Pinup & Glamour Week - Origins of Pinup & Glamour
14th - 20th November 2011 is Pinup & Glamour Week in #projecteducate
Here is a little about how the whole Art movement started…

A pin-up girl is a woman whose physical attractiveness would entice one to place a picture of her on a wall. Pin-up girls may be glamour models, fashion models, and actresses.
The term was first attested to in English in 1941; however the practice is documented back at least to the 1890s. The “pin up” images could be cut out of magazines or newspapers, or be from postcard or chromo-lithographs, and so on. Such photos often appear on calendars, which are meant to be pinned up anyway. Later, posters of “pin-up girls” were mass-produced.



Famous Pinups include (but by no means limited to) Theda Bara. Dorothy Lamour. Betty Grable. Jean Harlow. Vivien Leigh. Greta Garbo. Elizabeth Taylor. Jayne Mansfield. Twiggy. Farrah Fawcett. And, of course, the magnificent Marilyn Monroe.

These pin-ups graced the lockers of high school boys, calendars, and the American soldiers of World War II’s bunk rooms. Far from home, the G.I.’s treasured pin-up girl posters; they gave the soldiers something beautiful and sexy to see instead of their all-male comrades, not to mention the misery and graphic violence of war.



They came from different eras, from 1910 until the 1960’s, although notable ‘modern pinups’ include Farrah Fawcett, Raquel Welch, Anna Nicole Smith, with the flag still being flown high by Masuimi Max, Eva Green and Dita Von Teese.

Lithography was invented in the end of the Eighteenth Century. The birth of photography soon after provided new techniques for printing and the adoption of the offset method at the turn of the twentieth century allowed for larger, faster and better quality print jobs. Once printed materials were available to a vast public, the Golden Age of Illustration was said to begin.



By the 1920s, the golden age of illustration was in full flower. The new film industry fueled the public's appetite for magazines devoted to their celluloid heroes, with the likes of Mary Pickford (In consideration of her contributions to American cinema, the American Film Institute named Pickford 24th among the greatest female stars of all time), Gloria Swanson (who was barely 5ft tall and will be forever remembered as the star of Sunset Boulevard) and Betty Grable (whose legs were famously insured by her studio for $1,000,000 in the 1940s, an absolute fortune in that era).



The 30’s saw Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo (ranked fifth on their list of greatest female stars of all time, by American Film Institute) Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford and of course Mae West, become international icons.



As popular culture devoured its forbidden voyeuristic fantasies in pulp magazines, and later paperback books, another trend had begun to legitimize the pin-up as a serious art form: Higher brow fare offered by such slick periodicals as Esquire (an important predecessor of Playboy), Cosmopolitan, The Saturday Evening Post and others. Art Deco depictions of the female form were considered tasteful enough for inclusion in these magazines. Alberto Vargas makes for a convenient figure as we watch his style evolve from coy to more explicit. The fact that he started at Esquire and ended up at Playboy also makes for a barometer of trends within pin-up.



No overview of Pinup & Glamour would be complete without mentioning Bettie Page, who is a legend as much today as during her modeling days. She brought Fetish modelling out of the seedy, dark reputation that it had gathered and made it all together  more mainstream and recognisable. In 1955 she was the centerfold in Playboy's January issue and won the title "Miss Pin-up Girl of the World”, yet her trademark jet black hair, blunt fringe, porcelain skin and sky-blue eyes are still mimicked and emulated by women today. She has become a living legend, a modern icon, a symbol of beauty and femininity that transcends ordinary standards.



Similar accolade must be given to Marilyn Monroe. What was it in this particular woman that makes heads turn around till this day? What was it in her looks or character that still inspires the creation of Marilyn Monroe art 50 years after her death? She was a reasonable actress and wasn’t an amazing singer, but till this day, 80 years after she was born as “Norma Jean”, every child still knows her name.
When she died she left behind her nothing but the wondrous shadow of her image that even in the most sexual photographs, including some completely nude, there was still a quality of innocence. Good Marilyn Monroe art will always express this quality.
She has become the ultimate blonde bombshell and perhaps the thing that makes her so amazing is that no one can quite put their finger on why.



So what is now Modern Pinup & Glamour? And where does it keep it’s similarities and where does it differ from it’s roots?
Pinup specifically keeps the styling, the soft waves in the hair, bodies and faces are usually in profile, rather than front on. Modern pinup models, with their tasteful yet alluring outfits and an aesthetic that embodies style and sophistication, stand out among the seedier aspects of today’s erotica. As you’ll see from the photos, they share the same aesthetic appeal, which is the ability to appear both sexually alluring and slightly innocent and coquettish.
Similarly Glamour is a very groomed look. Nothing is left to chance and finished to a high level of styling, sophistication and beauty.




All Pinup & Glamour’s #projecteducate Week information is here ---> [link]