Thiebaud’s Beauty Standards

Art x Fashion Edit #17

Recently, there has been a reiterated focus on women’s bodies as trends. From the Ozempic craze to magazines claiming the return of the heroin chic, fashion seems to be about being thin. What is says though, is how much women’s image is still not theirs.

Indeed, women have always been thought of and seen through the eyes of men, the dominant gender in our patriarchal societies. Since the 1950s, a whole industry has developed around women’s beauty standards. With the rise of publicity, those standards went from women’s personal relationship with their bodies, to these same bodies being objectified and used to illustrate men’s fantasies.

From Marylin’s curves to Kate Moss’ extreme thinness, women are used to sell things that are not necessarily even for women, or related to women at all, and this overuse of their image perpetuates gender standards. More recently though, a form of collective awareness has been moving the lines: more diversity on the podium, on billboards, in stores. But clichés have a hard time going away.

The beauty industry still exerts an impressive amount of standards on women. The very existence of make-up is the perfect example of this double standard. Yes, some men are wearing make-up in 2023, but they represent a minority, while women are still expected to present a perfect complexion.

Wayne Thiebaud’s work covers pop culture and common place objects of the American daily life, with pastel colors. His work has a nostalgic vintage feeling, and always conveys a form of recklessness from a time of economic abundance and growing American soft power. Mainly known for his paintings of cakes and pastries, he also painted landscapes and cityscapes as well as beauty objects. In some way, make up is supposed to enhance women’s beauty to make them more pleasant to men, to create envy, attraction and greed. Cosmetics‘ soft hues inspired me a powdery outfit, putting women in control of their self-display.