- Looking up 50's rouge makeup and this is what came up.
I'm not trying to go around the office
looking like Stephen King's It.
(piano blues music)
My parents are pretty traditional.
Like I'd have my legs sprawled out
on the couch and my mom would be like,
"Sit properly. You're a girl."
- Politeness is a strong gene in my family.
Being modest, not that we're overly conservative
dressers, but that is kind of our style.
- My mom cared about manners.
My sister and I both took Cotillion.
If I got a grade in that class I would have gotten an F.
- Politeness and being thoughtful and kind is timeless.
- I actually heard about this complete book
of etiquette from the 1950's and I
decided to order it, read it,
and see what wisdom I could soak up.
- Well I don't see how things like that,
and posture and mannerisms and the other things
will make a girl more popular.
- There's a lot of really weird stuff in here.
There are pages on how to sit in a chair.
- Please tell me I don't have to wear rouge
all over my face, because
Oh, shoot.
I actually did my makeup really well today.
No! (laughs)
- Yeah, I'm kind of excited to see what's in store.
- So we're going to be following 1950's
etiquette rules for the day.
- [Narrator] These grooming habits form
the basis of a good appearance.
Good grooming will pay dividends
to each and every one of you.
It will make you more confident,
and at ease in any situation.
- Now for the girdle portion.
Here it is.
And then you hook these things.
- I'm squeezing into this thing and
it didn't fit at all, like, this is
the size of my thigh.
It just wouldn't go through.
This is a freaking death trap.
- So here I am, at work, in a girdle.
It was taco day, so, this is a struggle.
Um, I feel like it's squishing my organs.
- It looks like there's a spine on my stomach.
- Especially with like the thin material
that everyone wears these days,
you would see all the metal in the front of the dress.
- So far so good. It's not that tight, I can still breathe.
I feel like this is just gonna moderate my eating.
- The girdle's really riding up my ass as well.
- When after I took it off I still felt like
my stomach was hurting and I couldn't
catch my breath for a little while.
- The fact that we wear Spanx all the time,
or the fact that we wear heels,
like all those things kind of hurt and we do them,
so, I'm glad girdles aren't as much a thing.
- Nothing dates you as much as rouge that shows.
- Okay, time to use the rouge which is
just your basic blush.
- Amy Vanderbilt, who wrote the book,
she basically is like Kim Kardashian with rouge.
- Let's go for it.
You're supposed to apply to your eyelid
towards the temples, on the vertical planes
of the nose bridge, chin, and earlobes.
So you're basically like, contouring with rouge.
- Everyone looks lovely, they're just, they're so pink.
Pretty pink. I think I went overboard already.
I'm not good at this.
- I followed what she said, but, this is bad.
- The pinkest my face will ever be,
but I'm kind of digging it.
I like it. It's adorable.
- I definitely failed with the rouge.
- Maybe I do like it.
I would have never put red up here.
I don't think it looks bad.
- Walking like a lady. - No.
- No!
- [Narrator] From top to toe, they feel better,
and look better.
- Stockings daily, or twice daily.
- I get to wear tights all day.
I wear these all the time in winter.
In the 1950's they had to wear these at all times.
- In the 1950's, women's legs had to be perfect
all the time, and I think they solved that
by wearing stockings.
My legs do look better, but I've never
put on a pair of stockings or pantyhose
that I haven't immediately ruined,
so we'll see how long they last.
- At work, in the tights, it's pretty standard.
I think that's one of the things on this list
that's most relevant to today.
- I wasn't wearing stockings which was because
I was already wearing leggings on a daily basis because,
I mean, they're more comfortable, duh!
- I also wonder if, in the 1950's if you
wear stockings you don't have to shave your legs.
I can see that. I get that.
But, I guess my legs look good.
- [Narrator] And of course there are so many
wrong ways of sitting down that I couldn't begin
to show you all of them.
- So, a lady never crosses her legs.
- I never knew that crossing legs was masculine.
- I already forgot, I'm not supposed
to be sitting criss-cross.
So unladylike!
- [Male Reader] The back of your legs should
actually come in contact with the chair.
- Definitely into the chair.
I need to be careful, I'm exhausted, nevermind.
It's kind of like parallel parking, but for your butt.
- The couch is a tricky piece,
not because there's a dog on it,
but because it's very comfortable,
so when you sit on it it could be bad.
- Don't relax. Like this.
I'm the kind of person who prefers
to lean back and like have my food here,
which I know is kind of gross.
This might be a good thing to remember
in company, with other people.
- We move to the good business of eating.
- Elbows on the table are permissible,
between courses but not while one is eating.
So I need to get these elbows off.
- So I'm gonna sit down, and eat my food.
And that's a process, so.
And sit at the edge.
I'm gonna eat my food.
(carrot crunches)
- My mom was saying that elbows were
absolutely never allowed on the table for them.
You can put them back on the table
in the middle of pockets of when everyone's
not eating, which I think is interesting.
- I always eat with my elbows off the table
anyway, so it wasn't that big a deal.
- Eating an orange in the way that you
would eat a grapefruit was interesting.
It was kind of hard, also a little bit
time consuming to cut it all up in the morning.
But yeah.
- And I never ate chicken or anything
messy so I was all good.
- Corn on the cob.
Did they have these in the 1950's?
'Cause these are great.
And you never butter the whole ear at once.
Which is something I definitely do.
And I think everyone in this world does that.
Buttering one fucking, 'cause I'm a lady
In the 1950's okay.
Was that really ladylike?
Was that really something that you imagine
a 1950's proper etiquette woman doing?
No. She just wouldn't eat corn.
But I gotta eat corn. I love corn.
- [Narrator] I'll call that poise, or charm, if you will.
It will make you more attractive to the people around you.
- Experiencing 1950's etiquette
really just shows me how far women have come.
I feel like all these etiquette rules
should really just be suggestions.
- I think they wanted women to portray themselves
in a very elegant manner.
Like, look beautiful, but at the same time,
don't seem to eager to talk to a man,
but nowadays it's kinda the exact opposite.
Women are trying to be more expressive and be themselves.
- I asked my mom about etiquette things
that her mother tended to do and she said
that she wore lipstick all the time.
Even in pajamas.
All the kids had to be at the door waiting
for my grandfather to come home from work.
- Closing your legs. Sit at the edge of your seat.
Just so you don't seem like, I don't know,
promiscuous, or like, a little too out there.
- Whereas politeness is universal,
and everyone should try to be polite,
and that's something that should be
passed down throughout the generations,
I think I'll be happy in 50 years
when more formality things have disappeared.
- When it comes to treating others,
we still treat them with the same respect and kindness,
in fact, more respect to express themselves now
than they did back in that time.
- Rouging your face, and wearing pantyhose 24/7,
or eating an orange the way you would eat a grapefruit.
Not the end of the world if we don't
hang onto it for the next 50 years.
Being conscious of how you make other people feel
is probably the most important etiquette manners
that I hope to hold onto.
- If there was one rule from the 1950's
that we should still follow today,
it's to always moisturize.
'Cause nobody likes ashy hands.
Especially the boys.
(laughs)