Hello, friends, and welcome to another video. Today I'm gonna be getting a 1950s makeover. So we've made a few decade fashion videos before through the 1960s, but in those videos we did most of our investigation of the outfits beforehand and just presented them in, like, a lookbook-style video. 🎵I'm sweating, I'm sweating, inside my pants, inside my pants.🎵 So this time, I wanted to build one look with you guys piece by piece-- kind of like how we did with our perfect makeover video, where we'll team up with a couple of experts and tackle the planning and the execution of the outfit the hair and the makeup to make a single 1950s look. Now, of course, the 1950s were a very different time-- fashion-wise definitely, but also socially. And though there were many regressive--and even oppressive--societal norms that were limiting to a lot of people, there was also a very interesting watershed-ness of the 50s, being sandwiched between the chaos of World War II and the civil rights movement/ sexual revolution/ general youth rebellion of the 60s. But for our purposes today, we're gonna be focusing on the fashion-- and mostly of the American variety. And though style is downstream of society and the two can't really be separated, we're gonna be talking about the fashion. All right, cool cats--Let's beat feet and get started! And first up is the outfit. So these are our, like, 1950s magazines and catalogs-- sorry, they're so crinkly--and we're gonna use these for some outfit inspiration. So I've got a Vogue magazine, a Vogue pattern book and a Spiegel catalog all from 1953. Now we chose 1953 as our starting point because if people define the post-war years as 1945 to 1960, 1953 is right smack dab in the middle. So going through this catalog, you see a ton of these sort of, like, cinched and flared dresses. And with those dresses you see a bunch of belts and pumps and gloves. So this fit-and-flare silhouette is a descendant of what was known as the "New Look," created in 1947 by French designer Christian Dior, which by 1953 had been copied about a million times over and was available in every size and for every occasion. Yeah, see, this is the vibe. And overall it was characterized by a slimmer shoulder, narrow waist and full skirt. Now this style was diametrically opposed to women's fashion of the 1940s-- which was boxier, more menswear-inspired, and padded in the shoulders--as women joined the workforce on the home front to fill in for many of the men who were away fighting in the war. But with its end in 1945, men returned home. Newsreel announcer: "And what does he want? Most of all, he wants a job." And women for the most part returned to the household It seems that with the fighting over, society was eager to return to some kind of traditional stability. And Dior's new ultra-feminine look capitalized on some elements of nostalgia for a time before the world wars, as the silhouette drew from the wasp-waisted fashions of the Victorian era some 80 years earlier. Turns out, great-grandma had it going on. See, you could add some sleeves and then add a little length to the bottom and you got the 1860s. Now all of that said, there were a few other fashions floating around. There was a more body-con, pencil-skirted look, as well as a few pairs of pants here and there, both for the mainstream gal and for the subculture gal. But I think for our purposes, if we're going for mainstream, out-and-about 50s, the New Look it had to be. So to get our outfit, we headed out to hit a few vintage and vintage-inspired stores to see what we could find. After some digging. We found a few options. Ah! Tyler: That's the look. Safiya: It's like those memes of Mariah Carey. Skinny legend. Besides just dresses you could also achieve the New-Look silhouette with two pieces. So I wanted to grab a few options to try that out as well. So in addition to the outer clothing, the New-Look vibe also required some serious undergarments. Announcer: "How to get the New Look, even if Mother Nature forgot to give her the right figure for it." Corsets had gone out of fashion during World War I, when the steel used in them was needed for military purposes, and they never really got back into the mainstream rotation. Instead they were replaced with the only-slightly-less-uncomfortable girdle. So for a similar nipping-in effect, we grabbed this waist cincher I feel like something like this would definitely do some serious sucking in, you know? Now the other important undergarment was the brassiere. Hello, Dolly! In the 1950s boobs were in--or I guess more accurately, they were out, whether they were real or had some assistance. The padding might have been on the shoulders in the 40s, but by the 50s it had migrated south. This is hypothesized to have been kind of a Freudian fashion statement, because besides their sensual allure, boobs are also associated with motherhood, which was a big focus for women in the 50s given the whole