History Of Tanning

  • In Western countries before 1920’s, tanned skin associated with the lower classes
  • The preference for fair-skin continued until the end of the Victorian era
  • In the early 1920’s benefits of the sun became recognized for cures to Lupus & Rickets (vitamin D deficiency)
  • In the 1920’s Designer Coco Channel was burnt while in the French Riviera and this started the “healthy tanned look”
  • Parisians fell in love with Josephine Baker, a “caramel-skinned” singer in Paris, and idolized her dark skin.
  • These two women were leading figures of the transformation tanned skin underwent, in which it became perceived as fashionable, healthy, & luxurious
  • Jean Patou capitalized on the new tanning fad launching the first suntan oil “Huile de Chaldee” in 1927
  • By the 1930’s Sun therapy became a very popular subscribed cure-all (fatigue to tuberculosis)
  • 1940’s magazine promoted sun tanning and swimsuits became “smaller”
  • In the latter part of the 1950s, silver metallic UV reflectors common to enhance one’s tan.
  • In 1953, Copper Tone marketed their sunscreen by placing a little blond girl and her cocker spaniel on the cover of their bottles; this is still the same advertisement used today
  • In 1962, sunscreen commenced to be SPF rated, although in the US SPF labeling was not standardized by the FDA until 1978
  • Current Day- education on skin sun damage and cancer has seen the Sunless Tanning Industry soar