What Did Realistic Beauty Look Like In History?

There have been a lot of videos lately showing the evolution of beauty trends throughout the past century, and while they are all incredibly cool, they also don't really show the full story. Which is why costume blogger Karolina Zebrowska created the video "Real Women - Beauty Through The Decades The Realistic Way." Because for a lot of women, dressing in the fashions of the day wasn't an option in daily life.

There's nothing wrong with looking back on fashions from the past, of course. In fact, it's pretty cool to see how tastes have changed over the years. But it's also worth remembering that people from bygone eras weren't wearing the latest fashion every day. If we want to know what the past really looked like, we have to look beyond just the trends. Which is why Karolina Zebrowska decided to make her own video.

As Zebrowska explains on her blog, she started out wanting to show fashions that are less well-known from the respective decades, but her focus slowly shifted. "As I was doing some research," she writes in the video's description, "I became more and more aware that beautiful faces and fashion we see on the photos, ads and fashion plates are just an idealistic version of reality. So here's to reality."

And reality — or at least, a more well-rounded, less glamorous view of reality — is, as it turns out, also pretty cool.

Zebrowska's video only goes up to the 1940s, but here are some of the looks she contrasts:

1900s

1920s

For the full range of styles, you can check out the full video.