One of my favourite Youtube beauty series is ‘100 years of…’ by Cut. If you have missed this series and are interested in the looks of the last year 100 years and seeing how they have developed then you are in for a treat.
You don’t need to have a huge interest in fashion or beauty to enjoy this channel. The videos are incredibly well made and show the transition from 1910 to todays fashions in under 2 minutes. Their latest video focused on the history of Egyptian beauty.
Whilst these videos are interesting and I love watching them my favourite of their videos are the ‘Research behind the Looks.’ In these videos you see the influences they referenced for each shot and see how economics, technology, war, politics, the feminist movement, western influences, cinema, production and religion play a massive role and have such an impact on beauty throughout the eras.
The researcher for 100 Years of Egyptian beauty, Jacinthe Assaad, explained their carefully considered of using the veil,
“We are conscious that the veil opens up a very controversial debate. While we’re not trying to resolve the debate, we want people to be quite aware that the veil means different things to the West and the East. The West chose the veil as a symbol of the oppression of Muslim and Arab women. One of the arguments is that the veil represents the entry of the women into the public sphere. It is what allows them to be political beings. All of our standards of beauty and anything that is remotely related to aesthetics, in terms of art and beauty, is linked incestuously to politics.”
The transformations are impressive and dramatic, especially as they use the same model for each decade. Here are some of my favourite 100 Years Of… videos that you might have missed –
