We met online, as people do, and she graciously allowed us to pick her brain about the allure of the future.
DG: You frequently write about Science Fiction--what is it about the world of the future that make it so seductive?
JMcN: Science fiction lovers tend to be closet romantics. Authors may confront their deepest emotions and desires while projecting a cool rational image. It can be easier for someone to write about the wife who left him when the particulars of the situation are moved from his back yard to another galaxy. It's also easier to read and relate without feeling like a sap.
A science fiction story may take place 5,000 years in the future, but it's born out of today's hopes and fears. We don't really see plots about nuclear holocausts any more. Instead, contemporary science fiction is about terrorism, privacy and surveillance issues, immigration, or science we don't quite understand yet like nanotech. The financial crisis has so shaken people's confidence, we might see science fiction take on economic matters for the next several years no matter how many of us have jobs.
It's also interesting what science fiction from the past we revisit and when. They Live has always been a cult film, but the past year interest in it has rocketed. I think it's because the culture is increasingly cynical about advertising and consumerism, but there isn't a good goofy recent film addressing this concern.
DG: How the future looks has certainly changed--all those sleek space ships and stretchy jumpsuits, StarTrek and velour, Star Wars, etc. Do you have any favorites? Any thoughts on the images of the future?
JMcN: We can laugh at the Star Trek spacesuits now, but the original TV series was groundbreaking with its multiethnic cast. More recently on the series Firefly characters spoke English and Mandarin. Now, ethnically ambiguous actors are essential to a believable futuristic
vision.
Science fiction film and television creators are still mainly English-speaking white men, but eventually we'll see more visions from the developing world. What does a space opera mean to someone who grew up in Indonesia or Tanzania? What would they do with a time machine?
There are some contemporary examples in literature. Kenyan writer John Rugoiyo Gichuki has a play called "Eternal, Forever," about the "United States of Africa" 400 years in the future, where Africans are the world's superpower. Argentinian writer Angélica Gorodischer is gaining a cult following. Her work was translated by none other than Ursula Le Guin. Science fiction allows creators a way to satire authorities under the radar, like Zamyatin and Stanislaw Lem in Communist Russia. Maybe some extraordinary science fiction is written in Iraq and North Korea right now but it's yet to be translated.
Part of the reason, I'm so eager for cross-cultural perspective is to escape SF cliches. Inverted World by Christopher Priest, a 1974 novel reprinted this year by New York Review of Books, is a great example of fresh concept from start to finish. I hesitate to say much about it, because there's a surprise on nearly every page and a general plot summary might make it sound boring. It's an Escher sketch in novel-form and even the typically SF-allergic will enjoy his dark sense of humor and social commentary.
DG: Do women approach SciFi differently than men do, esp. in terms of images, costume, design?
JMcN: A lot of female artists like Patricia Piccinini, Tara Donovan, Sarah Sze, Ann Lislegaard, Jennifer Coates, and the architect Zaha Hadid interpret science fiction concepts. Many SF art films like Born in Flames, Liquid Sky, and Teknolust are directed by women. I'm not sure if this is because women tend to be inspired by science fiction visuals or because the art world is more open to their ideas.
Science fiction is pop culture, so the image of the average sci-fi fan as someone like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons is a total misconception. Strong female leads like Ripley, Trinity, Starbuck, and Sarah Connor have always resonated with women. Actress Rosario Dawson is creating a series for the SciFi Channel. One of the singers from Danity Kane just published a sci-fi comic. A dystopic science fiction book -- Cormac McCarthy's The Road -- was even an Oprah pick.
Although I consider Twilight more horror/fantasy, it goes to show that genre fiction appeals to all kinds of women. I would love to see more hybrid sci-fi "chick lit" -- and penned by women! -- like Bridget Jones's Diary only set 500 years in the future. What will we be wearing then? The Stepford Wives, although it was written by a man, is a good example. Philip K Dick wrote about a post-apocalyptic society with lives so wretched, the adults spend their days living out their memories using Barbie-inspired dolls and accessories. It shows how in desperate times we still seek out glamour and fantasy.
