Beauty standards are constantly changing. The whims of fashion even extend to women’s weight! Alexander Vasiliev, a well-known connoisseur of fashion history, told why this is happening.
Now everyone is trying to lose weight. But it was not always so. If you are accused of excessive splendor of forms, say in response: “I’m just from the Renaissance!” It was then that fullness came into fashion – it replaced the Gothic thinness.
Before the discovery of America in 1492, Europeans did not know many foods. And the worst thing about this geographical discovery was what spoiled everyone’s figure – potatoes from Peru and sunflower oil from Mexico. In addition, cocoa beans were brought from Brazil. And in Cuba, sugar cane grew. Women, unfortunately, are addicted to food! Sugar, biscuit, chocolate make a cake. And this cake starts to spoil the figure.
By the 100th century, women had become of immense size. The canon of beauty of the Baroque era – chest 100, waist 100, hips XNUMX. But the men did not lag behind – they constantly drank beer, here you have beer bellies.
Peter Paul Rubens. “Three Graces”
Men always run to where there are more breasts, where lush hips and plump lips. Anything that grabs attention. It is no coincidence that back in Gothic times, a corset appeared that lifts and emphasizes the chest. How can you not emphasize it! The breasts are gradually becoming the most glorious feminine adoring quality. The corsets were getting tighter, tightening the waist more and more. But at the end of the XNUMXth century, an apparatus appeared that was invented by the German doctor Roentgen. It was he who “photographed” for the first time a woman in a corset and was horrified: where is the liver, where is the spleen? What a passage! And gradually the grip of the corset begins to melt away. So is the fashion for a very thin waist. Women understand: it is necessary for the body to breathe.
As soon as photography appeared, many women began to take pictures with pleasure. At that time, for the first time, serial issues of photo cards with the so-called naked beauties began. First, a corset was put on a woman, a pink leotard over it – here’s all the nudity for you. Still, the moral was such that a woman could not be removed for a postcard in the nude. But spicy photos for personal use were possible. The photo has done its job! In the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, there was no world fame: no one knew who lived where and what was famous for. And postcards were sent all over the world, and men, looking at them, exclaimed: “How pretty! I wish I could get her. ” This is how popularity begins.
The last period in history when a woman did not work is the era of modernity. There was no need to think about making money, so she was all in pleasure. Dolce vita, the pleasure of life! Long hair, perfume, makeup … Of course, only for those who could afford it. Art Nouveau was a contemporary of female emancipation. It began very modestly, but even then women wanted to have the right to vote, smoke in society, drive a car, go to university. And this has a strong impact on fashion. Clothing became much more fitted, and the woman first took the form of a musical instrument: the chest, waist and hips began to resemble a violin or guitar. No crinoline or bustle, natural shapes and a desire to please men. New artists depicted a new fashionable figure with a certain position: chest forward, and hips back, this position is obligatory. Modern women walked like that, and men liked it.
At the end of the twentieth century, everyone began to walk, on the contrary, with their hips forward. Many modern women remember such a detail of women’s wardrobe as a combination. She appeared during the First World War and lived until 1970. Panties, belt, stockings, bra, and top combination. First cambric or silk, then synthetics, nylon appear. It was very sexy. The combination was killed by jeans. The attitude towards the female figure has also changed, everyone rushed to lose weight and pump up “Kardashians”. Everything changes over time, there are no uniform positions in the canon of beauty.