return-to-traditional-ism thing. Now, that kind of makes sense to me, but it does not explain one of the most bizarre and popular boob trends of the decade: The bullet bra. I guess you can't fault it for its perkiness, but besides that I don't really know why people liked this so much. One theory is that the bullet bra was sort of a futuristic take on the bra, drawing from another big craze of the 50s: the space race. Either that or it's just like a giant nipple. But regardless, with our undies in hand, all we needed to finish off the shapewear was a petticoat to floof out the skirts, and then it was time to review our haul and choose our 50s outfit. So the first option is this dress. I decided to try on each look with the undergarments on to make sure all of the structure would work with what we picked I feel so covered and yet so naked. This is almost like an 80s look in itself. And once we had all that on we could try on our first option. "Tyler, I'm home." I'm feeling the waist cincher. It's all happening. Tyler: It's tight? I was definitely a fan of the bottom half of this dress. I think that like the floofiness of the skirt with the petticoat is definitely that good like "zhoop!", you know, like <whoosh>. Though the top half was having some issues with the all-important bra. I don't think you can see the shape of the bullet bra. In fact, I can feel it being smushed. So I think I may have to stuff already. Oh, oh, yes. That's bringing the perk right back. That said and done though, you can still see the strap of the bullet bra through the sheer panel around the shoulder. So we'd have to like find like another slip to go underneath or in between. Our second option is like a skirt and a shirt, which I had comped off this photo of Elizabeth Taylor, where she has like this kind of outfit on and she's like at acting class. But overall, I feel like it reads sort of youthful. I do kind of feel like I'm going to school. But also like my boobs are out. The bullet bra was a bit much for the button-down to contain. So there was kind of like a shirt-gapping situation. Besides that I do like the look of the separates and I think I'm feeling this color palette in general, but overall I do kind of feel like I'm in high school. It's sort of like if only I had a poodle on the skirt. Like I could be going to the diner with my high school beau. So we moved on to our final option. So we got this dress at a vintage store and this one is actually vintage from the 50s. So a few things I like about it right off the bat. There seems to be enough room for the bullet bra and also, even though the straps do like to migrate, the dress does cover the bullet bra completely, and I think it definitely showcases the hourglass well. So you see, like, the "Bink Bink"--"Bink",--"Bink", the best. Just ignore my mic pack in the back. That's not part of the New-Look silhouette. So with the shape, harmony with the undergarment straps, and the 1950s authenticity I think we should go with this one. Acessories-wise, there were a few 1950s must-haves, like a pair of gloves for going out, some high heels--of which we found a pair that kind of matched the top of my dress-- and a little handbag. It feels like I should be clutching it like this. It seems like hats were also popular, but I was leaning towards a more summery look, so I found a couple kerchiefs, that could be tied around the neck and then used to protect the hair while driving if needed. I feel fancy and yet also kind of elderly. Or also like I have an old school toothache, you know like they've wrapped a bandage all the way around my head. We also definitely needed some kind of belt, because our dress had these empty loops. So it seems like at some point there was a matching belt, but clearly we don't have that any more. So with the outfit settled on, it was time to move on to the hair. All right. So I am here with Kayley Melissa, who is a friend, hairstylist and youtuber who has helped us with some decade-throwback hairstyles in the past, and she's here to save us with this mid-century do. So what are we gonna be doing today, Kayley? What's the plan? Kayley: So in the 1950s, whole thing was that you had to do your hair for your face shape. Like even in cosmetology school, I still learned about that as of this decade. But it was extra formulaic back then. S: And I think this idea of having a set of rules for how you did your hair sort of plays into the whole orderly and prim-and-proper image that people wanted to project in the 50s. Kayley: So I would say that you've got kind of a heart-y face shape. You've got a great jawline and chin. S: And if any of you guys remember from our perfect makeover video, heart-shaped faces are also wider at the forehead and cheek. So to balance out my face Kayley: We're gonna add a little bit of volume up here. And then we're not gonna put a lot of volume through the center, but we are going to accentuate that great jaw line with some