“This tortuous looking device is a beauty calibrator or ‘micrometer’, made in 1932 by make-up mogul Max Factor, the father of the modern cosmetics industry. A bizarre union of beauty and phrenology, this one-of-a-kind device was meant to be used as a tool for Hollywood make-up artists, who could measure a starlet’s face against “perfect” facial proportions and use heavy make-up to correct her facial shape flaws. Made of flexible metal strips, it is held against the head using set screws and will, supposedly, reveal flaws naked to the human eye that could be exaggerated on the movie screen.
One of my favorite artists, Zoe Leonard, also featured this device in one of her photographs from the early 1990s, as part of a larger project that explored presentations of the female body in museum spaces.”
Image via LA Observed, but object originally from the collection of the now defunct Max Factor Museum of Beauty. Today, it is in the collection of the Hollywood Museum, although it has been put up for auction as recently as 2010.
Stolen Biro
Filed under: HISTORY Tagged: Fashion, stolenbiro
