Pinup Resurgence and Why You LOVE IT

[Miss Audrey Brooks]

I wonder sometimes why there is such a strong resurgence in pinup art, I mean here we are on an entire website called PinupLifestyle.com. Who could have imagined this 6-7 years ago? I am loving it ! Just today while wandering Burlingame I saw two different girls sporting GORGEOUS and perfect 1940s hairstyles. The look has hit the mainstream with people like the absolutely adorable Katy Perry ( love the look can do without the music, I will take Billie and Ella any day). Are we trying to reclaim a long lost sense of romance and eroticism? Is pinup a post feminist rebellion against the grungy 60s and 70s or have we just realized that blatant spread eagle shots that seem to be everywhere have desensitized us to what really matters, love, romance, adventure, and good emotions. Personally I mark all of the above for my choices. As a model who has dabbled in different genres I will say that it is not the nudity that is offensive it is the reactions that it garners and the stigma that it carries. I am one who is willing to suffer for my art, ( do it daily when I view the bank account) but there is a boundary which I will not cross. I think society as a whole is not yet ready to accept nudity as a perfectly normal thing.

So here I am doing pinup and loving it. Why do I love it so much? Well I think it allows me the chance to return to a better time a time where I would have felt perfectly at home on many levels. Yes I know of the drawbacks and realities of the 20s,30s and 40s I am quite educated and also married to an Archaeologist/Aviator/historian. In all honesty life in those decades still fits my personality much better. I would have thrived and LOVED life back in those days !

So I wonder what has brought pinup back? All fads after all no matter how vapid do have at least an elementary reflection of societal reality. So where do we pinup girls fit in? Personally I hope we are the symbol of something good, sweet, and a sign of a return or at least a desire for a return to better times and ideals

Sincerely,

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Miss Audrey

[Edson Carlos]

I'll tell you what I think, I think we need your address to mail you some very beautiful PL Cards to pass out to those international dolls! Absolutely killer discussion!

[Miss Audrey Brooks]

I am a San Francisco girlie but I guess we do have quite an international conglomerate here. But I do wonder why there is such a resurgence in pinup. I guess our generation got gyped in the Fashion, Music, Style, and Automotive department. Personally I was always into 30s and 40s films as a child and always wished I could be the product of that era instead of the hippy/dippy 70s and 80s

[Natalie Marie]

i love the resurgence because its more accepted now. even though i look unbelievably cute in high school, i used to be teased to the fullest extent because i didn't dress like the typical urban teenager. so now, i don't get harassed, or cornered with the question, "why you wearing that old s**t".

also, i love the fact i can find more clothes. i typically had to go with just "inspired by the 1950s" clothing, but they always lacked something- fit was wrong, cheap fabric....etc. now, i can find high quality reproductions and true to style clothing that fits me well.

also with the clothing, the love of the true female form is coming back. don't get me wrong, i love my naturally skinny minnie girls, but let's be frank, they typically won't have much trouble when it comes to clothes that fit. i've often heard from my father who is a tailor(learned most of his trade work while in the military in the 60s *Mad Men era* ) that i have the ideal shape of an hourglass. i'm sure many ladies have had the issue of having to get jeans by how big their thighs/hips were instead of the waist, and be left with a HUGE gaping space in the back.

i hate to be surly, but i feel the need to say it- the reasons i HATE the resurgence are that since the clothes are more widely available, that makes shopping a bit harder than it was before. now i'll see something i adore, but guess what? all size 10s have sold out.

also, cheap reproductions. i don't know if anybody saw it, but at one point, a girl had commented on a deadly dames (<3) dress i wearing on the subway.
she said she had seen stuff like this at forever21. i was a bit hyped up at first- i knew their stuff was a lot less expensive so if i have the opportunity to spend less, i will. anyway, i looked at the website when i got home.

God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph! their stuff was so short, low, tight, cheaply made....i didn't know what to make of it. it made me upset because the designers for the company just took the key elements of 1950s style and put it in a blender with a heaping scoop of skank.

so its some bad that comes along with it, and thats to be expected i suppose.

