M. Trilety’s Nose Shaper Model 25, a Wacky Beauty Treatment Used for Shaping and Correcting the Nose From the 1920s

The 20th century has seen a huge upsurge in the importance placed by Western society on physical beauty, particularly for women. The fashion, cosmetics and plastic surgery industries have thrived on 20th century preoccupation with physical appearance. It is a preoccupation that affects women in every sphere, whether they choose to pander to it or not.

For the first two decades of the 20th century, many of the attitudes towards beauty associated with the 19th century remained. In Victorian society, it was considered a woman’s duty to make herself beautiful. In the early 20th century, this was coupled with the idea of “self-presentation” as enjoyable, expressive and creative. However, some of the more bizarre and painful “beauty aids” of the Victorian age continued to be marketed well into the 1920s. A particularly unpleasant example is “M.Trielty’s Nose Shaper,” described as a “metal object ... held over the nose by straps buckled round the head and adjusted with screws.”

The Model 25 has “six adjustable pressure regulators, is made of light polished metal, is firm and fits every nose comfortably. The inside is upholstered with a fine chamois skin and no metal parts come in contact with the skin. Thousands of unsolicited Testimonials ….”

It’s incredible how long this company lasted, considering its offer of “your money refunded if you are not satisfied.”

Here, below are some Trilety’s ads from 1920s magazines:

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Portraits of Parisian Women in the 1930s Taken by André Zucca

In Paris, there began a liberation movement out of the reach of the lawmakers and enforcers. Photographer André Zucca took some amazing portraits of Parisian women from the 1930s:

André Zucca was born in Paris in 1897. He started his career as a photographer in the 1920s, working for theatre magazine Comoedia. From 1935 to 1937, he contributed to various French and foreign magazines, producing a series of photo reports, first across the Balkan States and around the Mediterranean Sea, then aboard a merchant ship from Le Havre to Japan.

In the early days of World War II, he worked as a war correspondent on the Finnish front, and, back in France, chronicled the “phoney war” with Joseph Kessel for Paris-Soir newspaper. In August 1941, he became Paris correspondent for the German propaganda nazi magazine Signal, and thus obtained a work permit, as well black and white films and very rare Agfacolor film. In this context and during three years, he photographed the Parisian and French life during the Occupation, then the Liberation of Paris.

In October 1944, he was arrested then released due to the dropping of charges in 1945. André Zucca left Paris at that time to live near Dreux where he resumed his activity as a local photographer. He settled back in Paris in 1965, and died in Montmartre in 1973.

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35 Old Postcards Capture Rural Life of Brittany From the 1900s

Brittany is a peninsula, historic country and cultural region in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period of Roman occupation. It became an independent kingdom and then a duchy before being united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province governed as a separate nation under the crown.

Rural life of Brittany around 1900

Brittany is bordered by the English Channel to the north, Normandy to the northeast, eastern Pays de la Loire to the southeast, the Bay of Biscay to the south, and the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its land area is 34,023 km2 (13,136 sq mi).

Brittany is the site of some of the world's oldest standing architecture, home to the Barnenez, the Tumulus Saint-Michel and others, which date to the early 5th millennium BC. Today, the historical province of Brittany is split among five French departments: Finistère in the west, Côtes-d'Armor in the north, Ille-et-Vilaine in the northeast, Morbihan in the south and Loire-Atlantique in the southeast.

Brittany is the traditional homeland of the Breton people and is one of the six Celtic nations, retaining a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic.

This is a set of old postcards from Claude LACOURARIE that shows rural life of Brittany around 1900.

Breton peasant women. Traditional production of butter in a hand churn

Concarneau. Country costume

Douarnenez wedding

Guémené-sur-Scorff. Old merchants

Guingamp market

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Window Tents for Healthy Persons, ca. 1910s

The window tent was originally devised in order to give the open-air treatment for tuberculosis to patients in their own homes when they could not procure the use of porches or other open buildings for this purpose in the 1910s.

But as window tents have proven both convenient and economical, they are now used by many healthy persons who wish to sleep in the fresh air during the winter months without cooling off their houses.

Window tents are all constructed practically on the same principle, the difference between them being largely in their shape and the manner of their manipulation. A frame, usually of steel, supports a canvas cover, and this canopy encloses a space inside the room connected with the window. The tent frame is either attached to the window casing or the head of the bed, and projects over the bed, covering the head and shoulders of the person lying on it.

Photos Show Fashion Styles of the Beastie Boys in the 1980s

Beastie Boys were an American hip hop group from New York City, formed in 1981. The group was composed of Michael “Mike D” Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam “MCA” Yauch (vocals, bass), and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals, guitar, programming).

