What made you fall in love with retro beauty?

[retromom147]

This thread is just for fun!
What made you fall in love with retro beauty. Was it a black-and-white movie, a modern flick, a magazine or family photo, a book? Or have you always been in love with this era? Please post the event or thing that made you ga-ga for retro. Links, pics, songs...you name it. Have fun!

Btw...for me it was a box in my Great-Grandfather's closet that had a Rosie the Riveter postcard, a picture of Betty Grable, a well worn picture of my great grandmother smiling at her unseen soldier, and a Purple Heart medal. He never let me read the letters in the box 'cause they were already torn and fading, but every once in awhile he would put me on his knee, take out the box tell me stories and I fell in love with an era when I was just 6 years old.

Hugs to all...hope we have a TON of fun!

 

[deadpandiva]

I have always loved the way the look in old movies, but I think the defining moment was seeing Shawshank Redemption. My sister and I had to watch every Rita Hayworth movie we could get our hands on after seeing that.

 

[retromom147]

I have always loved the way the look in old movies, but I think the defining moment was seeing Shawshank Redemption. My sister and I had to watch every Rita Hayworth movie we could get our hands on after seeing that.

I have to agree...if I were to choose an idol from the 40's it would be a toss up between Rita and Rosie...they were both so gorgeous (rosie was even while working and growing muscles), with a hint of sass and American Grit. Gotta love 'em.

 

[JitterBugJenny]

I have always loved retro anything since as far back as I can remember. Lately though, I feel the world we live in today could do good by going back to the basics. We have been spoiled. I would have loved life in the forties! Errr, I kinda live in my own forties world now, too bad I cant get everyone else around me to follow suit!

 

[RetroBabydoll]

Loving the past

Well.....I would have to say that I was the type to turn to AMC for a classic black and white movie even in elementary school. I loved the time period from watching movies. I found myself checking out vintage shops and collecting depression glass and vintage gloves. Sometimes I think it all goes back to my grandpa telling me stories about the past and about my grandmother. I've always felt a love for the 40's and 50's. My mom would comment about me saying I had an old soul or she would say I probably had a past life during the 40's. I've only started wearing vintage style clothes within the past year or so. My bf helped me realize it was ok to be myself. I love retro beauty.

 

[LolitaHaze]

I have always loved the classic movies and whatnot, but I think the thing that made me fall in love with the 40's more than anything were the old photos of my Grandmother. I just thought she was so beautiful. I never met her as she passed away one month before I was born. In 2005 I did a photo tribute for my Mother's christmas present where I recreated a photo of my Grandmother. I even wore the same braclet!

 

[ShortClara]

Not Golden Age, but I think what made me love looking to the past were Merchant Ivory films. I wanted to be Helena Bonham Carter, and to this day my favorite movie of all time is A Room with a View. Maybe it's the idea that ladies can be dolled up and beautiful whilst being strong and sassy at the same time.

"Mother doesn't like me playing Beethoven. She says I'm always peevish afterwards."

 

[$ally]

My parents raised me on the classic lifestyle. It's more about the music than anything for me.
Here's my usual cut'n'paste answer: I grew up with Golden Era mentality, minus the bigotry and objectification of women. My parents were in their early twenties when they had my three brothers, but I didn't come along until they were in their forties. It was like having five parents. Mom &Dad fell in love at the time America joined WWII, so I was raised on big band, 1930s-50s musicals, and film noir. When I was a little girl, I helped one of my big brothers fix up his classic 1942 Army surplus jeep. While the other kids watched HR Pufnstuf, I watched silver screen icons. I played dress up in old gowns, shoes, gloves, hats, and purses my Mother brought home from the charity thrift store where she volunteered. I never outgrew that; I wore the same dresses to high school, only they weren't dragging on the floor anymore. As an adult, I found that vintage clothing both fit my figure and my personality better than current mainstream fashions. My first car was older than me. I’ve inherited some beautiful antiques and I own an amazing 1920s-40s jewelry collection, mostly crystal rhinestone. I love to surround myself with "old stuff". I've seen rockabilly revivals & swing trends wax & wane through the 70s, 80s, 90s, but this always has been, and always will be, a part of my life. It's not a fad or a scene for me. It's just in my blood.

 

[Miss Brill]

My mother is a classic movie buff, so I always watched old movies. Plus, my grandmother was born in 1916 & I grew up watching her set her hair every night & never wanting to be seen unless she thought she looked perfect.

 

[~*Red*~]

I remember always loving when my school had 50's day and we got to dress up 50's style. Of course we all looked like we were from Grease, but that was the beginning of it. I remember watching TCM and AMC (when they played good and true vintage movies, not the crap they play today) and that's when it went into overdrive. I recorded all kinds of movies and started to play with my hair. Which led me to beauty school, which happened to be right next door to a vintage clothing shop. WOOHOO for me! I was spoiled!

 

[pigeon toe]

What initially got me into it was finding Bettie Page in 8th grade. At the time I was very much into riot grrrl (feminist punk) and she was definitely an icon in that genre. I loved her type of sexuality -- it was obviously overt, but at the same time cheeky and playful. That sort of sexiness resonated with me way more than any modern day "sexiness" (the kind that borders on vulgar).