curls that just kind of dance and play right around here. S: But I think regardless of what exact shape you were doing with your hair, 50s dos in general were fluffy, curly, bouncy and usually on the shorter side. Kayley: So we're gonna begin with some, kind of, setting products. Back in the 50s, they didn't have mousse, didn't really have gel, but they did have what's called setting lotion, which is like a holding product that you would put in your hair to help it hold its set extra long. S: And basically it seems like most women would use it and then put their hair up in rollers for stand-up curls. "Oh, wow, look at those little guys up there!" And/or make pin curls without rollers. That's a nice way to think of it. And usually women would have their one hairstyle that they just stuck with, oftentimes getting their hair permed into their preferred do to increase the longevity of their curls. Kayley: It would be really hard to surprise perm somebody cause they smell so bad. S: But if you wanted to change up your hair, you might have followed a curl-setting chart from a magazine or newspaper, like the one Kayley was following for my head. Are we set? Kayley: We are set. S: Yay! Kayley: They're ready to dry. I feel like my son came home late to curfew. I'm like.... I need like a rolling pin. So we have this thing that Kayley's brought us. Kayley: It is a big old bonnet dryer S: Now in the 50s, women would either sleep in their curls to let them dry overnight or chill under the dryer in the beauty parlor for a more speedy approach. Wah! Oh, yeah. Hello, friends ... and welcome to my pod. Though hand-held hair dryers were invented back in the 20s, hooded sash bonnet dryers were a salon staple as they were more powerful, less effortful on your arms and also gave an even heat around your head. "Oh, it's warm!" Just to get all of those little pin curls. <timer dings> Am I done? Kayley: Oh, yeah, it's all dry. S: Yes. So all that was left to do was to let down my hair and as we removed the pins and rollers the look kind of swung between the 1980s. Do I look like Dave Coulier? And the 1780s. Listen, Ben Franklin's-- I mean, he got the most action. And then it was time to brush through and tease. Kayley: Believe it or not, for the 50s, this is teasing a bit. S: Once we had all the curls and waves looking good, we decided to pin the bottom of my hair up. Kayley: Oh, that's good. That's it, that's it. Yeah. S: I won't move. Just to make sure that my hair didn't look too 40s, which was characterized by generally longer hair, allegedly as a response to fabric being rationed for the war, whereas in the 50s, the dresses were big but the hair was short. Oh, wow. Oh, I think it looks really good. Awesome, it looks great! So we sprayed me down, just to try and ensure nothing would escape midday. Kayley: I just realized I need to groom the sideburns. S: Just, yeah, spray 'em. Spray them down. You don't have to zoom in. You don't need to zoom in. And sideburns subdued, our hairdo was looking neat-o! I'm learning a lot of 50s slang online. So with our hair done, now it's time for me to do my makeup 1950s style. So to help us finesse our mid-century makeup technique, I visited the Besame Cosmetics store in Burbank, California to talk to Gabriela Hernandez, who is the owner of the company as well as a makeup historian. Now Besame creates makeup that is based on actual products from the past and Gabriela has also written a makeup history book that we've referenced before when making our decade fashion videos. All right, so I guess the question is, Where should we begin? So right off the bat Gabriela started describing the bold and defined nature of the 1950s everyday makeup look, Starting with the eyebrows. Gabriela: The main parts of the face in the 50s were definitely the brows were very defined. In the 50s the shape of the brows also became more angled than you had in the 40s, which were softer. So it was definitely more aggressive. The 50s were definitely feminine and aggressive-- aggressive femininity, I would say. <laughter> S: All right. Just aggressive glam. Gabriela: Exactly. S: So following that advice we started off with the brows. I don't know if you guys can tell, but I got them waxed a little bit just to clean them up and give them a nice, like, arch. So I'm just gonna use a little pencil, just to like fill it in over here and just not overdraw too much, but just like darkened. Kind of like an Elizabeth-Taylor-like <eyebrow gesture>. Does she do that? Okay. So after the dark arched brows, let's move on to the eyeshadow. So Gabriela mentioned that eyeshadow in the 50s was kind of pastel-y and color-coordinated. Gabriela: A lot of the times, they were into the style of matching their outfits to their shadow. And so I am going to try and match my eyeshadow to the dress. Tyler, will you hold this? So after looking at a few different palettes, we found a few options that could work. That's something! And