False eyelashes in 1893?

[Trevor]

I'm finishing off my review of Shangani Patrol for Andrew and I saw something I'd never seen before. Watching the movie on the big screen for the first time ever and then later on the VHS we have, I noticed that the South African actress and model Anthea Crosse ~ the only lady in the film ~ was wearing false eyelashes!

I thought: "Hang on, this is 1893: where on earth did she get those?" 

[Patient7]

She stole them from three kittens and used gypsy tears to keep them on her face.

[Trevor]

She stole them from three kittens and used gypsy tears to keep them on her face.

[CheezeFlixz]

That is strange .. you might be on to a change in history as the common belief is ...

False eyelashes were invented by the American film director D.W. Griffith while he was making his 1916 epic, "Intolerance". Griffith wanted actress Seena Owen to have lashes that brushed her cheeks, to make her eyes shine larger than life. A wigmaker wove human hair through fine gauze, which was then gummed to Owen's eyelids. "Intolerance" was critically acclaimed but flopped financially, leaving Griffith with huge debts that he might have been able to settle easily - had he only thought to patent the eyelashes.

[indianasmith]

Some "modern" trends are not as modern as we think . . . for example, in Victorian England, nipple rings were very fashionable among aristocratic young ladies.  They just didn't whip them out in exchange for cheap plastic beads on Mardi Gras.

[Trevor]

I suppose if your husband was the screenplay writer of the film (and one of the leading actors) as Anthea's then husband Adrian Steed was, I suppose you could convince the director to let you wear anything.