Gibson Girl
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A USPS stamp depicting a Gibson girl |
The
Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal as portrayed in the satirical illustrated stories created by
illustrator Charles Dana Gibson during the first 15 years of the twentieth century.
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A photograph of Camille Clifford, showing the S-curve silhouette of the fashionable Edwardian 'swan-bill corset' |
The Gibson Girl was tall, slender yet with ample bosom, hips and bottom in the S-curve torso shape achieved by wearing a swan-bill
corset. The images of her epitomized the early 20th-century Western preoccupation with youthful features, and ephemeral beauty. Her neck was thin and her hair piled high upon her head in the contemporary
pompadour and '
chignon' ("waterfall of curls") fashions.
Many models posed for Gibson Girl-style illustrations, including his wife (who was the original model) and
Anaïs Nin. The most famous Gibson Girl was probably the Danish-American stage actress,
Camille Clifford, whose towering coiffure and long, elegant gowns wrapped around her hourglass figure and tightly
corsetted wasp waist defined the style.
Among Gibson Girl illustrators was
Harry G. Peter, who is most famous for his art on
Wonder Woman comics.
The Gibson Girl personified beauty, independence, and personal fulfillment in the gilded
Edwardian era. By the outbreak of
World War I, changing fashions caused the Gibson Girl to fall from favor. Women of the World War I era favored a sober, masculine suit (first designed and popularized by
Coco Chanel) over the elegant dresses, bustle gowns,
shirtwaists, and long skirts favored by the Gibson Girl.
An
RAAF survival kite carried by
World War II aircraft on over-water operations was named the 'Gibson Girl' because of its 'hour-glass' shape. It was a fold-up/down metal frame box kite for which the flying line was an aerial wire. A hand-crank generator provided power for a distress radio signal.
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New Woman*
Flapper*
Camille Clifford, the Gibson Girl.
*
Valeska Surratt*
Marina Baker,
Playboy Playmate March 1987, who has a distinctive retro-Gibson Girl look and figure.
