Standout "100 Years of Beauty" Video Celebrates Real Women

Looking back on the past not only allows us to discover the history of our world, it also gives us insight into how we’ve become who we are today. Cut Video’s 100 Years of Beauty series continuously offers these sorts of insights, giving its audience perspective on how fashion and style choices have gradually evolved. However, it’s also important to remember that while beauty and fashion are creatively intriguing, these external factors don’t always show the whole picture. This thought-provoking realization inspired Karolina Zebrowska (of historical costume blog Domowa Kostiumologia) to pay tribute to the women behind the vintage clothes and bygone makeup looks.

“As a person interested in the history of fashion and beauty it really bugged me how inaccurate some of these are,” Zebrowska explains, when discussing commonplace depictions of past styles. “The beauty standards they show are almost always our contemporary stereotypes of the past decades; for example, when it comes to the 1920s, it almost always is a partying, shiny flapper girl; when it comes to the 1950s, we always get pin-up. Not to mention that earlier eras (19th or 18th century) are rarely depicting truly historical beauty and fashion standards rather than creators’ imagination. I was always upset about it and planned my own version.”

Zebrowska’s take on the “100 Years of Beauty” concept explores the look of working class women, ones who may not have had the lavish lifestyle of a sensationalized party-goer we’re used to seeing. At the end of the eye-opening video, the blogger reminds her audience: “Please, don’t forget real women.”