In celebration of Bastille Day on July 14, Virginie wrote the first of a series of articles showcasing French hair fashions from the 18th Century onwards. This month she covers the beginning of World War II until the beginning of the Mai 68 Revolution.
France, like most of the world, saw a lot of economical, political and artistic changes during and after World War II. Reconstruction, investment and media development after the war created a real dynamism which sees a dramatic change in people's mindset. A big contrast with the first forty years of the century.
It's hard to find much reference to hair trends in the middle of a World War. This makes sense, of course; the people of France were concerned less with appearances than fighting and surviving! One could surmise that the trend towards simpler and shorter hair which began in World War I persisted into the second war. For both women and men, hairstyles had to fit appropriately under a cap.
After World War II many sociological changes occur in France. Paris in the 1950’s sees the rise of intellectuals, jazz lovers and artists as arbiters of culture. They gather in clubs, mainly in Saint-Germain-des-Pres. They launch Existentialism, a movement inspired by the work of German Philosophers.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Maurice Merleau-Ponty are the main artists who develop this movement which is half philosophical, half boheme. In the shadow of the war and of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this movement conveys the sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. It thinks of the concepts of fear, boredom, absurdity, freedom, commitment, nothingness as fundamental in human life.
Existentialism has a strong influence on fashion trends and hair styles. Juliette Greco, a popular singer at the time, becomes a devotee of this bohemian fashion.
The cinema becomes more popular than ever before. The movies of Hollywood come overseas, importing an American culture which influences how the French dress and style their hair.
Marilyn Monroe, the diva of the 1950’s, launches a very popular hair style, copied by millions of fans.
The movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, in which the actress is featured, makes the platinum blond and blond in general fashionable worldwide.
In France, in 1960's artists such as Brigitte Bardo (actress, singer), Sheila (singer), or France Gall (singer) feature this color and wear a variety of hair styles that soon become popular as well.
At the end of the 1950's into the early 1960’s, the hair style of Elvis Presley, with sideburns and hair lifted on the top, is imitated by a lot of fans. This hair style is called the Pompadour. Sounds familiar? Probably, since it used to be a fashionable women hair style during the 19th Century.
James Dean, the movie star of East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, will contribute to make the pompadour even more fashionable.
Several French rock icons, such as Johnny Hallyday or Dick Rivers imitated this style very much:
Even actors feature this style. Alain Delon, who in France is considered as one of the sexiest movie stars is one of them:
At the beginning of the 1960’s, Anthony Perkins is declared as the sexiest movie star with a hair style intentionally disorganized, wild.
Meanwhile, in London, the Beatles popularized the mop-top: the hair long, free, open, will later on be named after them Beatles' haircut.
This style, copied by millions of fans worldwide, is a manifestation of non-conformism, in disagreement with the polished, polite style of the previous generations.
In France, artists such a Jean-Paul Belmondo (actor), Jacques Dutronc (singer), Serge Gainsbourg (singer) and even Alain Delon imitate them:
This mindset will lead progressively to the hippie movement at the end of the 1960’s.
One word could summarize what influences this period: Media.
Literature, cinema, music (rock’n roll and pop in particular), magazines, entertainment and show business in general, create icons that invade our day to day life.
After the trauma experienced with World War I, II and the 1929 credit crunch, people worldwide want to have fun, enjoy their live and express their feeling towards fashion, copying the look of singers, and movie stars. There is not one style but many. This variety and fickleness itself becomes an expression of freedom.
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