The "ideal" female figure promoted by fashion and film has changed roughly once a decade since 1900: the corseted hourglass of the 1910s, the straight flapper line of the 1920s, the soft curves of the 1950s, the very slim 1960s mod look, the athletic supermodel of the 1980s, the waif of the 1990s and the curvier, social-media-driven shape of the 2010s. None of these was ever a description of how most women actually looked. Each was a narrow image that magazines, studios and advertisers chose to put in front of the public.
The illustrated decade cards below come from a widely shared 2015 series credited to Leo Delauncey and published by the Daily Mail. Each card is paired with a photograph of a woman who became a face of that era. Read them as a history of marketing and celebrity, not as a record of what everyone found attractive, and notice how quickly each "rule" was replaced by the next.
The 1910s card shows the Gibson Girl: a tall figure with a full bust, a tightly cinched waist and wide hips, drawn as an S-shaped curve. The look was invented by the American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, whose drawings set the fashionable standard from the 1890s until the flapper replaced it.
1910s–1930s: from corsets to the bombshell
Camille Clifford, the best-known Gibson Girl
Camille Clifford is generally considered the most famous real-life Gibson Girl, and this studio portrait shows why. Her waist looks almost impossibly small because it was shaped by a corset and framed by a wide gown and a large hat. The photograph is a reminder that this "natural" ideal required engineering in fabric and whalebone.
By the 1920s the card's silhouette has flattened out: slim hips, a straight torso and long legs that suited the shorter, drop-waisted dresses of the jazz age. Silent-film actresses such as Olive Thomas and Alice Joyce are named as the faces of the flapper style.
Alice Joyce and the flapper line
Alice Joyce was a leading actress of the silent screen. Here she wears a beaded, loose-cut dress that hangs straight from the shoulders, the opposite of the corseted Gibson outline only a decade earlier. Clothes that hid the waist turned a boyish frame into the new fashionable shape.
The 1930s card brings curves back and names Jean Harlow, the platinum-blonde Hollywood star nicknamed the "Blonde Bombshell", as the decade's icon. Bias-cut satin gowns that clung to the body replaced the straight flapper dress.
Jean Harlow
Harlow posed for countless publicity photographs like this one, in light satin that showed off the softer figure of the period. She was one of the biggest stars of the early sound era before her death in 1937 at the age of 26. Studio portraits like this were carefully lit, posed and retouched, so even then the public saw a polished version of a real person.
1940s–1950s: screen queens and curves
The 1940s card describes the "screen queen": a feminine but strong look, with Katharine Hepburn named as a model of independent, spirited glamour. Wartime rationing of fabric also pushed fashion towards tailored, practical shapes with broad shoulders.
This black-and-white swimsuit portrait on the dunes is typical of 1940s pin-up photography, when pictures of film actresses in swimwear were sent to soldiers and printed in magazines. The pose, a twist of the waist and one leg forward, was a standard studio technique for making any figure look more curved.
The 1950s card is titled "The curves" and names Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor as the decade's sex symbols. It also notes that weight-gain tablets were sold at the time, a detail that surprises modern readers: advertisements in that period really did promise to help thin women add pounds.
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor, photographed here in a two-piece swimsuit, moved from child star to one of Hollywood's leading adult actresses during the 1950s. Her figure was celebrated as the opposite of the flapper: a defined waist with a fuller bust and hips. Within ten years, fashion would swing hard the other way.
1960s–1970s: the petite look and the poster girl
The 1960s card calls the ideal "the petite": the era of the mini skirt and a much thinner, younger-looking silhouette. It names the British models Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton as the women who popularised the look.
Twiggy
Lesley Hornby, known as Twiggy, was 16 when the Daily Express named her "The Face of '66". When her career took off she stood about 5 ft 6 in and weighed roughly six and a half stone (41 kg), which shows how far the fashion image had moved from the 1950s. Her short haircut, large eyes and mini dresses defined the mod style worldwide.
The 1970s card is "the 70s pin-up": slightly wider shoulders, slim hips and the long, lean look of the disco years. Farrah Fawcett is named as its most famous face.
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett became a star in 1976, the year Charlie's Angels began on ABC. A poster of her in a red swimsuit, shot by Bruce McBroom, sold about six million copies in its first year, and photos like this one show the sun-tanned, feathered-hair look that came with it. Healthy-looking and outdoorsy, the image was still a narrow one: young, slim and fair.
1980s–1990s: supermodels and the waif
The 1980s card is "the supermodel": tall, athletic and leggy, the decade of aerobics videos and gym culture. Elle Macpherson and Linda Evangelista are given as examples.
Elle Macpherson
Australian model Elle Macpherson was nicknamed "The Body" after appearing on the cover of Time in 1989. She holds the record for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue covers, with five between 1986 and 2006. This high-cut one-piece on the beach is the classic image of the fit, toned 1980s ideal.
The 1990s card is "the waif", linked to grunge and a very thin, androgynous look on the catwalk. It names Kate Moss and Jodie Kidd as the models associated with what the press called "heroin chic".
Kate Moss
Kate Moss became the face of Calvin Klein's 1993 campaigns and the symbol of the waif look, shown here in a casual denim shirt in black and white. The trend drew strong criticism, and in 1997 US President Bill Clinton publicly condemned the glamorising of heroin in fashion. By the end of the decade magazines were already promoting a healthier, curvier model image again.
2000s–2010s: toned abs and social media curves
The 2000s card is "the tone": visible abs, spray tans and low-rise clothing. It names Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, the pop stars of the early part of the decade.
Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, in a crop top and a high-slit skirt, sums up the early-2000s focus on a flat, toned midriff. Music videos, award-show coverage and early celebrity websites spread this look faster than magazines alone ever could.
The last card, for the 2010s, is titled "bootylicious". It credits Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with letting celebrities become their own paparazzi and names Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj as faces of a curvier ideal, with a small waist and big hips. In a sense the cycle returned close to the Gibson Girl hourglass, now shaped by filters, workouts and sometimes surgery instead of corsets.
Why the "ideal" keeps changing
A few patterns repeat across all twelve decades. Fashion needs something new to sell, so a look that becomes common soon stops being aspirational. Clothing shapes bodies as much as bodies shape clothing: corsets created the 1910s waist, drop-waist dresses created the flat 1920s line, and stretch fabrics and low-rise jeans made the stomach the focus in the 2000s. The technology of the image matters too. Painted studio portraits, glossy magazine retouching and phone filters have each widened the gap between how celebrities appear and how they look in person.
It is also worth remembering who chose these icons. They are mostly white, young, famous women from Britain, the United States and Australia. Many cultures, and many communities within these countries, held quite different ideas of beauty at the same time.
What research says about body ideals and wellbeing
Psychologists have studied this question for decades. Several experiments found that women's body satisfaction dropped after looking at images of very thin models and improved after seeing larger models. A 2007 American Psychological Association task force linked the wider sexualisation of girls and women to greater anxiety about body image. Other researchers argue that peers and family matter more than media and that the evidence for direct media harm is weaker than often claimed, so the honest summary is that images contribute, alongside many other influences.
Social media has added a new layer, because ordinary people now edit and compare their own photos as well as celebrities'. Some practical habits help: notice when a feed leaves you feeling worse and follow a wider range of body types; remember that most published images are posed, lit and edited; and judge health by how you feel and function, not by the shape of the decade. If worries about weight or eating start to take over daily life, talk to a doctor.
Sources: Decade illustrations credited to Leo Delauncey via the Daily Mail; Vintage Everyday; Wikipedia: Gibson Girl, Twiggy, Farrah Fawcett, Elle Macpherson, Heroin chic, Body image.
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