Secrets of Make-up

Radio Record, 3 June 1938, Page 35

Secrets of Make-up

MAX

FACTOR

Hollywona

T may, at first thought, seem ( very unusual for a make-up artist to apparently step out of character and essay the role of an authority on what stockings women should wear--This abrupt transition of professionai eapacity, however, is really not a farfetched one at all. Most of the basic "optical illusion" principles involved in the proper application of make-up are very correct and useful when applied to the selection of foot and leg gear. For instance, there are make-up maxims which apply effectively to the slenderising grooming of a too-full and round face, and others which are equally efficacious in properly proportioning a face which is too long and thin, The underlying optical laws which govern these treatments of opposite types of faces are the same ones which should rule the smart covering of the feet and legs. Magnifiers HE wearing of slippers with gleaming finishes, or slippers which are very light in colour should not be attempted by women whose feet are of more than average size. Such footgear tends to emphasise the size of the foot. For the same reason, stockings with proad or square heel patches should not be worn by persons whose feet or ankles are over-large. The graceful type of heel patch which tapers to a point rather far up on the ankle is (nearly an artistic necessity for the feet of these women and are an asset to the pedal extremities of nearly everyone. These points are emphasised in my mind by the repeated observations I have made of the techniques employed in motion picture costuming, an inclusive technique which extends even to the materials of which picture shoes and stockings must be made. Extreme care is taken in the superyising of these items, for motion picture cameras definitely do have a tendency to magnify the images they record. If an actress’s feet or legs are naturally of average size, they still appear oversize in their film appearance --and if they are oversize in real life, then they may seem absolutely monumental when they appear on the screen.

{t is almost mandatory then, that* ’ filmdom’s feet be shod in subdued and generally dark shoe materials, and that the sheer stockings worn in pictures be a trifle darker than those worn by the average woman, I have noticed, also, that a great many of Hollywood’s feminine personalites have arrived at even another finding on this subject-they wear these darker stocking shades in their private life, not for any reasons Of optical illusion, but for the very instinc-

tive feminine one that it makes their appearance a great deal less-average and much more distinctive. Distinctive feminine personalities are not partial to having any item of their grooming an exact duplicate of almost everyone else’s, Only a few minutes before I sat down to write this article, I was called upon by a very charming young person, Harriet Hilliard, the fascinating new RKO-Radio Pictures discovery, who has long been popular on the radio and who is becoming a more and more in demand screen personality. I had been thinking a great deal about this foot-and-leg theme on which I have been expounding, and so it was only natural that I inspected the foot~ gear Of my caller, Living Model OTH her shoes and stockings demonstrated the theories I have just finished mentioning. Miss Hilliard’s feet are smaller than the average ones. Therefore, to keep them from appearing altogether too tiny, she was wearing slightly glossy shoes, Her legs and ankles are of a perfect size for her figure, These, therefore, were encased in a shade of hosiery which she had selected merely to hare monise properly with the colours of her smartly tailored street costume, and not for any magnifying or minimising-of-leg reasons. Altogether, Miss Hilliard afforded a perfect demonstration of my theorising,