Marge
3rd May 2008, 09:49 AM
Here is a little history of the suntan.
Two French celebrities can be credited (or blamed) with the transformation from pale to tan. In the 1920s, as fashions were freeing women from confining clothes, thanks in part to designer Coco Chanel, she inadvertently gave the fashion world another new trend: while cruising from Paris to Cannes, she obtained a suntan, probably by accident.
At the same time fashions were changing, so were lifestyles. Women came out of the house to enjoy outdoor life, with hiking, picnics, lawn tennis and other "acceptable" yet still "feminine" activities. Soon, fashionable women everywhere threw away years of tradition to be tanned.
Source:- coolnurse .com
http://www.coolnurse.com/images/girls_tossing_beach.gifOn beaches throughout Europe, women sunbathed, wearing decorative sun hats and shawls not for protection but as fashion statements. Brown and beige-tinted powders and creams were created to be brushed on the places the sun had missed. The fashion world featured clothes for women who wanted to flaunt their new tans; shoes were worn without stockings and sleeveless dresses became stylish. Bathing costumes that had covered women's legs with bloomers, now bared the leg, and swimming became an acceptable sport for women. The suntan had arrived...as the symbol of wealth and leisure. A tan in the winter meant the bearer had enough money and status to afford a vacation to an exotic, warm climate.
By the 1970s, an entire generation had baked their bodies in the sun, totally oblivious to the fact that the sunburns they had acquired in their youth would develop into skin cancers (http://www.coolnurse.com/tanning.htm#) 10 to 20 years later.
Two French celebrities can be credited (or blamed) with the transformation from pale to tan. In the 1920s, as fashions were freeing women from confining clothes, thanks in part to designer Coco Chanel, she inadvertently gave the fashion world another new trend: while cruising from Paris to Cannes, she obtained a suntan, probably by accident.
At the same time fashions were changing, so were lifestyles. Women came out of the house to enjoy outdoor life, with hiking, picnics, lawn tennis and other "acceptable" yet still "feminine" activities. Soon, fashionable women everywhere threw away years of tradition to be tanned.
Source:- coolnurse .com
http://www.coolnurse.com/images/girls_tossing_beach.gifOn beaches throughout Europe, women sunbathed, wearing decorative sun hats and shawls not for protection but as fashion statements. Brown and beige-tinted powders and creams were created to be brushed on the places the sun had missed. The fashion world featured clothes for women who wanted to flaunt their new tans; shoes were worn without stockings and sleeveless dresses became stylish. Bathing costumes that had covered women's legs with bloomers, now bared the leg, and swimming became an acceptable sport for women. The suntan had arrived...as the symbol of wealth and leisure. A tan in the winter meant the bearer had enough money and status to afford a vacation to an exotic, warm climate.
By the 1970s, an entire generation had baked their bodies in the sun, totally oblivious to the fact that the sunburns they had acquired in their youth would develop into skin cancers (http://www.coolnurse.com/tanning.htm#) 10 to 20 years later.