Veronica Lake: True Trendsetter

How waves can define a style for eternity. Veronica Lake continues to inspire to this day.

«I was always rebellious, probably, I could have gone much further if I had changed my attitude. But when you think about it, you've come far enough without the change in attitude. I'm happy with that.» Veronica Lake.

The forties were the saddest of the entire twentieth century ; half a decade in war and the other half in a harsh post-war; This was evidently noted in the moda , that the times were not for luxuries – so much so that the scarcity caused many girls to paint a stripe on the back of their legs to simulate that they were wearing stockings. Then there was an austere wardrobe, with shoulder pads and a narrow skirt below the knees, marking the wasp waist a lot; the dresses followed the same scheme although in this case the skirts had a little more flare; The hat is essential or, failing that, a turban or a scarf. Faced with such a sad panorama what could give something to dream about, escape and forget the hard times was the cine; where you could find something different from the everyday, a certain extravagance or freshness. That's where our True Trendsetter stood out., since it managed to revive interest in a more glamorous aesthetic.

Veronica Lake influenced – and a lot – in the fashion of the time. Above all, its hairstyle called peekaboo bang – long, wavy hair that covered part of the face – the well-known waves that have characterized it throughout history and that will undoubtedly be its distinctive symbol forever. Por ejemplo, in the nineties in the movie LA Confidential , tribute is paid to this starlet through the character of Kim Basinger, who embodies a role inspired by Veronica Lake, and with huge references to her style and hairstyle. Actresses like Kate Winslet or Sienna Miller have worn it, and in this ski lift of remembering past times it is presented as an indisputable glamorous option.

Carmen Martin Gaite, en su book Amorous uses of the Spanish postwar period explain more details about this hairstyle“The bizarre hairstyle that the nice Veronica Lake wore in I married a witch —It was still remembered a few years later— has done a lot of damage to humanity. That's why we rate it nothing less than «bizarre». Y es que, instead of combining the beautiful with the useful, the funny star and her imitators combined the unsightly and the pernicious. The truth is, after that movie, many young ladies with long hair and displays of veronicalism had been born.” Martín Gaite adds a curious example of the “pernicious” what became this hairstyle, since it even had to be banned “In America Lake plagiarism reached such an extreme that her hairstyle had to be banned, due to the detriment that this meant for the ladies who worked in offices, war services and other necessities, since because of the fleeting blindness that their flying manes gave them, they did not perform to the maximum in their work”.

Veronica Lake was born in New York in 1922; being very young , (Before I was twenty years old ) had already obtained contracts with some film production companies thanks to his belleza; would not take long to become known and succeed thanks to films like “I married a witch” o Sullivan's Travels”. His film career is not very extensive, about thirty titles and more than twenty of them in the forties; It cannot be said that she was a great actress and, extinguished or exploited its beauty, the papers were scarce until none arrived.

His love life was very turbulent, Apart from four marriages, she had numerous lovers but never obtained the sentimental stability or the affection of her children.. Además, economic ruin would also befall him. In the early fifties he was already a star in decline, what made her fall into drinking and frequent depressions. To survive, she even worked as a waitress in a Manhattan hotel in the sixties where she was discovered by a journalist.. He published his autobiography, very well received and with what he earned from it he produced and starred in a horror film in the late sixties. Veronica Lake died at 50 years of hepatitis and kidney failure as a result of his addiction to drinking.