It takes time to re-create yourself as a Hollywood starlet – to get that Carole Lombard smile, that Marilyn Monroe voice, that slinky Rita Hayworth walk. Just the hair alone – that legendary Veronica Lake curl – can take hours.
“It definitely wasn’t wash-and-wear,” says Stefane Jaspering, 19, an aspiring retro-pinup model in Denver. “You had to pin your curls in certain positions. I really had to learn my way around curlers, to learn how to use curlers when the hair is wet, set it and let it dry.”
Hot rollers won’t cut it. Although it can take up to three hours to transform herself into someone like Jean Harlow – from silk stockings to pincurls – Jaspering says it’s well worth it.
“It makes me feel relaxed, happy and beautiful,” she says.
Pomegranate-red lips. Curvaceous hips. Satin gowns that caress your skin like a sultry kiss. From New Jersey to Utah to Colorado, women are embracing the classic American-pinup genre, a subculture now going mainstream.
A trove of resources for pinup wanna- bes is online, including triple-gardenia Billie Holiday hair ornaments and websites like Atomic Pinup and Retro Radar, which feature monthly pinup contests that attract entrants from around the world.
“You can be sexy and voluptuous without being vulgar,” says Lisa Pierce, 38, a Denver elementary-school teacher. “I just love it. I wear my hair like that to work. It’s not a costume for me. It’s a lifestyle.”
Sexy but wholesome, images of pinups crop up everywhere in modern society, from bedsheets and wallpaper to the cover of Rolling Stone, which recently featured Christina Aguilera in a classic pinup-style sailor suit, promoting her new CD, “Back to Basics.”
“I’ve always loved the old Hollywood glamour and pinup styles,” says Marie Anthony, a photographer in Salt Lake City who specializes in vintage hairstyles and makeup for pinup models. “I’ve found more and more girls love that look and want to get into it.”
Tthe golden age of American pinups dates back to World War II, when soldiers pinned photographs of Hollywood starlets such as Betty Grable on their lockers.
“It was sexy but chaste,” says Louis K. Meisel, co-author of “The Great American Pin-Up.” “It wasn’t about nudes but about the all-American girl, and the boys who were fighting and (wanted) to come home and marry and live in Levittown.”
The vintage-pinup life is about the lost world of glamour and innocence, about being sexy without taking your clothes off.
“With the ‘Jerry Springer’ show, all those strippers, everything in your face, I think everyone got tired of it,” says Viva Van Story, a pinup photographer based in New Jersey. “A lot of girls stepped back and said, ‘I like the way it used to be.’ It was more exciting. It was about your expression, how you carried yourself across the floor, which was more powerful than girls getting up there exposing themselves.”
Women involved in this lifestyle question current definitions of femininity, beauty and allure.
“Girls are getting whistles at age 14, and they’re having sex at younger ages because we’ve made it acceptable for our children to show off more than they should be showing off at younger ages,” says Van Story. “I wish more mothers were involved in the retro scene, showing girls that they can be sexy with jeans rolled up and shirts tied up around their waists.”
In our time-pressed society where women now fill multiple roles, it’s not practical to live like a ’40s glamour girl on a daily basis.
“It’s hard to imagine having all that time to get ready,” says Jaspering. “I’m lucky if I can comb my hair on a regular day. But it’s fun to think of a time when women had all this time to get dolled up, and you could look your best on a regular basis.”
Some women – ordinary mothers and housewives – do this only once, as a gift for spouses or boyfriends. But this is more than enough.
“Some start crying, because they’ve never felt so beautiful in their whole life,” says Van Story, who uses her photographic skill and makeup artists to transform them into Hollywood starlets. “Sometimes I’m brought to tears, being able to take someone and make them 100 times more glamorous than they’d ever dreamed.”
Staff writer Colleen O’Connor can be reached at 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com.
Pinup facts
Betty Grable, one of America’s first pinups, starred in the 1944 movie “Pin Up Girl,” now available in DVD from places such as Amazon.com.
Other famous ’40s pinups include Rita Hayworth, Carole Lombard and Lana Turner.
Legendary ’50s pinups include Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield and Grace Kelly.
For further inspiration, check out “The Great American Pin-Up” by Charles Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, a comprehensive study of the pinup genre that includes 900 images.
To create that overall Hollywood glam look, shop estate sales and thrift shops for vintage gloves, hats and elegant gowns. Hair ornaments, like those classic black dahlias, can be found at the divapinup.com.
To create the classic ’40s hair roll, damp hair on old-fashioned rollers under a bonnet dryer works best. Mousse is extremely helpful. Complete instructions can be found at: nocturne .com/swing/hair/rolls/ rolls.html.
