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After the success of the Gibson Girl,
many other magazines followed Life’s
lead. Howard Chandler Christy crafted
the Christy Girl for The Century maga-
zine in 1895, and Harrison Fisher’s
Fisher Girl covered Puck Magazine and
Cosmopolitan from 1912 until 1932. All
the women were similarly beautiful and
aloof.
1917: Pin-Up Propaganda
During World War I, American President
Woodrow Wilson formed the Division of
Pictorial Publicity to stir up patriotism
and inspire new troops to fight. One of
the main tropes of said posters included
pretty women, often dressed in sexy
military ensembles and announcing mes-
sages like “Gee, I Wish I Was AMan.
I’d Join the Navy,” and “Be a Man and
Do It.” Not the most subtle.
1920s: Those Roaring ‘20s
With their partners away at war, women
in the 1920s had tasted freedom and
1895: The Gibson Girl
Charles Dana Gibson, an illustrator
for Life magazine, shook up women’s
fashion with his cover illustrations of
bosomy women with hourglass torsos,
dark piles of hair and full, luscious lips.
Inspired in part by Gibson’s wife and her
family, this national icon became known
as the Gibson Girl, a girl America loved,
known for her simultaneous sensuality
and independence. She was, in a sense,
the first “dream girl,” unattainable aside
from pinning her photo up on your wall.
1895-1932: The Gibson Copycats
weren’t willing to let it go. The jazz
age brought with it shortened hems,
spiked illegal alcohol, bobbed hair and a
heightened sense of youthful rebellion.
The free-spirited flapper generation was
wild, free and eager to show some skin.
Artists like Rolf Armstrong responded to
the trend, dressing his pin-up girls all the
more scantily as well.
1940s: Psychologically Perfected
Propaganda