Life — September 29, 1921 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Cover, September 29, 1921 This cover by Coles Phillips depicts a fashionable woman applying cosmetics, titled "The Finishing Touch." The image satirizes 1920s women's grooming culture and the emerging cosmetics industry during the Jazz Age. The woman's stylized appearance—with her dramatic hat, bare arms, and focus on makeup application—reflects the "modern woman" of the post-WWI era, who increasingly adopted makeup and fashion as markers of independence and modernity. The satire likely critiques both the commercialization of beauty standards and society's changing attitudes toward women's public appearance. The phrase "finishing touch" suggests cosmetics as essential completion of feminine identity—a commentary on consumer culture's influence on women's self-presentation during this period of social transformation.