The first questions I asked myself when approaching this topic were: What colors do they come in? What materials did they use? And how do they fit garter belts together? These questions led me to one of my favourite resources for satisfying the antiquarian side of the topic: advertisements.
What is the difference between Garter Belts and Girdles?
According to my research, the main difference between Garter Belts & girdles is that Garter Belts use less material and do less to shape and morph the body. According to me, a girdle really helps to control and shape the body. These items were much more liberating than the undergarments of previous decades and centuries. These items allowed women to move and breathe easily.
These items could also be worn against the skin, not over tap pants as in the Garter Belts ads. They did this because they wanted to showcase the garments in a dignified (not a Victoria Secret) manner.
Based on personal experience, I can confirm this. A steel-boned corset is something I’ve worn many times as a Civil War reenactor. It can be worn in hot or cold weather. I am a vintage fan and have worn in hot and cold weather.
These items are made from silk, cottons or silks and have elastic and mesh inserts for breathability and movement. These stockings are also important because of the clips that hold them up. They can be constructed in a variety of ways depending on the design and body shape. Personal experience has shown that not all corsets are the same. . There were some key differences that could be made to ensure that the garments would fit the body of the wearer.
White, black, and peach-pink were some of the most popular colors. Baby blue was also popular in a 1948 Sears catalog
There was no significant difference between American and German Garter Belts or girdles. There hasn’t been any significant difference between American and German undergarments that I have yet to see.
Bettie Page lived in an apartment just outside Los Angeles at the age of seventy-eight. As she sat around Entertainment Tonight, her younger self suddenly appeared on the screen.
Bettie Page is a familiar name for anyone who has even a slight interest in 1950’s Hollywood or alternative retro culture. Bettie Page was the revelation of her infamy.
Bettie Page is the antithesis to 1950’s glamour icons. Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Kim Novak created brand images for themselves. But Bettie was more open about it than anyone else.
In the 1950’s, full frontal nudity was taboo. Bettie however was a strong advocate for accepting sexuality and your body. She believed that both should be celebrated rather than suppressed. Perhaps her most famous work is the bondage and fetish-inspiring photo shoots. These were considered to be scandalous at the time. However, they are the type of imagery you see today in everything from music videos to billboards.
Bettie Mae was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1923. When she was 20 years old, she married her first husband and moved to San Francisco with him. Four years later, they divorced and Bettie moved to New York to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. Pin-up modelling was a way to make some extra cash. It was for Monroe as well as many others before and after Bettie. Jerry Tibbs was a policeman who happened to be a photographer and discovered her. He also advised her to get bangs (or a fringe in English) to cover her forehead. Her trademark look was her bangs, which are still being emulated today.
Bettie wore one of the earliest pin-up calendars and posed for famous photographers like Bunny Yeager and Irving Klaw. She was also one of the first Playboy centerfolds, Miss January 1955. Bettie made all of her lingerie and costumes, including the now-famous leopard pattern ‘jungle boy’ outfit that Yeager immortalised in his 1954 Jungle Bettie shoot at Africa USA Park in Florida.
Her eye-catching and innovative costumes, which included bullet bras and garter belts, were well-known. Bettie is often associated to S&M poses. However, Irving Klaw’s photography is her only example of fetishist photography. Although she often posed naked, she never used explicit sexual content. Bettie was still charged during the Kefauver hearings. These were set up by Senator Estes Kefauver and targeted pornography and indecent publications.
Bettie vanished from the limelight in 1959. Many believed she had died when her abrupt departure from modeling was announced. It is difficult to find facts, dates, and corroborations even when you have the Internet at your disposal. Dita Von Teese was quoted saying that she knew everything about celebrities, but Bettie didn’t. She is truly mysterious.
We know for certain that she converted to Christianity in 1959. She wanted to be a missionary in Africa and was determined to do so, even though she had been divorcée twice. It is not known if the church considered that her naked pose with bullwhips was a decisive factor.
She was married again, but her third marriage ended in divorce. Bettie began to hear voices around this time. According to some reports, she stabbed her landlady 20 more times and said that God made it so. She stabbed her landlady 20 times. After that, she was diagnosed as having acute schizophrenia. She spent 20 months at Patton State Hospital in California. She was released from jail after being arrested for assaulting another landlord. However, she was not found guilty of the crime by reason of insanity. She lived in a group home where she was under the supervision of the state for eight years. Entertainment Tonight was her only television appearance.
Bettie’s legendary status and unsurpassed career were marred when she was not rewarded for her hardwork. She recalls going to a photo shoot and being encouraged by the photographer to bring all her bikinis, costumes, and lingerie. He photographed her in them, then took photos of the designs and sold them as Bettie Page Bikinis. He never paid her anything and she never sued him. She was broke when she quit modelling and was left penniless until her re-discovery in the 1990’s.
Hugh Hefner was the one who realized at a 1993 dinner at Playboy Mansion that she wasn’t being represented and didn’t have any control over her brand or image rights. He organized representation for her and made sure she received royalties.
Mark Mori, a respected documentary maker from Los Angeles, began interviewing Bettie in the late 1990’s. The tapes remained with him for several years before he finally made a documentary in 2007. This was one year before Bettie died from a heart attack.
Her appeal to women is a result of not fitting in with the dominant cultural idea of what’s beautiful or sexy. I’m not a supermodel. I’m not Barbie. No matter what ideal they try to live up to. Bettie is whatever it is about Bettie. She is the one that they can cling to and allows them to be comfortable with their sexuality.
