BEING A FEMALE IN 1959!

Yesterday I ended my post with a promise to talk about the female form.  I think for as long as life on earth has been known, women have had issues with their bodies.  Perhaps we have made some progress with accepting our bodies for what they are, and how they look - but pretty much through the ages it has been all consuming for our gender.

Apparently in 1959 it was no less an issue for women.

Slim and trim has always been more popular than chubby and pudgy... and through the years that mindset has been fodder for billions if not trillions of dollars in products to ensure women looked like society said they should look.

Have you watched those old movies and seen how beautifully the Hollywood stars wore their amazing gowns and outfits... could be their breathtaking shapes were results of this practice from the 1940's and 50's

These take my breath away.... literally!

Corsets, foundations... I feel a headache coming on...

Don't stop there, lets add the bra and slip as well.  Just how many pairs of stockings were they wearing in this last image anyway - seems like there are quite a few garters hanging there!

If these contraptions were not enough you could always add some of these remedies...

and when all else failed, and you were left with no hope of ever getting into that slim fitting skirt...

you could Whittle the extra pounds off!

I hope you realize that I am not really making fun, but it is kind of a neat exercise to revisit another era sometimes.  

I just cannot imagine lacing my chubby body into one of those contraptions, dressing in my finery and going to an outdoor wedding in mid July on a hot sunny day!  Can you?

Speaking of weddings... the brides of this era were truly visions in their gorgeous hooped -skirt gowns.  If you ever watched one of these gowns progressing down an isle as a little girl, you would have been in rapturous awe like at no other time in your life!  The gown swayed and seemed to float all the way to the front of the church.  It appeared to carry the bride forward without the benefit of any movement by the bride herself.  It was regal, it was stunning, it was unforgettable.

I saw it myself as a very young girl when one of my older cousins was married, and I remember it still as a wondrous thing!

Imagine all that sway for 32.50!

 

I do remember all the Eaton's catalogues had a Bridal section in them... it was the first place a girl like me went to look.  In my childhood, brides were the ultimate.  Every little girl wanted to see a bride for real, and dreamt about someday being a bride herself.  It was what we were taught and believed a woman should be - a bride, and then a mother.

And so for Christmas, you would ask and then hope and pray you got one of these...

because playing bride and wedding with your dolls, was almost as good as being at a real wedding any day.

Being a doll collector, I have several of these... a little different than the one for sale above perhaps, but looking at her still makes me smile and remember the days when being a bride was all any little girl ever wanted to be.

Have a great weekend everyone...

See you next week!