[Miss Audrey Brooks]

I agree about the knock offs, and the general cheapening of the style. I was always retro, have been for over 10 years now. I used to make my own clothes, have collected hats for years and generally have adored the style. I do dislike that the tide of popularity makes many of us original girls seem like followers and not innovators.

Then again I simply LOVE the style, I hope it stays around for a VERY long time and doesnt get replaced with anything as gross as grungy 60s and 70s or early 90s. Pinup and classic 20s-50s clothing and fashion are pretty timeless. They are beautiful because they are aesthetically pleasing and very flattering. It is a style that accentuates what is already pretty and conceals that which is not.

I also LOVE the romance of the era, especially WWII. An era where true heroes made the world a safer place for humanity. These were dashing and handsome heroes, truly brave, courageous, and chivalrous. The ladies of the time were equally as glamorous, and they kept the war effort back home alive and really made our campaign a success. I love that these ladies could build and fly a B-17 yet they sported stockings, heels and hats in their down time. A perfect blend of career and femininity. In recent years we have gone too unisex, too androgynous. These days the Perma-Adolescent 30+ year old man is considered attractive, the waifish hipster, the whiny cynic etc are all the rage. I like my men and women heroic, glamorous and brave. This is why I love this era and style ! I like passion, virtue, romance and adventure !

Natalie Marie said:

i love the resurgence because its more accepted now. even though i look unbelievably cute in high school, i used to be teased to the fullest extent because i didn't dress like the typical urban teenager. so now, i don't get harassed, or cornered with the question, "why you wearing that old s**t".

also, i love the fact i can find more clothes. i typically had to go with just "inspired by the 1950s" clothing, but they always lacked something- fit was wrong, cheap fabric....etc. now, i can find high quality reproductions and true to style clothing that fits me well.

also with the clothing, the love of the true female form is coming back. don't get me wrong, i love my naturally skinny minnie girls, but let's be frank, they typically won't have much trouble when it comes to clothes that fit. i've often heard from my father who is a tailor(learned most of his trade work while in the military in the 60s *Mad Men era* ) that i have the ideal shape of an hourglass. i'm sure many ladies have had the issue of having to get jeans by how big their thighs/hips were instead of the waist, and be left with a HUGE gaping space in the back.

i hate to be surly, but i feel the need to say it- the reasons i HATE the resurgence are that since the clothes are more widely available, that makes shopping a bit harder than it was before. now i'll see something i adore, but guess what? all size 10s have sold out.

also, cheap reproductions. i don't know if anybody saw it, but at one point, a girl had commented on a deadly dames (<3) dress i wearing on the subway.
she said she had seen stuff like this at forever21. i was a bit hyped up at first- i knew their stuff was a lot less expensive so if i have the opportunity to spend less, i will. anyway, i looked at the website when i got home.

God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph! their stuff was so short, low, tight, cheaply made....i didn't know what to make of it. it made me upset because the designers for the company just took the key elements of 1950s style and put it in a blender with a heaping scoop of skank.

so its some bad that comes along with it, and thats to be expected i suppose.

[Roxy Tart {PL Team / Comm. Mgr}]

I think that there are certain people out there, most everyone on this site to be sure, but lots more, who look around and are not happy with what they see. In the people around us, in fashion, in politics, in music; there is an... emptiness? Everything is so in your face and out there (like the spread eagle pose), that there is no mystery anymore. And everything is so... harsh out there nowadays, the romance and goodness seems to be gone. We look back at the 20's- mid 60's and even though they lived in hard times, and had way less then we did, they seem so much more glamorous! This is certainly true of the 50's. The post war world was clean, neat, shiny, and happy. And who doesn't want that?

I think that with all the hardships of today, people want just a little of the glamor and goodness that we see when we look back in time. It's really not possible to relive the romance of the Rococo era, walking around dressed as Marie and the court of Louis XVI isn't exactly convenient. But we can put on a pair of stockings, a nice dress, a pair of gloves, and feel more like ladies... feel just a bit closer to that lost era.

I think that's why pinup is coming back in such a big way. People want, even just for a moment, to feel a little closer to a simpler, happier, more beautiful and glamorous time. I know I do.

