Carmel Magazine

Holiday 2017

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he world is divided into two kinds of people. Those who collect and those who do not. I fall into the hopeless group of the former. I credit my childhood imagination of watching old films as inspiration to covet beautiful things. That experience began the moment I stepped foot into a theater. The movie house in my hometown was rich with velvet swag drapes, gold tassels, tufted sofas and ushers with flashlights who guid- ed you to your seat. The building was so beautifully layered with wonderful pieces which dazzled a young farm girl like me. As I sat there stuffing popcorn into my mouth, eyes glued to the big screen, I was drawn to the glamour of Hollywood starlets in their silk gowns, coiffed hair and painted faces. It was an era where a woman would not leave the house without powdering her nose, or without a most valu- able beauty accessory, her compact. I was immediately smitten and wanted in. It was then, at only seven years old, that I received the eight-ball compact from an auntie in Hawaii. It was the first of many to be collected over a lifetime. Compacts were born in the Edwardian era, a time when makeup was still controversial, where powder cases were disguised as a component of more socially acceptable accessories hidden in walking sticks, hatpins, or necklaces, as privacy and secrecy were paramount. In the 1920s, the young flapper woman with her short hair and shim- mering dress took to wearing heavy eye shadow, rouge, a slash of red lip- stick and loose powder. This emphasis on makeup made it socially accept- able for a woman to primp in public; to take out a mirrored compact at the table and powder her nose. Out of this boom, the compact emerged as a social necessity, a prop in a public performance. In 1926, Elijah L. Johnson patented his cosmetic holder in the form of a bracelet, which allowed the 1920s woman to participate in two of her favorite pastimes simultaneously: dancing and applying makeup. Even cam- era giant Eastman Kodak featured a Vanity Kodak Ensemble with a large mirror, camera, lipstick tube and a powder and rouge compact made by popular cosmetic manufacturer Richard Hudnut. 96 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 7 COLLECTING T E X T A N D P H OTO G R A P H Y B Y M A R J O R I E S N O W Glamour in a Box T Vintage compacts, like these hand-painted ones from Florida, originated in the Edwardian era and were designed to conceal a woman's powder. They can be highly elaborate.

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