September 27, 2011 / Lifestyle / 0 comments 
You all remember Grace Kelly in the movie Rear Window, her black top with open back and black dress with tinsels. She looks so gracious and slender. She and women like that were in magazines, but at the same time in the center of popular culture was another type of women – Marilyn Monroe. These at the first look completely different women were the body icons. The one thing these two ladies had in common was slim look. That is one thing which never changed. At the peek of Marilyn Monroe’s career she had 54kg at the height of 167cm. The ideal body measures haven’t changed, but what changed is the height. What was a above-average height in 60′s (170cm) now is normal, girls above 185cm are now being above-average.
Body Icons of the 50′s
During the 50′s the cult of skinny girls appeared. During the WWII, the pin-up look was a model. Women as Betty Page were the popular models of that time. She posed in swimming suit and that lighten up the imagination of men all over the world. That pin-up model got replaced by emphasized curves, like Jane Mansfield was. Her chest was size 101cm. After the war in the center of attention was the renewal of the nation, so it is not a curiosity that woman with curves were popular. They symbolize fertility.
Body Icons of the 60′s
Woman got more equal with men in the 60′s so the ideal look of the woman didn’t have to be connected with the fertility. The first contraceptive pill appears in the 1964. Woman has the power to decides what to do whit her body. More secure and new look was set. Body icon of the 60′s for sure is Jackie Kennedy and Audrie Hepburn. She was representing urban elegance. The super model Twiggy, know for her skinny looks, became one of the body icons of this time. In the 60′s the average BMI (Body Mas Index) was 25, and Twiggy’s BMI was 14!
Body Icons of the 70′s
This is the decade of Farrah Fawcett! Here posters, where she is posing in her red swimming suit, were on every boys door. The clothes were implying the sublimed eroticism. The girl of the year in 1978 was Pattie Hansen. She was looking different and the ideal was a little bit of a tomboy look. Pattie had narrow hips, long legs and understated curves.
long legs and understated curves.