DG: Who are the most glamorous characters in science fiction?
JMcN: J. G. Ballard's female characters are straight out of film noir, except a million times smarter. The only thing he obsesses over more than airports and drained swimming pools is feminine intellect. He barely describes their appearance, but instead gives them high-power jobs, introverted tendencies, and sharp wit. They are doctors, never nurses. They are usually thinking one step ahead of the male protagonist. He recognizes that intellectual curiosity and femininity aren't contradictory. I mean, this is a man who confessed to a crush on Hillary Clinton in a recent interview. Susan Sontag so much adored his books she briefly planned to script and direct The Crystal World with Jean Seberg in a starring role.
Rosanna Arquette and Holly Hunter are two of my favorite actresses, but it was Deborah Unger who epitomized "Ballardian" for me in Crash. She was so perplexingly remote and intelligent. She's not a bitch, but she's not quirky, rarely smiles, and has a tentative way of interacting with other people. Unger's mother is a nuclear scientist and she studied economics and philosophy in college. So she really is that Ballardian ideal analytic woman. That she's as beautiful as she is makes it all the more disarming.
The DG Dozen 1) How do you define glamour?
Curiosity and creativity radiating outward
2) Who or what is your glamorous icon?
Mila Jovovich. She loves clashing prints and somehow makes it work.
Love her line Jovovich-Hawk too.
3) Is glamour a luxury or a necessity?
It's a luxury to reflect on what it is and isn't
4) Favorite glamorous movie?
Danger Diabolik
5) What was your most glamorous moment?
Every time I've gone out alone for coffee and a newspaper while traveling abroad. Preferably in a trench coat.
6) Favorite glamorous object ?
Micromosaic and finift jewelry
7) Most glamorous place?
Cape Town
8) Most glamorous job?
Bartending at a restaurant with a senior crowd. I made a lot of classic cocktails.
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't?
Tory Burch
10) Something or someone that you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized?
There's a photo of politician and Iraq war vet Tammy Duckworth in the recent issue of Esquire. She was wounded in combat and has prosthetic legs, but she was wearing velvet flats with bows.
11) Can glamour survive?
The impulse to dress up is sometimes strongest when you feel your worst.
Debbie Millman has worked for a long list of high-profile clients, including Unilever, Gillette, the NBA, and Kraft. As the host of the weekly Internet radio show/podcast Design Matters, she has interviewed an even more impressive list of designers and design thinkers, from Stefan Sagmeister and Steve Heller to Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin (and me). Her book How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer features conversations with 21 leading lights. Debbie is not only a good listener but as interesting as the people she talks to. She was kind enough to let us turn the tables and have her answer the questions.
DG: Your love affair with brands began at an early age. What seduced you?
DM: My love affair with brands began when I was in the 7th grade. I looked around and everyone in school was wearing really cool pants with a little red tag on the back pocket and polo shirts with little crocodiles on the front right section over your heart. Levi’s and Lacoste. But they were expensive and my mother didn’t understand why we had to pay more money for the red tag and the crocodile when the clothing without them was the same quality but cheaper. Furthermore, she was a seamstress and her compromise to me was an offer to make me the very same clothes and stitch a red tag into the back pocket of the pants and glue a crocodile patch from the Lee Wards craft store onto the front of a perfectly good polo shirt from Modell’s. While that plan didn’t quite suit my aspirations of being a seventh-grade trendsetter or at least voted the best dressed girl at Elwood junior high, I eagerly pored through the racks of Lee Wards desperately searching for a crocodile patch to stick onto the front of my favorite pink polo shirt. Alas, there were none. Nothing even close. The best I came up with was a cute rendition of Tony the Tiger, but that really wasn’t the branded look I was going for.
