1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,240 Speaker 1: We all like to feel cool, right, But how far 2 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:05,560 Speaker 1: are you willing to go to feel like you're part 3 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:08,920 Speaker 1: of the popular crowd? How about walking around bent in 4 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 1: half because it made you look fragile and afflicted, or 5 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 1: having mismatched heels on your shoes so you'd walk with 6 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:19,959 Speaker 1: a limp. Oh laugh. Today folks get giant butt implants 7 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: to look like a Kardashian. I'm Patty Steele. Weird trends 8 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: just to be cool. Next on the backstory. We're back 9 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:34,959 Speaker 1: with the backstory. What is it about an awful lot 10 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,320 Speaker 1: of us that makes us so desperate to be a 11 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:39,839 Speaker 1: part of the cool set that we're willing to do 12 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: or wear almost anything to feel like an insider. That's 13 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 1: what trends are all about. Take a look at more 14 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: recent trends. In the nineteen sixties, women went from that curvy, 15 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: platinum blonde look of the fifties to the frighteningly skinny 16 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 1: look of supermodel Twiggy, who weighed just ninety pounds. That 17 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:01,560 Speaker 1: look drove, by the way way too many young girls 18 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: into anorexia, although Twiggy says she just had a speedy 19 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,560 Speaker 1: metabolism and ate like a horse, at least like a 20 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:12,760 Speaker 1: ninety pound horse. That super skinny look had a resurgence 21 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:16,119 Speaker 1: in the early nineties for a much more sinister reason. 22 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: It was the advent of heroin chic, with supermodel Cape 23 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,040 Speaker 1: Moss the most well known of that bunch. It was 24 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,480 Speaker 1: a look that went beyond models and included the grunge 25 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: world of Kurt Cobain and so many other musicians that 26 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:33,119 Speaker 1: eventually lost their lives to it. By the two thousands, 27 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:36,720 Speaker 1: while we still worshiped tall, thin models, we started to 28 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,360 Speaker 1: embrace a curvier, more natural look thanks to stars like 29 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,880 Speaker 1: Jennifer Lopez. Then all hell broke loose when the Kardashians 30 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: and their super sized rear ends arrived. Suddenly, women who 31 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of junk in the trunk were 32 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: actually getting oversized butt implants to go along with their 33 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:00,520 Speaker 1: oversized breast implants. But none of this does desire to 34 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: change what we were born with. Is new. Now it's 35 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: the fifteen hundreds, and you want to look like the 36 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 1: royals who could afford tons of very expensive sugar, which 37 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: naturally rotted their teeth, so you purposely blacken your teeth 38 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 1: to look shishi. Some doctors at the time would even 39 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:21,959 Speaker 1: pull blackened teeth out of dead bodies and use them 40 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:26,639 Speaker 1: as primitive implants for their ohso trendy patients. And teeth 41 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:29,359 Speaker 1: blackening wasn't just in Europe. In fact, it was way 42 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:31,880 Speaker 1: more common for hundreds of years in the Far East, 43 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: including Japan and India, but also in a lot of 44 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:38,960 Speaker 1: South American cultures. Why they saw it as a sign 45 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: of beauty and sexual maturity, and in some cases because 46 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:48,639 Speaker 1: they felt it differentiated us from animals. And then there 47 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: was a long time trend in China that sounds unbelievably tortuous. 48 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:57,600 Speaker 1: For centuries, parents would repeatedly break and then fold the 49 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: feet of their baby girls to gree a tiny little 50 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,799 Speaker 1: feet that they felt was the epitome of femininity. If 51 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: you had tiny bound feet, it showed that you came 52 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:10,360 Speaker 1: from a wealthy family and wouldn't need to work in 53 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,680 Speaker 1: the fields. Your feet would be wrapped with long ribbons 54 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:16,960 Speaker 1: to keep them from growing. And if your toes withered 55 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: and fell off, better yet major feet even smaller. You 56 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,400 Speaker 1: then would wear what they called lotus shoes, which cupped 57 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:27,960 Speaker 1: your tiny feet in what looked like a lotus flower bud. 58 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:32,680 Speaker 1: Now imagine walking around in heavy fitted clothing and spending 59 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 1: your day leaning forward at the waist like you were 60 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: in the middle of bowing. Talk about a major backache. 