FASHION Magazine

I once worked on a book project called What Is Beauty? The author, Dorothy Schefer, a renowned magazine editor from the ’80s, asked the fashion and beauty elite (including photographers Richard Avedon and Bruce Weber, editors Anna Wintour and Liz Tilberis, designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Calvin Klein) to define beauty. Everything from childhood memories to essays on the vanity associated with beauty and the industry’s oft-warped perspective on femininity. The whole “eye of the beholder” thing really rang true, and every page made you wonder how to craft your own thoughts on the subject. Recently, when I reread the book, I noticed that some of the images are vastly different from how we portray beauty today. If there is such a gap between then and now, how has beauty changed over the decades? I decided to chat with famed makeup artist Sandy Linter, who has partnered with the most influential beauty image-makers of the past four decades, about the differences in the feminine ideal. Now, as the new Lancôme beauty-at-every-age expert, she is spreading the gospel of agelessness.

What adjective would you choose to describe the beauty ideal of the ’70s? “Sexy. The ’70s were very sexy, but the beginning of the ’70s was kind of fresh and natural, like the girls on the beach.”

Maybe it was the Farrah Fawcett effect? “The Farrah Fawcett, it was. There got to be a time when every girl was in a bathing suit, with sexy blonde hair and suntanned. No real sun protection going on there. The idealized body shape was natural, and it would be like a Cheryl Tiegs, a Christie Brinkley. But the body was natural and the face was not manipulated yet, surgically. [Cosmetic surgeons] had just started doing facelifts.”

But that was really for women who were… “Over 40. Women were waiting in line. They were wealthy, they were New York City, and their looks had faded.”

What was the look for the ’80s? “Brooke Shields with the full eyebrow, big hair like Cindy Crawford’s. The makeup was really strong — having six shades on the eye, with strong fuchsia lip colours and cheek colours, was normal for daywear. Everything had to be full throttle. And boob jobs became important. In the late ’80s, like ’88 or ’89, you started to see breast enhancements. Every model got a boob job.”

In those two decades, you could see how we were manipulating… “The body. And the makeup and the hair. We were manipulating it. We were tweaking it.”

What about in the ’90s? “In the early ’90s, everything was neutral, and everyone wanted the neutrals. And it was the era of the supermodels. We all know the supermodels: Naomi, Christy, Linda, Claudia. Brows got thinner and more shaped, and lips got fuller with collagen around ’92 or ’93. And teeth whitening came along. Everyone’s teeth got whiter and whiter and whiter.”

How do you think women perceive beauty now? “I think now we are more accepting. No models are getting breast enlargements anymore, and people are not blowing their lips up out of proportion, except for the unfortunate L.A. women. We’ve evolved so now the young girls accept themselves. Are they going to the gym? Are they whitening their teeth? They’re doing everything, but it’s more refined. We accept now because we’ve gone through so much.”

Who inspired you early in your career? “Back in the day, I was at Studio 54 every night. I lived for every night. I knew Andy Warhol. I would make up Debbie Harry. Oh my God, there was never a prettier girl. She had a look; everybody wanted that look. It was a little bit like a punk Marilyn Monroe.” 

Photography by Jonathan Pushnik

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