Glamour (presentation)

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Lana Turner was considered to be a glamorous star. Lana Turner by Paul Hesse 1946.jpg
Lana Turner was considered to be a glamorous star.
Art deco, as seen here on the Chrysler Building in Midtown Manhattan, is often characterised as glamorous. Chrysler building- top.jpg
Art deco, as seen here on the Chrysler Building in Midtown Manhattan, is often characterised as glamorous.

In the field of cultural studies, glamour, or glamor, is the impression of attraction or fascination that a particularly luxurious or elegant appearance creates, an impression which intensifies reality. Usually, a person, event, location, technology, or product such as a piece of clothing can be glamorous or add glamour. "Glamour" originally referred to a magic spell, an illusion said to be cast by witches.

Contents

Virginia Postrel says that for glamour to be successful it nearly always requires sprezzatura—an appearance of effortlessness, and to appear distant—transcending the everyday, to be slightly mysterious and somewhat idealised, but not to the extent it is no longer possible to identify with the person. [3] Glamorous things are neither opaque, hiding all, nor transparent showing everything, but translucent, favourably showing things. [4]

The early Hollywood star system in particular specialised in Hollywood glamour where they systematically glamorised their actors and actresses. [3]

Glamour can be confused with a style, which is adherence to a particular school of fashion, or intrinsic beauty; whereas glamour can be external and deliberate.

History

"Glamour" originally referred to a magic spell, an illusion said to be cast by witches. In the late 19th century terminology, a non-magical item used to help create a more attractive appearance gradually became known as 'a glamour'. [3]

Late in the 19th century, the common meaning shifted to being applied to ordinary objects and jewellery without connotations of supernatural, merely upon the effect that it has on appearance. This is a sense used in this article and to some extent is the way that it was used by the early Hollywood system.

In modern usage glamour is often confused with style or female beauty; but they may be considered to be distinct, although glamour may give the appearance of beauty or present as a personal style.

An Aston Martin DB5 as seen in Goldfinger. Expensive items are often part of a glamorous lifestyle. Aston.db5.coupe.300pix.jpg
An Aston Martin DB5 as seen in Goldfinger . Expensive items are often part of a glamorous lifestyle.

Design

Many forms of architecture employ glamorous motifs to enhance the appearance of what may be otherwise mundane buildings. The Art Deco style is generally considered to be a glamorous one. [2]

Cinema

The "Golden Age" of the glamour in Hollywood was the 1930s and 1940s, following the Great Depression and its aftermath. [5]

"Glamour is the result of chiaroscuro, the play of light on the landscape of the face, the use of the surroundings through the composition, through the shaft of the hair and creating mysterious shadows in the eyes. In Hollywood, stars as far apart as Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Rita Hayworth and Dolores del Río, own and acquire glamor, technology and willingness to refine the beauty of its own... Are indecipherable magic of the cinema, substance of the dreams of a generation and the admiration of the following meeting."

filmmaker Josef von Sternberg [6]

Hollywood studios presented their female stars in designer gowns and exquisite jewelry, [7] both on screen and in carefully orchestrated occasions for publicity. Joan Crawford is quoted to have said, "I never go outside unless I look like Joan Crawford, the movie star." [8]

Photography was shot in rooms that had been specially painted to flatter the skin tone of the actors and actresses, and attention was paid to hair and clothes. [3] Notably this was successfully done with:

Photography

Glamour photography is the photographing of a fashion model with the emphasis on the model and the model's sexuality and allure; with any clothing, fashion, products or environment contained in the image being of minor consideration. Photographers use a combination of cosmetics, lighting and airbrushing techniques to produce the most physically appealing image of the mode possible.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Costume jewelry</span> Jewelry used to complement a particular costume

Costume or fashion jewelry includes a range of decorative items worn for personal adornment that are manufactured as less expensive ornamentation to complement a particular fashionable outfit or garment as opposed to "real" (fine) jewelry, which is more costly and which may be regarded primarily as collectibles, keepsakes, or investments. From the outset, costume jewelry — also known as fashion jewelry — paralleled the styles of its more precious fine counterparts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Model (person)</span> Person displaying products or serving as a visual aid

A model is a person with a role either to display commercial products or to serve as an artist's model or to pose for photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gothic fashion</span> Fashion of goth subculture

Gothic fashion is a clothing style worn by members of the goth subculture. A dark, sometimes morbid, fashion and style of dress, typical gothic fashion includes black dyed hair and black clothes. Both male and female goths can wear dark eyeliner, dark nail polish and lipstick, and dramatic makeup. Styles are often borrowed from the Elizabethans and Victorians. BDSM imagery and paraphernalia are also common. Gothic fashion is sometimes confused with heavy metal fashion and emo fashion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brooch</span> Large ornament with a pin fastening

A brooch is a decorative jewellery item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with enamel or with gemstones and may be solely for ornament or serve a practical function as a clothes fastener. The earliest known brooches are from the Bronze Age. As fashions in brooches changed rather quickly, they are important chronological indicators. In archaeology, ancient European brooches are usually referred to by the Latin term fibula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolores del Río</span> Mexican actress (1904–1983)

María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete, known professionally as Dolores del Río, was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin American crossover star in Hollywood. Along with a notable career in American cinema during the 1920s and 1930s, she was also considered one of the most important female figures in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, and one of the most beautiful actresses of her era.

