What Is Pin Up? Why Were Such Girls And Remain Popular?

The so-called pin up girls were the object of desire of men at one time. No wonder! Even today, they spark the imagination, and the style of these cartoon characters is inspired by stars or models. How did the girls from the soldiers' posters become part of pop culture?

The content of the article

• 1 How they look
• 2 Style creators
• 3 queen pin up
• 4 In modern times

The fashion for pin-up images appeared with the outbreak of World War II, when American soldiers hung posters of the opposite sex over their beds. They depicted beautifully drawn women. During this era, the use of pornographic material was severely punished. And the pin-up trend is, rather, an admiration for the beauty of a woman's body, but mainly also a way to charge soldiers into battle.

These portraits were placed not only on posters or in barracks, but also in bombers. The extremely bright style of drawing girls attracted attention not only during the hostilities, but also in the years after their completion. It wasn't until the early 60s that pin-ups were replaced by photographs of women.

What do they look like?

So what do typical pin up girls look like? They were slightly rounded, they had wide hips, showy breasts and waist. They were presented, as a rule, in trapezoidal dresses, which became the symbol of fashion of the 50s, in underwear or swimwear.

One of the most famous outfits in this style is a dress or bikini with polka dots, attributes such as a straw hat and a chaise longue in white and blue stripes are common. This image was not accompanied by realism - despite the fact that the girl was often in close proximity to water, she always had perfectly combed hair and strong makeup.

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However, the models were generally depicted in a somewhat hypertrophied form on each poster. Tops paired with high-waisted pants are another signature outfit for this style. On the posters, you can see women in situations and roles, and these are most often repeated: this is an attractive nurse, a lady taking a bath, the captain of a ship.

Style creators2

Who was behind the success of these beautiful women, or rather the posters with their portraits? These are, of course, gifted illustrators. The most famous creators of this genre were Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargas and George Petty. It was their works that decorated the calendars and postcards of the 50s. The creators often did not copy them from realistic portraits. Although sometimes women served as models for them, on which they could be equal. The artists hid the flaws in appearance, and emphasized the dignity of the woman: they painted long necks for them, added sparkle in the eyes and took centimeters away from the waist. As a result, it turned out that men went crazy on the image of beautiful girls, whose appearance, non-existent ideals, were created by other men.

Queen pin up_pin_up

Betty Page is a prominent representative of this style. In 1955 she was elected Miss Pin-up. However, she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The illness led to the fact that Letty had to spend several years in psychiatric hospitals. Isolation from society did not destroy, however, the memory of the kion of this style. The model was invited to NBC's evening programs, she posed for Playboy several times, and eventually she began to appear in BDSM films. Her last photos were published in Skin Diner magazine in 1958.

It was proclaimed that it was she who started the sexual revolution, and she herself declared that she was simply enjoying life. Her sudden disappearance at the height of her career was shrouded in mystery, which she clarified only after 40 years. When she was interviewed at the age of 80, she did not show her face. Until her last days, she preferred that people remember her as a young woman.

In modern times3

Strict teacher, erotic ship captain. Pin up girls images remain in culture even 70 years later. These adorable women are capable of transforming almost any person, they take incredible positions and always look amazing. Their clothes show off alluring shapes. However, in real life, they weren't as good as their fans might have thought.

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Girls of those times, in order to get the perfect appearance, as created on the posters, wore slimming underwear that lifted the buttocks and created the waist, performed surgical operations. An important role was played mainly by girls' makeup. A girl in this style, as a rule, had strongly accentuated eyes, and to enhance the effect she glued herself artificial eyelashes. Red bright lipstick, toenails painted with varnish, brightly dyed hair, gathered in a bun or twisted into tight curls - this is typical for this style and its followers.

Modern pin up fashion is proof that beauty never fades. After several decades of hiatus, the style is returning to fashion. It is difficult here to talk about the return of style to popular culture, because, despite the decline in interest, there has always been a certain space in culture, a kind of niche in which pin up lovers continued to create.

At the moment, many in modern popular culture want to return to the old trend, being inspired, among other things, by the costumes of the 50s or even recreating the details of the photo sessions in the original style. The return of this style can also be noted among music stars, the best examples here are: Dita Von Teese, Gwen Stefani and many others.

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Today, pin up fashion is not just an imitation of the trends of the past and an accurate recreation of the outfits and appearance of a woman during the heyday of this style. It is also experimenting and combining various famous elements of popular culture with pin up.

Who doesn't know Disney princesses? They are very beautiful and delight the eyes of children all over the world. Therefore, probably for many people the combination of these heroines with pin up seems to be something amazing. The postmodern task of presenting animated models as feminine, in the style of calendar girls, was once set before himself by illustrator Joel Santana. This creator not only dressed Belle, Snow White or Jasmine in pin up swimwear, but also decorated their living bodies with tattoos.

A similar operation, which consists in combining the pin up style with Disney characters, was also performed by another world-class creator - Andrew Tarusov. After the success of his portrayal of princesses in classic pin up girls' costumes, he turned to darker heroines. The Evil Queen, Snow White's stepmother, Madame Medusa, Gertrude, the witch Ursula or Cinderella's stepmother, who were famous for their devilish character, in his works also surprise with devilish beauty. It's all thanks to the pin up outfits that these violent women, as we know from Disney animation, have donned.

You are even more surprised when it becomes known that cats in modern culture are portrayed in pin up. In a playful way, animals take on the figures in which girls are represented on calendars and postcards of the 1950s. The effect these photographs produce only confirms the well-known truth that a woman has a lot in common with a cat. It is alarming how much.

In modern times, pin up outfits remain the same: high waist, high shorts, bodice, suspenders, neckline. Red lips, cut off bangs, sharply outlined eyes with arrows in order to get an expressive look. Some features of the rocker style have been added to modern pin up - for example, tattoos for heroines.