There’s a very retro piece of marriage advice that goes something like, “make sure your hair is brushed, your lipstick is fresh and your clothes are nice before your husband arrives home from work in the evening.” Go Retro: 12 Tips for a Happy Marriage , from WebMD, looks at typical, “old fashioned” marriage advice and says this about appearance tips:

Never let yourself go. Look your best as often as possible — it will make your partner feel loved and proud.

Journalist Rosie Millard wrote a tongue in cheek piece for the Times Online, One day as a perfect 1950s wife, where she attempts to make her day, in particular her end-of-the-work-day, dinnertime dealings with her husband, mimic that of the housewife in 1955.

Do I have supper prepared and a drink ready for him when he arrives back from work? No. Do I ensure that the house is immaculate and the children freshly spruced when he turns up? Not really. Do I even change for supper? Unless you count getting into pyjamas, no. But today I’m going to do my best.

What has brought this on is a survey, published last week, which compared the perfect 1950s housewife with her 2008 counterpart and asked 2,309 men what kind of woman they preferred. The majority seemed to prefer living with feisty modern babes rather than glorified butlers who change for dinner. But can that be right?

Chez Millard, in any case, it is 1955. For one day. And we are about to put the survey to the test. At 3.25pm it dawns on me that if I’m supposed to be living in the 1950s, in the next three hours I must a) have dinner ready, b) tidy up the house, c) light a fire, d) organise the children for inspection and e) tart myself up. I already feel exhausted.

Millard’s efforts including making a separate, favorite dinner dish for her husband and greeting him at the door in a cocktail dress with a freshly made gin & tonic in hand.

I think many of us, modern women balk at the idea. And while I can see the benefits of making sure that you are putting your best foot forward for not only your friends, employers and grocery store clerks but for your husband as well, wouldn’t it be a good idea to find out if this is really what your husband wants from you?

I used to get rather frustrated with my husband when I would spend extra time primping and preening for an evening out and I would barely get a second glance much less a, “you look very nice tonight!” But the next morning? When I was bedraggled and still in my pajamas? I would get suggestive winks and “your so beautiful”s. What? Turns out, he prefers me without make-up and in clothes that I feel comfortable wearing.

I don’t make a habit of staying in my pajamas and though I’m currently on a make-up fast, I’m sure my inner vanity and pure enjoyment of cosmetics will eventually have me, once again, primping and preening in front of the mirror. But it’s really, really nice for me to know that in his eyes, I’m most beautiful and appealing to him in my natural, unmasked state.

And that no, I don’t have to make sure I have lipstick on before he gets home from work!

photo credits: Matthew Boden, Dora Pete