as for where on the eyelid it should go, I'm gonna go kind of for, like, this vibe, where it's mostly on the lid and then it kind of like goes into the crease a little bit as well. Oh, yeah. I feel like that looks pretty much like what we're going for. So I'm gonna take on the complexion next. And when we asked Gabriella what we should be using for our foundation, she immediately replied, "pancake." Gabriela: In the 50s, this is when pancake makeup became a... really a thing. The look was very much of a porcelain kind of doll type. S: So pancake foundation was like a dry cake that you applied wet and then it would dry down on your skin, creating an overall matte finish. Gabriela: So powder foundations are kind of a similar look to what pancake was. S: Oh, yes. So powder foundation we got. All right. So that is the base: very matte, powdery and one-toned. So up next we'll take on the cheeks. Now, 1950s cheeks were a bit differently adorned than modern-day ones. Gabriela: Now, like that whole contouring and bronzers are in. Where at that time, they didn't really do that. They wanted the face to be more round and feminine and not necessarily chiseled. S: And all we needed to get that round look was some rouge. Oooh! All right, just a little bit. Okay, hold on just a second before you say that. Turns out you need a pretty light hand with creme rouge. So I turned to more modern tools to help blend it out. I don't think I've gotten a hang of the creme rouge just yet. But eventually we got to some acceptable level of redness. And then to finish off the complexion, I have some like pinky setting powder, just to sort of cement the, like, rosy look I think. So with our complexion done, it was time for the last few products, starting with the all-important eyeliner. Gabriela: The liner was really more defined than they had been in the 40s and in the 30s. S: In particular, the 50s were noted for the popularization of the cat-eye wing. Here goes nothing. I'm using a liquid eyeliner, which did exist back then, but people also used pencils to do their liner as well. There's one, sort of. Now the question is, Can I get the other one to be even? All right. Eyeliner. I don't think it's perfect, but I think it's like okay. It's good enough to vlog it. Now to finish off the eyes, we needed some mascara. So I used this vintage-style cake mascara, which I have to wet to, like, turn this into a little mascara paste, and then apply it to my eyelashes like so. In the 50s, both cake mascara and cream mascara were popular. Apparently like a wand-in-tube mascara had already been invented, but wasn't super popular until the 60s and 70s. So with everything else done, we're onto the crowning glory of the look: the lipstick. And particularly with lipstick, specific colors were marketed to suit certain complexions better. Not saying that some lipsticks weren't more universal, but overall it seems that warm-toned lipsticks were marketed to blondes, redheads and lighter brunettes, and cooler-toned reds or pinker lipsticks were marketed to dark-haired ladies. Loosely and generally. So I have like a cool-toned red lipstick and I also have more of like a purpley, orchid-colored lipstick. Though I think both would definitely look good, I think the red is a little more iconic 50s. So I'm gonna go with that. In terms of the shape, Gabriela mentioned that lips were often overdrawn. Gabriela: You can see that a lot in like if you look at Lucille Ball's pictures, really overdraw that top lip so that it looks rounder, like two big mounds. S: With the intent of making the lips more luscious and sensual. But I'm just gonna get a little bit of a liner, just to like over-line the top just a little bit. Okay, so I think with a little bit of lip liner, this is the finalized 50s makeup look that I'm going for. So I'm gonna go and throw on my outfit and then we'll hit the town. All right. So this is our finished 1950s look. So to complete our makeover we thought we needed one additional accessory. A 1957 Chevy Bel Air. I got to put the windows up to save the hairstyle. Tyler: Yeah. All right, I don't know how any of this works. Oh, I see it. Oh, I see it. All right. I'm in drive. Tyler: Oooh! Which we drove just far enough to stop and then pose next to. You remind him of his grandmother. So for our final, final outfit we had our authentic 50s fit-and-flare dress, our array of mid-century accessories, including these white cat-eye sunglasses, topped off with our aggressively feminine makeup look and our still-mostly-alive coif. Oh, I keep taking my gloves off to like do things Tyler:Yeah. S: Don't wanna get them dirty and then I forget that I'm not wearing them, which is completely not allowed. Besides the small accessories like the gloves, the undergarments in general were definitely the most different to experience. There's enough things around my midsection that I definitely feel like <sharp inhale>. The stuffed bullet bra also