“People used tea bags and gravy browning to tan their legs!”
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Why was pale skin considered a status symbol before the 1920s?
Fashion and beauty historian Laura Fitz Ackery, good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Brendan. Thanks for having me on.
Well, thank you for coming on. There's a lot of real tanner this summer, Laura, and then there's plenty out of a bottle as well. In fact, I think that the stat show Irish people are among the most enthusiastic fake tanners in the world. So you're gonna tell us a bit about the history of tanning and fake tanning. A tan was not a fashionable thing until relatively recently, was it? Being pale was how you showed your kind of wealth and breeding, was it?
Oh absolutely. Historically speaking, really you don't really get tan as something that is kind of uh much more popular until around the nineteen twenties onwards. But that's because clothing changes significantly. Before that though, yeah, paleness and journey to be as pale as possible is something that was absolutely um um I suppose kind of what what people were striving for. So they put this
So they put the same effort into staying pale then as people put put into having a tan now?
How did the 1920s fashion revolution make a tan fashionable?
Absolutely. Yeah. So you would find even from the nineteenth century, even from the eighteenth century, you'll find beauty models and advice columns which are suggesting how you can get how you can remove tan, how you can whiten and lighten the skin as much as you can in order to be as pale as possible.
Okay, so when did the tan become fashionable then?
So that comes into the 1920s. And of course, we're looking at this from a very westernized point of view of beauty. And of course, when you're looking at the shift in tanning, it's coming out of Europe at the time. It's usually correlated with or usually conflated, I should I should say, probably with Chanel and this idea of uh creating sun creams and sun lotions to embrace tanning. Actually, there was other things.
Okay, so Coco Chanel basically invented tanning in order to sell more stuff. She was sure, didn't she?
It's a bit of a myth. Um, there was a few French designers actually at the time who were creating sun creams and sun lotions. The likes of Jean Pateau actually better to it and created uh sun oils by 1928. And she had her full line of sun tanning oils and lotions by the 1930s.
What early 20th‑century publications first discussed fake‑tan cosmetics?
But what is happening is that the likes of Chanel, the likes of Pateau, they're creating clothing that is much more Loose and has limbs on show. Okay, there's a bit of leg, yeah. It's a bit of leg, there's a bit of arm coming into the 1920s, which is obviously in complete contrast to the end of the 19th century, uh, end the Victorian period, even the Edwardian, you saw clothes starting to loosen up a bit, but the dress reform movement that happens towards the end of the 19th century really sets the tone for which way clothes are going by the 1920s. And then once they start to you get shorter skirts and arms out, obviously then they're There's um uh there's a a a kind of a push towards being outside.
Mm, sportswear, uh specific sportswear and particularly for women as well.
Oh so the so the tan then instead of pale became the status symbol. Like was that a sign that you were of the leisure class kind of?
Well, you have time to sun bathe. And you were you're able to go on holidays, you're able to find the sun. So if you're based in the UK and Ireland, then obviously you're not going to get as much sun. And you find articles pop up, even in the Irish Independent, as early as nineteen thirty four, talking about the sun being out in the sun, how uh how one should tan. And the early terminology around sun tanning is burning the skin is the term. they use which is which is what it's on is
How did World War II shortages lead Irish women to use tea bags and gravy browning as leg colour?
Yeah. So then tell me b about the origins of fake tans. You do hear stories about during the war, like when they had no stoppings that women started using stuff to colour their legs. Is that kind of where it begins?
Yeah, actually it's even earlier. Uh so there's there's brilliant articles that come out of the likes of Harper's Bazaar from nineteen twenty eight uh questioning should we gild the lily, should we tan by fake means or by fair?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why was pale skin considered a status symbol before the 1920s?
0:00–0:57
2
How did the 1920s fashion revolution make a tan fashionable?
0:57–2:04
3
What early 20th‑century publications first discussed fake‑tan cosmetics?
2:04–3:26
4
How did World War II shortages lead Irish women to use tea bags and gravy browning as leg colour?
3:26–4:41
5
When did fake‑tan products like Man‑Tan and Copper‑Tone become popular in Ireland?
4:41–6:06
6
What impact did 1990s spray‑tan technology have on modern tanning habits?
6:06–6:56
7
Why are Gen Z and today’s consumers shifting back toward natural skin tones?
6:56–8:18
8
How are new ingredients and shade ranges changing the future of fake tanning?
8:18–9:45