Painted knees — a forgotten fashion trend of the 1920s
Make-up on the knees. It sounds strange, but a hundred years ago it was the most fashionable trend in the Western beauty industry. It all started with blush for the knees and eventually turned into a full-fledged knee painting.
Fashion has always been a reflection of the spirit of the times, and knee drawings in the 1920s were no exception.
Flapper girls wore short skirts by those standards (just below the knee) and half-lowered stockings. And knee blush has become one of the ways to draw attention to that part of the female body that has never been flaunted before.
Women of that generation used various cosmetics, including powder, cream, blush, etc., which were used for an additional "look at me" effect.
By the mid-1920s, the trend of applying blush to the knees turned into an art form when women began to paint their knees by hand. Someone did it independently with watercolors or oil paints, and someone turned to artists for help. The drawings ranged from simple letters, such as the initials of lovers, to floral motifs, landscapes and even detailed portraits.
The Make-up Museum reports a case when a certain housewife named Clarice Wilson painted her knees to annoy her husband (or, as it is called today, "troll"). Well aware of her husband's dislike of new dogs, which she had bought shortly before, she painted their portraits on her knees. Her husband Arthur allegedly drew portraits of two of the most attractive women in the city on his lap in response. In general, 1:1.
The above-mentioned story proves that everything about the trend of making up the knees and drawing on them was associated with rebellion, disagreement, an expression of the spirit of resistance. Therefore, there were plenty of stories about teenagers who were scolded by their parents and kicked out of school because of painted knees.
The fashion for painted knees lasted only about a decade and has since gone into oblivion, but it remains a remarkable stage in the emancipation of women, a way to declare their independence, as well as just have a little fun.