34 Stunning Photographs of a Young and Beautiful Stephanie Seymour Taken by Arthur Elgort in the 1980s

Stephanie Seymour (born July 23, 1968) is an American model and actress. During the 1980s and 1990s, she was one of the most popular supermodels, being featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and on the cover of Vogue, as well as being a former Victoria’s Secret Angel. She had a book published about beauty tips and has participated in advertising campaigns for clothing and cosmetic products.

Arthur Elgort photographed Seymour extensively for Vogue in the mid-to-late 1980s (notably 1986–1989), during her rise as a supermodel. Elgort’s signature style—relaxed, candid “snapshot” aesthetics with natural light, movement, and real-world or studio settings that felt alive—suited Seymour’s youthful, versatile look perfectly. He broke from stiff, overly posed studio work by encouraging models to move freely, often shooting outdoors or in dynamic indoor setups.

Elgort rarely asked models to freeze in rigid, geometric poses. Instead, he shot Seymour in motion—laughing, walking, balancing on furniture, or interacting with her surroundings. Moving out of dark studio spaces, Elgort favored open air, city streets, cafes, and natural daylight. This gave Seymour’s portraits a fresh, sunlit warmth rather than a heavy, artificial polish.

While the clothing remained central to Vogue and commercial assignments, Elgort prioritized Seymour’s natural vitality, athletic posture, and expressive charisma. This emphasis on individual persona was key to birth of the 1980s and 1990s “supermodel” phenomenon. Using lighter, mobile camera setups, Elgort worked quickly, capturing split-second candid reactions between formal takes, moments that often became the final chosen editorial shots.

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Rarely Seen Photos of a 20-Year-Old Gina Lollobrigida in Stresa for the 1947 Miss Italia Contest

In September 1947, a 20-year-old Gina Lollobrigida competed in the historic Miss Italia beauty pageant held in the resort town of Stresa on Lake Maggiore. The iconic 1947 Miss Italia contest is highly celebrated in pop culture history because it served as a major launchpad for several contestants who would later become legends of post-WWII Italian cinema.

Lollobrigida participated in the national beauty pageant, placed third, and it helped launch her modeling and acting career. The winner was Lucia Bosè, with Gianna Maria Canale as first runner-up. Other notable participants included Eleonora Rossi Drago.

This event came shortly after World War II. Lollobrigida had moved to Rome with her family, taken singing lessons, done some modeling, and entered several beauty contests. She was already turning heads for her striking looks and charisma.

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35 Vintage Studio Portraits Featuring Late 1960s Women’s Hairstyles

The late 1960s marked a vibrant and transformative period in women’s hairstyling, as fashion moved away from the structured, voluminous looks of the early decade toward freer, more natural, and individualistic expressions. These studio portraits beautifully capture the diversity of hairstyles during this transitional era: from sleek, straight “hippie hair” and feathered layers to soft curls, long flowing locks, and the last remnants of the glamorous bouffant.

Reflecting the influence of the counterculture, youth rebellion, and changing ideals of femininity, these images showcase how hair became a powerful form of self-expression. Shot in classic studio settings, they offer a stylish and nostalgic glimpse into the evolving beauty standards of the late 1960s.

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Bonnie Tyler’s Iconic 1980s Big Hair

When you think of peak 1980s “big hair,” Bonnie Tyler is one of the ultimate icons. Her look during this decade perfectly mirrored the dramatic, operatic scale of her music—especially around the time of her 1983 mega-hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

Tyler’s hair wasn't just big; it was intricately styled to combine several major 1980s hair trends into one cohesive, rock-star image. The foundation of her look was a tight, textured chemical perm. This gave her hair the necessary crimped, curly structure to hold massive amounts of volume without falling flat under stage lights.

Her cut featured heavily feathered, shorter layers around the crown and framing her face, which gradually cascaded into longer, texturized lengths past her shoulders. This allowed the top to stay incredibly light and bouncy. To achieve that gravity-defying height, the roots were backcombed (teased) aggressively and locked into place with industrial-strength hairsprays of the era. The style was emphasized by her signature bright, honey-blonde coloration, often contrasted with slightly darker roots or lowlights to give the curls visual depth and definition.

Notice how the shorter layers at the very top of her head are teased upward to create maximum lift, while the sides are feathered back to frame her face. It created an iconic silhouette that defined the pop-rock diva look of the early-to-mid 1980s.