I pretty much fell in love with Bettie Page, and it evolved from there. I just saw her as a beauty icon that I actually could look like. Flipping through magazines all I saw were tall, tan, skinny, blonde women with long straight noses and thin faces, and I had none of the above. But looking at past beauties, pin-ups and actresses, I saw such a broad variety of women that I realized, hey, I can be beautiful too!

Honest to goodness, vintage has COMPLETELY changed the way I feel about the way I look.

 

[Fancy Mouse]

I think the earliest thing that made me fall in love with vintage was watching Fred Astaire movies when I was a small child. Later it was listening to Dean Martin, watching Audrey in Roman Holiday and so on. It was films and music that hooked me. It was only this year that I started to buy vintage, although my dress sense has been heavily influenced by Audrey Hepburn since my teenage years.

 

[Viola]

My grandmother had a huge influence on me. I thought she had ineffable style and presence. My mother did and still does disdain fashion and makeup and fancy hair; my grandmother always looked just so, and I NEVER saw her without lipstick except when I slept over her house and then only until about seven in the morning.

It was her who taught me how to do makeup. The eyebrows she helped me achieve at 14-15 were pretty much '50s eyebrows.

The Glen Miller and stuff was her too.

The old movies were a big influence but her real-life example probably has as much or more to do with it.

 

[pennycarrol]

The stories of my grandmother during the war always fascinated me! How she hid the food during rationing ! Also I loved her when she recounted me how she met my grandfather ... And I fell in love with a photo of their marriage! This picture fascinated me as a child ... Now I ask her beauty tips etc lol !!... Retro style is a part of my life now!!!

 

[Antje]

I think my parents where a great influence,

At school I was a girl who was everything at one time and then when elvis came along it was really his 50 era what I loved the most.

And then I wanted the clothes to be as much to look like in the fifties so I started to make dresses and wear them ofcourse.

My parents always stimulated this to be as much me, as I could be, and if there was a black and white movie they tought I would like, they tape it for me.
So when I was quit young I watched fred astaire, ginger rogers, of course all elvis movies, but theyre not real old.

And since then I am turning vintage bit by bit

 

[Hillocks]

I'm not a true retro girl to be really honest. I'm a re-enactor, aswell as the military side as the civilian. So I don't wear vintage clothing dailly.
I started collecting pictures of women in uniforms during the war and was captured by their amazing hairstyles. I tried to replicate those for years but never got the hang of it.
Untill I found this place I could only make the gibson roll. I have to say I wear flowers in my hair since I'm here because it looks so happy and colorfull during the winterdays so that's the only vintage thing I do.

But since I'm here it startes to itch and I would love to fill my wardrobe with a few retro things The style of the '40s look more glamerous than the fashion now a days, and the women back then really tried to look their best!

Couldn't leave it to post a picture from last summer, my boyfriend and I went to a wedding of a fellow re-enactor. The first time my hair looked great (in my eyes )

 

[Camille]

I've always been in to classic movies and was brought up around alot of 50's music. (My dad was heavy in to Elvis and Johnny Cash when I was a kid) I remember me and my mother sitting in front of the tv on rainy summerdays watching old black- and whites. I've also always had a thing for WW2-history, and stretching in to late 19th century too.

I think the big boom came when I got tired of oi and ska and moved on to jazz around five years ago. I've had the albums for ten years, listening to them now and then, but not really understanding how amazing the music is. About that time they had a movie night with a live piano player and some Charlie Chaplin films showing on an old theatre in our town - and I was hooked. To the movies and music, at least, even though I didn't dress vintage.

That took another two or three years, when my best friend moved to Stockholm and we sort of boosted eachother up. We started getting intrested in the music first, then movies, clothing (boy, we really didn't have a clue what was really golden era back then!) and then on to dancing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm another grandmother-influenced gal -- my grandmother was one of those ladies who put on a suit and gloves to go grocery shopping, and always wore crisp housedresses while scrubbing the kitchen floor, and I simply grew up thinking that's what one was supposed to do. She wasn't elegant or expensively dressed by any means, but she was very careful of the way she looked, and it showed.

I've had people tell me, in a disdainful voice, that I have the fashion sense of a "1940's housewife." If they'd known my grandmother, they'd know why I consider that a compliment.

 

[pennyseranade]

What made me fall in love...

There is such a classic style to retro beauty. When I look at pics from high school, I think "What were they thinking? The hair? Why are her bangs standing straight up off the forehead?" Vintage style is timeless. Today, tomorrow, or 20 years from now, you will still be proud to display your pictures. There is a glamour and class that isn't present in modern style. Women dress like women and are always put together. Forget girdles and stockings...when did it become acceptable to leave the house in your pajamas? Today putting on a skirt and heels makes you overdressed for most things. Think grocery shopping on a Saturday morning in a dress and heels. I saw bring the class back! Bring the style back! And leave the PJs for the bedroom!

 

[perfectredlips]

I was pretty much raised by my grandmother until I was around 12 and I loved to hear her stories about the war and her childhood. My grandfather died before I was born and all I had to remember him by was a worn picture of him standing in front of his flying fortress where he was a ball turret (sp) gunner. A handsome man...and my grandmother a beautiful woman...I was in love with an era.