pictures of a vintage living room

- looking up 50's rouge makeupand 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 stronggene in my family.

being modest, not thatwe'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 classi would have gotten an f. - politeness and beingthoughtful and kind is timeless. - i actually heardabout 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 mannerismsand the other things will make a girl more popular. - there's a lot of reallyweird stuff in here. there are pages on how to sit in a chair. - please tell me idon't have to wear rouge all over my face, because oh, shoot.

i actually did my makeupreally well today. no! (laughs) - yeah, i'm kind of excitedto 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'sa spine on my stomach. - especially with like the thin material that everyone wears these days, you would see all the metalin the front of the dress. - so far so good. it's not thattight, i can still breathe.

i feel like this is justgonna moderate my eating. - the girdle's reallyriding up my ass as well. - when after i took itoff i still felt like my stomach was hurting and i couldn't catch my breath for a little while. - the fact that we wearspanx all the time, or the fact that we wear heels, like all those things kindof hurt and we do them, so, i'm glad girdlesaren't as much a thing.

- nothing dates you asmuch 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 kimkardashian 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 iwent overboard already. i'm not good at this. - i followed what shesaid, 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 totoe, 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 towear these at all times. - in the 1950's, women'slegs 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 ofthe things on this list that's most relevant to today. - i wasn't wearingstockings which was because i was already wearing leggingson 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'thave to shave your legs. i can see that. i get that.

but, i guess my legs look good. - [narrator] and ofcourse there are so many wrong ways of sittingdown that i couldn't begin to show you all of them. - so, a lady never crosses her legs. - i never knew thatcrossing legs was masculine. - i already forgot, i'm not supposed to be sitting criss-cross. so unladylike!

- [male reader] theback 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 parallelparking, 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 notwhile 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 allowedon the table for them. you can put them back on the table

in the middle of pocketsof when everyone's not eating, which i think is interesting. - i always eat with myelbows 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 itall 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 butterthe whole ear at once. which is something i definitely do. and i think everyone inthis 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 thatpoise, or charm, if you will. it will make you more attractiveto the people around you. - experiencing 1950's etiquette

really just shows mehow far women have come. i feel like all these etiquette rules should really just be suggestions. - i think they wantedwomen 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 kindathe exact opposite. women are trying to be moreexpressive 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. sitat 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 formalitythings have disappeared. - when it comes to treating others, we still treat them with thesame respect and kindness, in fact, more respect toexpress themselves now

than they did back in that time. - rouging your face, andwearing pantyhose 24/7, or eating an orange the wayyou 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 howyou make other people feel is probably the mostimportant 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)

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