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Stunning Portraits of Carroll Baker as Jean Harlow on the Set of “Harlow” (1965)

Carroll Baker’s portrayal of Jean Harlow in the 1965 biopic Harlow was a heavily publicized but critically flawed performance that leaned more toward 1960s sex-symbol glamour than historical accuracy. While Baker brought her established screen presence and stunning physical beauty to the role, the film itself was widely panned for its sensationalized script and biographical inaccuracies.

The path to casting Baker was fraught with standard Hollywood melodrama. Originally, 20th Century Fox had planned a lavish biopic starring Marilyn Monroe, but following Monroe’s death, the rights shifted. Producer Joseph E. Levine purchased the rights to Irving Shulman’s highly controversial, sensationalized book Harlow: An Intimate Biography for $100,000.

Baker, who had just come off a successful collaboration with Levine playing a heavily Harlow-inspired character named “Rina Marlowe” in The Carpetbaggers (1964), was the natural choice. However, a bitter contractual battle ensued when Baker almost signed with a competing Columbia Pictures Harlow project. To settle the feud and secure her for the Paramount version, Levine famously presented Baker with a spectacular platinum and diamond necklace as a peace offering.

Adding to the chaos, a low-budget rival film also titled Harlow (starring Carol Lynley) was rushed into theaters via an early videotape-to-film process just weeks before Paramount's version premiered, resulting in a box-office clash that damaged both films commercially.

While the film’s narrative leaned heavily into melodramatic fiction, the visual production values were highly praised, anchored by the legendary costume designer Edith Head. Head faced the daunting task of capturing Harlow’s iconic 1930s silhouettes while catering to 1965 cinematic tastes and a widescreen color presentation. Rather than doing direct, historical duplications, Head reinterpreted Harlow’s signature “liquid lingerie” style.

A prime example of Head’s work in the film is the signature premiere gown. It is a bias-cut, floor-length evening dress constructed of ivory satin and entirely encrusted with white bugle beads to catch the studio lights. Head paired it with multi-tailed white fox fur stoles. In an expert nod to film history, Head deliberately reversed a technique from Jean Harlow’s classic 1933 film Dinner at Eight. In that original movie, Harlow wore a famous satin bias-cut gown and a beaded bed jacket. For Baker, Head chose to bead the evening gown itself and construct the bed jacket from pure satin.

Carroll Baker approached the role with a striking platinum coif and a performance that balanced vulnerability with the brassy, tough-talking demeanor Harlow was famous for. The film tracked her rapid ascent under the gaze of a Howard Hughes-like mogul (played by Leslie Nielsen), her guidance by agent Arthur Landau (Red Buttons, who earned a Golden Globe nomination), and her tragic, ill-fated marriage to producer Paul Bern (Peter Lawford).

Though the film did not achieve the box-office heights Paramount hoped for and was criticized for its historical inaccuracies, it remains a beloved artifact of 1965 cinema. It successfully launched the classic jazz standard song “Girl Talk” by Neal Hefti and continues to be studied by costume historians as a masterclass in how one Hollywood era retroactively styled another.

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Iconic 1920s Hairstyles: 30 Vintage Scrapbook Portraits From the Flapper Era

The 1920s marked a revolutionary moment in women’s fashion and self-expression, and nothing captured this spirit more vividly than the era’s bold hairstyles. From the sleek bob and chic finger waves to the daring shingle cut and playful curls, these iconic looks became powerful symbols of liberation and modernity.

This collection of authentic vintage scrapbook portraits offers a intimate glimpse into the golden age of the flapper, showcasing the elegance, rebellion, and individuality that defined women’s hairstyles during the Roaring Twenties.

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Michelle Pfeiffer at the Miss California Beauty Pageant in 1978

Did you know that Michelle Pfeiffer was in beauty pageants once upon a time? She won the Miss Orange County beauty pageant in 1978 and finished sixth in the Miss California contest the same year. After her appearances in these pageants, Pfeiffer acquired an agent and began to audition for television and film roles.

Before she was an Academy Award-nominated actress and a Hollywood icon, 19-year-old Michelle Pfeiffer used the pageant circuit as a stepping stone to break into the industry.  

In 1978, she competed in the Miss California pageant held at the Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia. While she didn’t take home the top crown, her participation was a pivotal moment in her early career.

She qualified for Miss California after winning the Miss Orange County title earlier that year. She ultimately finished in sixth place but was awarded the title of Miss Photogenic.

Pfeiffer famously entered the contest because one of the judges was a Hollywood agent. Her plan worked; the exposure helped her land her first agent, leading to her television debut later that year in an episode of Fantasy Island. At the time of the pageant, she was a student at Golden West College and worked as a check-out clerk at a Vons supermarket.