George Edward Hurrell was a photographer who contributed to the image of glamour presented by Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s.

Glamour or Glamor may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fashion photography</span> Genre of photography

Fashion photography is a genre of photography that portrays clothing and other fashion items. This sometimes includes haute couture garments. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking pictures of a dressed model in a photographic studio or an outside setting. It originated from the clothing and fashion industries, and while some fashion photography has been elevated as art, it is still primarily used commercially for clothing, perfumes and beauty products.

Marcellas Reynolds is an American actor, author, documentarian, and television host. His notable television appearances include GMA3, Access Hollywood, E! Live from the Red Carpet, The Bold and the Beautiful, Supreme Models, and Yes, Dear. Reynolds began his television career in 2002 on CBS's hit television series Big Brother season three, becoming the first openly gay black man cast on a major network reality series. His writing has appeared in Chicago magazine, Essence, The Guardian, and L.A. Style Magazine. Reynolds is the author of Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion and Supreme Actresses: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood, Supreme Sirens: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Music, and the executive producer of Supreme Models, the documentary.

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Matthew Russell Rolston is an American artist, photographer, director and creative director, known for his lighting techniques and detailed approach to art direction and design. Rolston has been identified throughout his career with the revival and modern expression of Hollywood glamour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1920s in Western fashion</span> Clothing in the 1920s

Western fashion in the 1920s underwent a modernization. Women's fashion continued to evolve from the restrictions of gender roles and traditional styles of the Victorian era. Women wore looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s. Men also began to wear less formal daily attire and athletic clothing or 'Sportswear' became a part of mainstream fashion for the first time.

Boudoir photography is a photographic style featuring intimate, sensual, romantic, and sometimes erotic images of its subjects in a photographic studio, bedroom or private dressing room environment, primarily intended for the private enjoyment of the subjects and their romantic partners. It is distinct from glamour and art nude photography in that it is usually more suggestive rather than explicit in its approach to nudity and sexuality, features subjects who do not regularly model, and produces images that are not intended to be seen by a wide audience, but rather to remain under the control of the subject.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nude photography</span> Photography of the naked human body.

Nude photography is the creation of any photograph which contains an image of a nude or semi-nude person, or an image suggestive of nudity. Nude photography is undertaken for a variety of purposes, including educational uses, commercial applications and artistic creations.

Louis Athol Shmith was an Australian studio portrait and fashion photographer and photography educator in his home city of Melbourne, Australia. He contributed to the promotion of international photography within Australia as much as to the fostering of Australian photography in the world scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glamour photography</span> Photography genre; subjects are portrayed in glamorous poses

Glamour photography is a genre of photography in which the subjects are portrayed in erotic poses ranging from fully clothed to nude. The focus lies in the beauty of the subject's body; as such, beauty standards are often a key determinant of glamour model trends. This type of photography is also known as "cheesecake" or "pin-up" for women and "beefcake" for men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian design</span> Forms of design in Italy

Italian design refers to all forms of design in Italy, including interior design, urban design, fashion design, and architectural design. Italy is recognized as a worldwide trendsetter and leader in design. The architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni claimed, "Quite simply, we are the best. We have more imagination, more culture, and are better mediators between the past and the future". Italy today still exerts a vast influence on urban design, industrial design, interior design, and fashion design worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolores (Ziegfeld girl)</span> English model (1892–1975)

Dolores or Rose Dolores was an English model. She is recognised as the first celebrity clothes model and has been credited with inventing the blank hauteur of the modern fashion model. Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. called her "the loveliest showgirl in the world". She was known for her commanding stage presence and became the star of the Ziegfeld Follies from 1917 until her retirement in 1923. She lived the rest of her life in Paris and during the Second World War helped Allied airmen escape the German occupation.

The Dolores Del Rio House at 757 Kingman Avenue is a house in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, that was designed for the Mexican actress Dolores del Río and her husband, the production designer Cedric Gibbons, by Douglas Honnold and George Vernon Russell in 1929.

Frederick John Watson was a Canadian fashion illustrator and painter from Barrie, Ontario. He is best known for his international paintings of women, fashion illustrations and theater and Art Deco posters. He has also created a fine art print collection of stylized women reminiscent of the Art Deco style. The start of inspiration for his work came from a woman he saw on Madison Avenue in New York City, wearing black, high heels, a diamond brooch, and carrying an umbrella.

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References

  1. "50 Of The Most Glamorous Old Hollywood Actresses". Silver Petticoat Review. 13 November 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  2. 1 2 Fulford, Robert (13 September 2003). "Art Deco's glamour: Art Deco borrowed from the style of machines. The Deco artists loved surfaces that glittered, surfaces of glass, silver, steel, lacquer, then chromium and Bakelite". robertfulford.com. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "TED conference Virginia Postrel".
  4. "The Gilded Age". The New York Times. 2004-10-10. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
  5. "Zapata, Janet. "The democratization of glamour", Antiques". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  6. Buena suerte viviendo:Dolores del Río
  7. "Hollywood Glamour: Fashion and Jewelry from the Silver Screen", Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  8. "Khvan, Olga. "MFA Shows Off Allure, Manipulation of 'Hollywood Glamour'", Boston Magazine, September 9, 2014". Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2015.

Further reading