the introduction of Adobe Photoshop. Back in the days skilled retouch artists painted on the negatives smoothing out skin tones, removing wrinkles etc. Here´s a link showing a before/after example of a George Hurrell photo featuring Joan Crawford.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The idea of fashion models as celebrities in their own right started to come into focus in the fifties -- Suzy Parker was as famous in her time as any of the super-models of today -- but earlier on models tended to be anonymous people hired from modeling agencies. "Powers Models", from the Powers agency, were collectively *very* famous during the 1940s, but they tended not to have much public identity as individuals.

Occasionally, though, some of these models became well known for activities outside of modeling -- for example, Jinx Falkenburg was one of the top models of the late thirties and early forties, and went on to become a popular radio personality, co-hosting a long-running talk program in New York with her husband, journalist Tex McCrarey.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Perhaps not clothing, but it was also very common practice to have known 'socialites' advertise things like beauty soap, cold creams, cigarettes etc.

And in quite a few issues of hair magazines they would have a layout of various styles featuring an actress.

I know that some fashion magazines did similar layouts with actresses.

 

[Marla]

This is a difficult topic to research because I don't think the industry was as transparent then as it is today. Little is known about the behind-the-scenes stuff. From reading autobiographies I've come to understand that model scouts went searching for young models much like they do today. Most models were young and attractive, and were "discovered" performing in low-budget plays.

Unlike today, movie studios then had direct contracts with models, some of whom went on to be "groomed" into full-fledged movie stars. Notably, Marsha Hunt and Lauren Bacall started their careers in Hollywood by being models.

 

[Argee]

It should be noted that image retouching existed prior to the introduction of Adobe Photoshop. Back in the days skilled retouch artists painted on the negatives smoothing out skin tones, removing wrinkles etc. Here´s a link showing a before/after example of a George Hurrell photo featuring Joan Crawford.

This is off topic, but this comment reminded me of a story my grandfather told me of a darkroom technician painstakingly removing dozens of white specks from a picture of a bride and groom walking out of the church after the ceremony. The technician showed it to the photographer who was very disappointed that he apparently missed the shot of the rice in the air.

 

[dhermann1]

If you want to see a really fun flick, full of eye candy of a very vintage sort, checkout the 1944 movie "Cover Girl", with Rita Hayworth. Silly plot (of course), but great art direction. And it features the aforementioned Jinx Falkenberg.

 

[Unlucky Berman]

That they did not use modern techniques for the retouching is clear, but I really thought they would be known a bit more.

Nowadays, the models all look so perfect. Our expectations have been distorted , as "normal " people can't achieve such artificial proportions.

Depends on what is thought as perfect. But I know what you mean. Personally I think most models of today seem to look like children and that makes me wondering about the sick preferences of certain people in the modern fashion industry.

Thanks Lizzie and Marla for those insights. I really thought that there was a more known fashion industry with its participants back then. But it seems the photographers of the pictures were more known than the brands and their models back then. I mean you could easily pin down pictures to a certain photographer like Nina Leen, Stackpole, Landry and the like rather than find more about what and whom they made a shoot of.