Beastie Boys were formed out of members of experimental hardcore punk band the Young Aborigines in 1978, with Diamond as vocalist, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, guitarist John Berry and Kate Schellenbach on drums. When Shatan left in 1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the band changed their name to Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz.

After achieving local success with the 1983 comedy hip hop single “Cooky Puss”, Beastie Boys made a full transition to hip hop, and Schellenbach left. They toured with Madonna in 1985 and a year later released their debut album, Licensed to Ill (1986), the first rap record to top the Billboard 200 chart. Their second album, Paul’s Boutique (1989), composed almost entirely of samples, was a commercial failure, but later received critical acclaim. Check Your Head (1992) and Ill Communication (1994) found mainstream success, followed by Hello Nasty (1998), To the 5 Boroughs (2004), The Mix-Up (2007), and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011).

Beastie Boys have sold 20 million records in the United States, and had seven platinum-selling albums from 1986 to 2004, as well as being the biggest-selling rap group since Billboard began recording sales in 1991. In 2012, they became the third rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the same year, Yauch died of cancer and Beastie Boys disbanded.

Take a look at these photos to see fashion styles of these guys of the Beastie Boys in the 1980s.

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15-Year-Old Liv Tyler With Mom Bebe Buell Photographed by David McGough in 1993

Bebe Buell is an American singer and former fashion model. She was Playboy magazine’s November 1974 Playmate of the Month. From 1972 to 1979, Buell lived with rock musician Todd Rundgren. In 1976, Buell became pregnant from a brief relationship with Steven Tyler. She gave birth on July 1, 1977, naming the daughter Liv Rundgren and claiming that Todd Rundgren was the biological father. By then Rundgren and Buell had ended their romantic relationship, but Rundgren nevertheless signed the birth certificate and acted as a father figure to Liv, including paying for her education.

At age 10 or 11, Liv met Steven Tyler and suspected he was her father when she observed a resemblance between her and Tyler’s daughter Mia. When she asked her mother, the secret was revealed. The truth about Tyler’s paternity did not become public until 1991, when she changed her surname from Rundgren to Tyler, but kept Rundgren as a middle name. Buell’s stated reason for claiming that Rundgren was Liv’s father was that Steven Tyler was too heavily addicted to drugs at the time of Liv’s birth. Since learning the truth about her paternity, Liv and Steven have developed a close relationship. They also have worked together professionally, once when she appeared in Aerosmith’s music video for “Crazy” in 1993, and again when Aerosmith performed songs in the film Armageddon (1998), in which Liv Tyler starred.

Tyler maintains a close relationship with Rundgren. “I’m so grateful to him, I have so much love for him. You know, when he holds me it feels like Daddy. And he's very protective and strong.”

When asked about her youth, Tyler said: “For me, I didn’t get much of a childhood in my teen years because I’ve been working since I was 14. But that also kept me out of trouble. When everybody was doing acid and partying like crazy, I was at work on a movie in Tuscany ... having my own fun, of course, but it was a different kind of thing. I have no regrets. I love the way my life has gone.”

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For Us, Cutaway Cars Are Always Worth a Closer Look, Here’s an Amazing See-Through 1970 Ford Torino

For 1970, J. Walter Thompson, Ford’s longtime ad agency, came up with a clever tagline for the midsize Torino: “New clear through!” And it was an honest boast, as the Ford intermediate platform was all indeed all-new with radically restyled sheet metal from front to rear, a longer wheelbase, and a fresh slate of powertrain choices, including a 429 cubic-inch Cobra Jet V8. To help drive home the “new clear through” theme, the JWT crew conceived an equally clever selling tool: a see-though Torino.

Built from a standard production 1970 Torino two-door hardtop in Acapulco Blue with a 351 two-barrel V8 and an automatic transmission, the car featured a score of see-though body panels vacuum-formed in plexiglass by Creative Industries. At the time, Creative was a leading builder of specialty vehicles for all the Motor City carmakers and the experts on plastics and new materials.

To complete the Illustrated Car effect, the undercarriage and all the interior panels and components were show-prepped and painted in bright, contrasting colors, the better to show them off, and an elaborate network of miniature electric lamps was hidden inside to illuminate the inner body and simulate the flow-through ventilation system.

The see-though hardtop was featured in Ford’s 1970 Torino sales catalog and treated to a full spread for Motor Trend (the Torino was the magazine’s Car of the Year for 1970). The Torino also starred in a 1970 Ford television commercial, demonstrating in action shots that despite the presumably flimsy body panels, it was fully functional and roadworthy. At some point, the car was updated to 1971 exterior trim, and it also appears as a ’71 in the ’71 Torino sales literature.

(This original article was published on Mac’s Motor City Garage)