Red lipstick has long since been seen as a symbol of defiance; in 1912 New York, thousands of supporters of the suffrage movement marched past the salon of Elizabeth Arden, (a Canadian businesswoman who would later establish a renowned cosmetics empire). Elizabeth, a staunch advocate for women’s rights, decided to hand out tubes of bright red lipstick to the protesters.

This had a powerful message for women protesting. They were defiantly wearing the very colour of lipstick that men of the day attempted to restrict, as they felt it was associated with actors and prostitutes rather than with respectable women like their wives. Inspired by this example, women’s activists in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand also began using red lipstick in their rallies.

Fast forward to 1933, Hitler was appointed as Chancelor and during that time his Nazi party declared that the ideal German woman was one who would forgo lipstick,and keep his ideal image of purity. He went as far as to ban women who were wearing lipstick from the Nazi Woman’s Auxiliary, the NSBO.

For civilian women, Elizabeth Arden created a shade of lipstick called Victory Red, and other cosmetic manufacturers quickly followed suit, producing shades like Regimental Red and Rocket Red.

For women during this time, wearing their red lipstick was an absolute requirement: Canadian Peggy Taylor was a French spy who reminisced about that time, stating she “never left home without my red lipstick, high heels, Chanel No. 5 and revolver.” Peggy survived the war and lived to the age of 86, passing away in 2006. Even in New York City, female officers were issued leather bags that contained a .38 caliber service revolver and a lipstick! Women who weren’t so lucky to obtain lipstick during the war would result to beet juice and melting down old stubs of their lipstick to make sure even the last bit was used.

In the end, lipstick would emerge from World War II victorious, just like the Allies. Now more popular than ever, women continued to wear red lipstick even after the war ended, as for many women it had become part of their identity. American magazine Cosmopolitan summed up the influence of lipstick as, “The American girl is scrubbed of face, strong of soul.. she is wise cracking, casual, warm hearted, brave. She is a Navy nurse putting on lipstick by the noisy light of shellfire, she is a weary soldiers dream of home.” Red lipstick became less of a beauty tool, and more of a representation of all the things women were fighting for: equality, freedom of expression, and liberation from gilded cages and pedestals.

I will leave you with this final quote, by Constance Luft Huhn, at this time head of American Tangee Cosmetics;

“If a symbol were needed of this fine independent spirit - of this courage and strength - I would choose a lipstick.” Constance Luft Huhn