helps with that because I'm kind of like <shoulders back> The bra definitely played a strong supporting role throughout the day. Tyler: Look, Safiya. There's a plane. It's like your bra. S: Is it going to space? Though, I'm still a bit confounded by it. Obviously I don't have any cleavage, but that's the dress's fault. But like, I just I don't feel like it's, like, a... ah, a mother's bosom. It's like a like <phutt>: like a laser beam. But, speaking of mother's bosom, as soon as I had the whole outfit on together, I went straight into a motherly state of mind. I think because of the gloves, I almost feel like I'm checking areas of my house for dust. And apparently that meant I was ready to apply disciplinary action to things around me. The branch just stuck my hairdo. That's very rude. Tyler:You're gonna put him in time out? S: You're on time out. It was just all the little trappings of the 50s look that made me feel very different. I definitely feel more hourglass-ed than I usually do. I almost feel like I'm advertising waist trainers on Instagram. Tyler:<laughs> But I also feel like I could just go home and whip up some gelatin and then stick some ham inside. Tyler: Please don't. S: So as we mentioned, we wanted to hit the town in our outfit. Get in, loser. We're going shopping. Grocery shopping. Which, for better or for worse, involved more driving of the 60-year-old car. Hey, what do you think you're doing? Bye! I tried to leave Tyler behind, but then I realized I needed someone to continue filming. Tyler: Yeah, I think so. God help me. S: All right, let's go. Mama's driving. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Ha. I think after a little bit I was starting to get the hang of the old Bel Air. Honey, how was your day at school? Tyler: Can you look at the road? But regardless, for our evening out our first stop was a bite to eat. So we're at this McDonald's in Downey, California, which is the oldest operating McDonald's in the United States. Apparently was opened in 1953. So take a gander at a blast from the past. My bra just blasted it out there. Now despite its appearance, it does offer the normal 2018 McDonald's menu. Where do we go? Oh, here. But although the food and the seats may be modern, it does have a lot of fun, retro Mickey D's paraphernalia that matched my throwback vibe. So after finishing our food and doing a little dancing... Tyler: That's called the McDonald shuffle. We hopped over to Anaheim to check out another 1950s establishment: Disneyland. How do I look? Tyler: You look like your hair shouldn't be going anywhere. And once in the park, we beelined for one of the original attractions, there when the park opened in 1955: the carousel. Tyler: Are you smacking the horse's butt? Though I was a bit disappointed I missed out on a different original attraction: the bra store, which used to be located on Main Street and was home to the Wizard of Bras, which I think is just this guy. However, it did close in 1956, so I missed it by a couple of decades. So with no bra store to go to, it felt like it was time to wrap up our day or at least that's what my feet were telling me. I think my feet might be done with the 50s. My feet don't like the decades. Or any shoe that's not a Birkenstock. All right. So that was my 1950s makeover. So even though this outfit is definitely very different from modern styles, I would say that some elements of 50s style have come back in over the last 60 years. But a lot of things have become defunct just because of new technology. Like once control top pantyhose were invented, girdles pretty much got the boot. But overall, the most different thing to me about 50s style was actually how many rules there were and consequently how easy it was, sort of, to construct an everyday 50s look. Like back then you needed your gloves and your stockings and your girdle to be acceptably groomed and put together. Sure there were alternative silhouettes, but 50s fashion was very easily definable, at least partially because the information pipeline was so narrow. There were a handful of key designers, a few fashion magazines, a sprinkling of movie studios, and, like, 5 TV channels, versus today, where it's so easy to see so many different styles that even though we still have makeup and fashion trends, it's hard to come up with just one look that defines 2018 style. That's not to say that Kim Kardashian doesn't try though. I mean, maybe if she can make bullet butts a thing I'll take it back, but until then, I'd say today is still more open-ended. Thank you guys so much for watching, and a big thank you to Kayley Melissa and Gabriela Hernandez for helping us out with our transformation. If you liked that video, make sure to shmash that "like" button and if you want to see more videos like this make sure to shmash that "subscribe" button. A big shout-out to WildRose for watching. Thanks for watching, WildRose, and I will see you guys a-next time.