In a strange twist of Hollywood fate, the 1954 Miss California winner, Lee Meriwether, also went on to play Catwoman (in the 1966 Batman film), a role Pfeiffer would redefine decades later in Batman Returns (1992).  

Pfeiffer has often looked back on her pageant days with a mix of humor and humility, noting that she initially viewed it as a practical way to bypass the “waiting in line” phase of pursuing an acting career. “I needed to learn how to act... in the meantime, I was playing bimbos and cashing in on my looks.”

Mary Pickford Before and After She Bobbed Her Hair

The transition of Mary Pickford’s hair from her signature “golden curls” to a short “bob” in June 1928 was one of the most shocking cultural events of the 1920s. For over a decade, her long, ringlet-styled hair had served as a global symbol of innocence and purity, earning her the title “the girl with the curls.”

Pickford’s iconic look consisted of roughly 20 thick ringlets that fell to her waist. This hairstyle was not just a fashion choice but a powerful branding tool. Her curls represented Victorian-style innocence and childhood. This allowed her to continue playing young girls and “Cinderella” roles well into her 30s.

Maintaining the style was labor-intensive. She spent a full day every two weeks washing her hair and used leather “curling rags” to set the ringlets. Her hair was famously valued at $20,000 per curl in contemporary press reports.

Following the death of her mother and the rise of “flapper” stars like Clara Bow, Pickford decided she needed a more mature image. On June 21, 1928, she secretly visited a New York beauty parlor to have her hair cut by stylist Charles Bock. She requested a “long bob” rather than a severe “shingle” to better suit her features.

“I had to take a courageous stand, once and for all... They’ve become a stumbling block to the future of my career.” As the barber snipped off the 20 long ringlets, she reportedly said: “Well, they’re gone and I’m glad.”

The news of the haircut made front-page headlines worldwide, with some fans writing her indignant letters as if she had “murdered someone.” She saved the cut ringlets, eventually donating some to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where they remain part of the collection.

Post-cut, Pickford debuted a trendy, wavy bob that aligned with the “sophisticated” style of the late 1920s.  She showed off her new short hair in her first “talkie,” Coquette, playing a reckless socialite.

“I wasn’t at all prepared for the avalanche of criticism that overwhelmed me from all corners of the earth,” she said. “You would have thought I had murdered someone, and perhaps I had, but only to give her successor a chance to live.”

“For weeks I told myself that I shouldn’t have done it. I thought it would free me... and I suppose in a way it did, because I began to feel a change in me personally, a sense of ease and liberation I hadn’t known before.”

While she won a Best Actress Oscar for Coquette, the transition was professionally difficult. The public struggled to accept her in mature roles, and she retired from acting only a few years later in 1933. 

In 1962, Bette Davis Did Her Own Makeup for “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”

Bette Davis famously created and applied her own makeup for the 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? to ensure it looked appropriately grotesque. She took this approach because she believed no professional makeup artist would dare to make her look as “ghastly” as the character required, with one artist even telling her he feared he would never work again if he followed her vision.

Davis’s core concept was that the character, Jane Hudson, never washed her face. Instead, she imagined Jane simply applied a new layer of makeup over the previous day’s grime every morning. She drew inspiration from older women she saw on Hollywood Boulevard. These were often former actresses who lived in the past and wore heavy, outdated makeup in a desperate attempt to look young. The look was a “grotesque” parody of silent film stars like Mary Pickford, featuring white-caked skin and exaggerated features.

She used heavy Max Factor supplies to create a thick, pale base that emphasized her wrinkles rather than hiding them. She added a Clara Bow-style beauty mark and used charcoal pencils to draw harsh, dark lines around her eyes and lips. By layering the products, she created a mask-like appearance that became increasingly distorted as Jane’s mental state deteriorated throughout the film.

According to Bette Davis in her book “This N’ That,” What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was originally going to be shot in color. Davis opposed this, saying that it would just make a sad story look pretty. Davis said she had a lot of control over how her makeup should be done for the film. She imagined the older Jane as someone who would never wash her face, just put on another layer of makeup. When her daughter, Barbara Merrill, first saw her in full “Jane” makeup, she said, “Oh, mother, this time you've gone too far.”

“What I had in mind no professional makeup man would have dared to put on me,” said Davis. “One told me he was afraid that if he did what I wanted, he might never work again. Jane looked like many women one sees on Hollywood Boulevard. In fact author Henry Farrell patterned the character of Jane after these women. One would presume by the way they looked that they once were actresses, and were now unemployed. I felt Jane never washed her face, just added another layer of makeup each day.”

