white or tanned skin?

[gubi-gubi]

Tanning became a sign of wealth in early industrial revolution england. Why? Because only rich people could afford to go to the french riviera where the one way to prove you had been there was a nice good dark tan. Since then it's been considered good looking for a caucasian to have a tan.

My mum said ages ago that Coco Channel popularised it when she fell asleep outside in the sun then everyone copied so I did a search to confirm it and found this from http://www.sunpalaces.com:

In the 1920's, Coco Channel invented the tan as a status symbol in
Hollywood. Hollywood movies began to use color film in the 1930's.
Soon, rosy cheeks and healthy pallor became the absolute necessity,
and swimming pools with starlets basking around in the sun became
the new California image. In the '70's, the carefree youth culture
demanded a year-round tan so they could appear to have just returned
from vacation. This spawned the development of the tanning bed.

Doesn't mention the falling asleep but does back it up a bit, what d'ya reckon?