Compacts and Cosmetics by Madeleine Marsh

Author:Madeleine Marsh
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783408634
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2013-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

Lipstick – The Red Badge of Courage

In Britain make-up might have been hard to find but it was worn with pride and became a symbol of the will to win. ‘Put your best face forward,’ encouraged a 1942 Yardley advertisement in Churchillian tones, ‘We have to remember that to yield to carelessness is to lower our standard to the enemy. There must be no surrender to circumstances, no giving ground to careless grooming … Never should we forget that good looks and good morale go hand in hand.’

‘England expects these days that every woman shall be a beauty,’ agreed a 1940s ad for Tattoo lipstick. ‘War, Woman and lipstick,’ ran a celebrated Tangee campaign. Bright red was the favourite wartime colour for lips and nails and lipstick names were often patriotic: Louis Philippe’s ‘Patriot Red’, ‘Fighting Red’ by Tussy and ‘Grenadier … The new Military red created by Tattoo – effective with navy or air force blue, and khaki.’

British and American cosmetic advertise-ments featured girls in uniform and factory overalls, boldly sporting bright lipstick (‘Will help you to be attractive as well as efficient,’ promised Tangee) or dressed in their best civvies and beautifully made up to greet their returning servicemen sweethearts. A typical 1944 ad for Tussy skin creams showed a kissing couple under the banner headline‘The Girl Who Landed a Pilot’.

During wartime a subtle change had taken place in the marketing and the perception of make-up. It was no longer about making a woman seem ‘dainty’ but making her look and feel strong.

Rosie the Riveter became a wartime icon in the USA, representing the six million women working in factories for the war effort.The fictional folk heroine appeared in songs, films and posters and was famously painted by Norman Rockwell for the May 1943 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell portrayed Rosie as a vast figure in work dungarees, her short sleeves revealing arms the size of prize-winning hams as she eats a sandwich. Behind her hangs the Stars and Stripes, squashed carelessly under her feet is copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and on her mighty lap rests a tin lunch box and a huge phallic riveting machine like an enormous gun. On the one hand Rosie is the epitome of butch, but her henna red curls, lipsticked mouth and painted finger nails stress her femininity, emphasising the fact that make-up too was a weapon of war.

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