The budget was so limited that the production wasn’t able to use the usual process screen shots for Jane’s driving scenes. Davis did her own driving around Hollywood with cameraman Ernest Haller perched either in the back seat of the car or over the front fender in order to get the shots he needed. “To this day,” said Davis in 1987, “I smile when I remember the first time ’Jane’ drove down Beverly Boulevard in an old Hudson. The expressions on the faces of people in other cars when they saw me were hysterical. Lots of mouths dropped.”

Director Robert Aldrich and the producers initially feared the look was too over-the-top, but Davis gave them an ultimatum: she would only play the role if she could keep her self-designed makeup. Her instincts proved correct, earning her an Academy Award nomination for the performance.

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30 Stunning Photos of a Young Shirley Jones Showing Off Her Perfect Legs in the 1950s and 1960s

Shirley Mae Jones (born March 31, 1934) is an American actress and singer. In her six decades in show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of musical films. In the 1950s and 1960s, Jones often displayed her dancer's physique in pin-up photography and swimsuit shoots, contrasting with the wholesome "girl next door" image she maintained in hit musicals.

In the mid-1950s, Jones was the face of the massive widescreen musical. Because these films often featured period costumes, her “leggy” appearances were often tied to specific dance numbers or character-specific wardrobe. The 1960s saw a shift in Jones’s image, particularly after her Oscar-winning turn in Elmer Gantry (1960), where she played a more provocative character.

Like many contract players of the time, Jones participated in studio-mandated “cheesecake” photography, often posing by pools in classic one-piece suits or high-waisted bikinis. Having started in musical theater, many of her most iconic photos involve her in dance leotards or shorter stage costumes that emphasized her posture and legs. By the late 1960s, she was often photographed in the popular “mini” silhouettes, marking a stark contrast to her 1950s debut.

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A Gallery of 70 Striking Real Photo Postcards of European Actresses From Between the 1920s and 1950s

The Picturegoer series is a legendary cornerstone of film memorabilia, particularly beloved by collectors of British cinema history. Published by the popular weekly film magazine Picturegoer (which ran from 1911 to 1960), these postcards provide a comprehensive visual record of the Golden Age of Hollywood and British film.

The series is vast, containing thousands of cards produced primarily between the 1920s and the 1950s. They were printed by Rotary Photographic Co. and later Beagles & Co., typically using a high-quality real photographic process (sepia or black-and-white) that gave them a glossy, professional finish. On the back of each card is a number. The lettering after some of the numbers denotes the series that the card was from. The first series ran to over 1,400 cards and had no prefix letter, followed by Series A, Series B, and so on. Groups of several poses of the same star were sometimes published and identified with an alphabetical suffix, for example, Greta Garbo had cards numbered 600, 600a, 600b, 600c... depicting nine different images.

For collectors, the value of a Picturegoer card is determined by several factors. Icons like James Dean, Grace Kelly, or early horror stars (like Boris Karloff) command the highest prices. Because these were often kept in scrapbooks, cards with “album marks” on the corners or adhesive residue on the back are less valuable.

Interestingly, while most postcards are more valuable “unposted,” some collectors enjoy the social history of a card sent in the 1940s with a fan’s handwritten note about a movie they just saw. Serious collectors often try to complete specific numerical runs. Finding the “missing” numbers in a sequence is a major part of the hobby.

Beyond being mere collectibles, these cards served as the primary way fans connected with their idols before the era of digital media and instant access. They were the “Instagram” of the 1930s, a tangible, high-quality image that brought the glamour of the silver screen into a fan’s home.

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Lee Radziwill and Jackie Kennedy Onassis Photographed by Cecil Beaton for Vogue at a Debutante Ball, 1951

In 1951, the photographer Cecil Beaton captured an iconic series of portraits of the Bouvier sisters, Jacqueline (the future Jackie Kennedy Onassis) and Lee (the future Princess Lee Radziwill), for Vogue. Jackie was around 22 and Lee around 18 at the time.

The photos were staged to evoke the atmosphere of a debutante ball, marking the sisters’ official “coming out” into high society. While Jackie had already been named “Debutante of the Year” in 1947, this 1951 shoot for Vogue magazine served as a high-fashion introduction of the sisters as a duo.

Jackie wore a white silk organdie gown with a red faille sash, while Lee wore yellow and white tulle with yellow roses. The dresses were originally credited to Elizabeth Arden, but contemporary fashion historians often attribute the designs to Ann Lowe, the Black couturier who later designed Jackie’s wedding dress.

Beaton used an elaborate set with “extras,” couples in formal evening wear dancing in the background, to create a sense of movement and aristocratic glamour.

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