61 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: You're doing a thing called the Grecian bend, a popular 62 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:45,880 Speaker 1: trend in England from the late eighteen twenties to the 63 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: early eighteen eighties. The effect was created by a massive 64 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,640 Speaker 1: amount of bunched up fabric positioned above your rear like 65 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: a bustle that forced women to lean forward and take 66 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: tiny little steps to carry all that weight, similar to 67 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: the figures on Grecian urns. The Grecian bend was erotic 68 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:08,800 Speaker 1: to Victorians because a woman's breasts and rear jutted out. 69 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: Also making the bend more appealing was the belief that 70 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: any woman who adopted the Grecian bend was bold and daring, 71 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: yet at the same time fragile and afflicted, which they loved. 72 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:25,360 Speaker 1: Pretty creepy, right, But One of the weirdest trends popular 73 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: in the eighteen sixties was called the Princess Alexandra limp. 74 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,279 Speaker 1: What was that all about? Well, again, the beauty of 75 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: being fragile. Alexandra, whose father was the King of Denmark, 76 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,760 Speaker 1: was married to British Prince Edward the seventh in eighteen 77 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: sixty three. In no time, this teenage girl became a 78 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:47,400 Speaker 1: fashion icon, actually very much like Princess Diana. One hundred 79 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: and twenty years later, everything Alexandra did and wore became 80 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:56,040 Speaker 1: a huge fashion fad. She started wearing ornate choker necklaces 81 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: to hide a surgical scar on her neck. Pretty soon, ever, 82 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 1: everybody was wearing chokers, a trend that lasted for fifty years. 83 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: They all wanted to look like Alexandra. But the craziest 84 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: trend she set off through no fault of her own, 85 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:13,839 Speaker 1: was the Alexandra limp. She had an illness in the 86 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,920 Speaker 1: mid eighteen sixties that left her with a very stiff 87 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,800 Speaker 1: knee and a pretty noticeable limp. Soon tons of young 88 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,160 Speaker 1: women in England began copying her limp, using walking sticks 89 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: at times to hobble around, even though they had no 90 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: reason to limp. It was the next big thing in 91 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: British fashion, as people across England and all over its 92 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:37,559 Speaker 1: colonies found it fashionable to walk in the exact same way. 93 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:42,560 Speaker 1: Most amazingly, shoemakers purposely created shoes that matched one another 94 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:46,679 Speaker 1: but which had different height heels to make limping a breeze. 95 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:50,680 Speaker 1: It finally ended when the press pointed out how disrespectful 96 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:53,559 Speaker 1: the fake limp was to people who had an actual limp. 97 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 1: So we look back at the craziness of some of 98 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: those trends and we laugh. But we really have to 99 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:02,960 Speaker 1: ask ourselves what makes black teeth, wrapped feet or a 100 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:07,039 Speaker 1: fake limp all that different from butt implants and heroin chic? 101 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:10,359 Speaker 1: Is it all a misguided need to be popular, to 102 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:14,479 Speaker 1: stand out by copying what makes somebody else unique an 103 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 1: excellent reason to love yourself as is and embrace what 104 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: makes you an individual. I hope you're enjoying the Backstory 105 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 1: with me, Patty Steele. Please subscribe, and if you have 106 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: a story you'd like me to dig into and share, 107 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 1: please dm me on Facebook at Patty Steele or on 108 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 1: Instagram at Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories 109 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,799 Speaker 1: a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, 110 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:50,680 Speaker 1: and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser, Our 111 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,840 Speaker 1: writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. 112 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:57,440 Speaker 1: Feel free to reach out to me with comments and 113 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:01,440 Speaker 1: even story suggestions on Instagram at real Patty Steele and 114 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,480 Speaker 1: on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the 115 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:08,280 Speaker 1: backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't 116 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:09,440 Speaker 1: know you needed to know.