[Delyssia LaBelle {Madam}]

I think the 90's did it. it killed the feminine look. it boosted feminine power and moral, but kiiiiiiiiiiled the feminine presence. all the baggy slouchy clothes have sparked a flame to be girly again. now that we have our presence as equal sexes we can reclaim our image as WOMAN!

[Miss Audrey Brooks]

You nailed it perfectly ! Thats what I was trying to say but took too long to say it ! The late 60s started a trend of asexuality and weird fashion. One can say that there was alot of "free love" in the 60s and "Swinging" in the 70s but it was all pretty ugly for the most part, hairy, "natural" and unattractive. For some reason reclaiming "womanhood" meant making it unattractive. I have met alot of the relics from this era and they still stick by that philosophy. When I worked in architecture I often received dirty looks and disapproving stares from my female co workers for wearing skirts, heels, and rocking the 30s and 40s look. It was as if I was some kind of traitor to their cause.

I am educated, reasonably successful but that doenst mean I have lost my gender or my sex appeal. I refuse to forfeit the fact that I am 100% girl. Oh and I dont take offense to being called a girl, I think it is quite a compliment !

Delyssia LaBelle {Madam} said:

I think the 90's did it. it killed the feminine look. it boosted feminine power and moral, but kiiiiiiiiiiled the feminine presence. all the baggy slouchy clothes have sparked a flame to be girly again. now that we have our presence as equal sexes we can reclaim our image as WOMAN!

[Natalie Marie]

i so agree. I admit i was a tomboy when i was younger, but when i dressed girly, i loved it. i shunned being girly during middle school and early high school because the options were typical urban wear. Yeah....no thanks.




Miss Audrey Brooks said:

You nailed it perfectly ! Thats what I was trying to say but took too long to say it ! The late 60s started a trend of asexuality and weird fashion. One can say that there was alot of "free love" in the 60s and "Swinging" in the 70s but it was all pretty ugly for the most part, hairy, "natural" and unattractive. For some reason reclaiming "womanhood" meant making it unattractive. I have met alot of the relics from this era and they still stick by that philosophy. When I worked in architecture I often received dirty looks and disapproving stares from my female co workers for wearing skirts, heels, and rocking the 30s and 40s look. It was as if I was some kind of traitor to their cause.

I am educated, reasonably successful but that doenst mean I have lost my gender or my sex appeal. I refuse to forfeit the fact that I am 100% girl. Oh and I dont take offense to being called a girl, I think it is quite a compliment !

Delyssia LaBelle {Madam} said:

I think the 90's did it. it killed the feminine look. it boosted feminine power and moral, but kiiiiiiiiiiled the feminine presence. all the baggy slouchy clothes have sparked a flame to be girly again. now that we have our presence as equal sexes we can reclaim our image as WOMAN!

[Anita Fixx]

This reminds me of something I saw in the subway the other day..there was sticker that said "retro sexism" and had a rant that was too small to read on it posted on a ad for Gilette women..all because it features an Elvgren style pinup girl..seriously, shut the f*** up! You could do so much worse then a pinup girl in ads in this day and age...they really need to pick their battles a bit better.
Personally I can't get enough of pin up girl art..I just bought some more yestreday at Fan Expo. I just wish there were more people who were into that sorta thing in Toronto. Just genuinely into it not just following a trend. : (
Hope this makes sense because I'm sleep deprived!

[Natalie Marie]

really? that is the WORST advertising i've heard of. maybe i'm naive, but being styled in the way of pinup has always been about EMBRACING my womanhood, not giving in to sexism.

Anita Fixx said:

This reminds me of something I saw in the subway the other day..there was sticker that said "retro sexism" and had a rant that was too small to read on it posted on a ad for Gilette women..all because it features an Elvgren style pinup girl..seriously, shut the f*** up! You could do so much worse then a pinup girl in ads in this day and age...they really need to pick their battles a bit better.
Personally I can't get enough of pin up girl art..I just bought some more yestreday at Fan Expo. I just wish there were more people who were into that sorta thing in Toronto. Just genuinely into it not just following a trend. : ( Hope this makes sense because I'm sleep deprived!