The Gibson girl – a collective image of the ideal female beauty.
Every generation develops their ideal of female beauty. At the turn of XIX-XX centuries by the example to follow was the Gibson girl. It was only the collective image created by American Illustrator, but he is so fond of women of the time that each of them wanted to be similar to this ideal from the cover of a fashion magazine.
In the 1890s, the American Illustrator Charles Dana Gibson published in one of the magazines a series of drawings of girls in various everyday situations. They did not peculiar to women of the time things: swimming, reading, Biking, walking the streets alone, but was very tempting.
“The Gibson girl” looked like this: she dressed in the latest fashion of the fashion, had a curvy womanly figure with an ample bosom, a narrow waist and wide hips. Updo or Pompadour bouffant stressed thin Swan-like neck, and completed the image of languid eyes and sensual full lips.
In addition to the beautiful appearance Illustrator “endowed” the perfect girl a number of qualities. She was confident, could go to College, was walking without a male escort, played tennis, Golf and more.
This character is so liked women that through postcards, dishes, a fan with a picture of a new ideal of beauty, it quickly spread around the world. Women tried to be like “the Gibson girl”. They went to the tennis courts, the beaches, learned to ride a bike.
In the end, the Illustrator held a contest for the best candidate for the role of a real “Gibson girl”. The winner was an American of Belgian origin Camille Clifford. Before that, the woman was a minor actress, but thanks to competition, it has become popular almost all over the world. There were pictures of her everywhere, from fashion magazines and ending with racks for umbrellas.
Another well-known model of the Gibson Style was Evelyn Nesbit. The girl was famous. She posed for the covers of such magazines as Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. But after 20 years, the popularity of the image began to fade. This “contributed” tainted the reputation of Evelyn Nesbit. The model was involved in a murder case.
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