I rode my bike home from Lee Wards dejected and mopey and when mom found out I wasn’t successful, I could see she felt sorry for me. She then took the matter into her own hands. The Lacoste shirts were too expensive, but there were indeed some Levi’s on sale at the Walt Whitman mall and she bought me a pair. Problem was she didn’t get me the denim kind like everyone else was wearing, she found me a pair that must of been from the triple mark-down racks...they were a pair of lime green corduroy bell-bottom Levi’s. It was with a mixture of horror and pride that I paraded in front of the full-length mirror in my bedroom, ever-so-slightly sticking my butt out so that I could be sure the little red tag would show. So what, I was wearing lime green corduroy! They were Levi’s. I was cool. My reign of logo worship began right then and there.
DG: How much can brands control their own glamour, and what tools can they use?
DM: Brands have become cultural transitional objects. The things a designer produces and a consumer buys creates a process of simultaneously merging with and differentiating ourselves from the world of others. Deodorant, coffee, water, shoes, handbags and nearly everything else we can acquire or consume today has become the currency in which we define ourselves. Years ago, brands were differentiated categorically. Now, brands are manufactured to differentiate a consumer attitudinally. The consumer chooses a brand that makes them feel most socially confident and wears this badge of cultural acceptability...whether it is deodorant, coffee, water, shoes, handbags and so forth.
----
Most people believe that brands are the promise of an experience. I believe that brands are a projection of our hopes and dreams and fantasies about who we are and what we want people to believe.
----
Today, consumers buy brands based on how that brand makes them feel. Brands assert moods, tastes and affiliations. Brands create deeply intimate worlds we can understand, and where we can be somebody and feel as though we belong. Brands create tribes. And interestingly, with brands we can join any number of tribes in any number of ways and feel part of something bigger than who we are individually. We can belong to the Apple tribe when we wear our iPods or talk on our iPhones, the Target tribe when we shop, the Starbucks tribe when we want a cup of coffee, the Chanel tribe when we put on our make-up, the Prada tribe when we pick up our purse. In this regard, the truth is that most people like brands and the way their favorite brands make them feel. When we covet a brand, we covet the feeling that that we hope that brand will produce as a result. Most people believe that brands are the promise of an experience. I believe that brands are a projection of our hopes and dreams and fantasies about who we are and what we want people to believe.
If a brand makes a person feel glamorous, then in order for a brand manager in a corporation to control this, they must arduously adhere to the intrinsic integrity of what this feeling actually means to their zealous constituents. They must remain true to this positioning despite marketplace idiosyncrasies and fads. The brand owner must retain control of the brand perception with a relentless persistence and constant assessment of the brand’s relevance or the consumer will do it for them. In my opinion, the best tool to assess the consumer mind is with rigorous ethnography.
DG: What brands do you find glamorous? Why?
DM: The Finity grey corduroy suit I wore to my first job in 1983. I remember the sparkly colors of the stones in a brandless necklace a cherished babysitter gave me when I was 6. Goody Barrettes. Lanvin. The Hermes scent I wear every day called 24 Faubourg. These objects and brands mark time for me, they represent age and rites of passage; they represent longing, and in my mind, they represent the glamorous moments of my life when I fit in, and was happy and loved.
DG: What books would you recommend for understanding glamour?
1) How do you define glamour? Or what makes someone or something glamorous?
When I was a little girl, my mother drank her coffee black. She also smoked cigarettes and her friends from the neighborhood would come by to visit and sit in our orange vinyl breakfast nook and talk. Or rather they would gossip. They would chat about who had recently bought a new car or a fur coat or who was taking a vacation or a mistress or some new pill that had just come on the market. At eight years old, I was fascinated with my mother’s girlfriends: to me, they were magnificently glamorous with their brightly painted nails and tightly pulled chignons and billowing wisps of smoke, and I would sit in the kitchen, off by myself, and pretend I wasn’t listening when in fact I wasn’t missing a word.
I find that the idea of beauty and glamour are strangely obsessive concepts in our culture. We live in a day and age wherein there are more people undergoing plastic surgery than ever before, and there is no part of the body that can’t be refurbished and remade. But for me, true glamour can not be constructed or created. To me, glamour is an attitude.
2) Who or what is your glamorous icon?
The most glamorous woman that ever lived was Grace Kelly. Her performance in the film Rear Window
is the most glamorous performance in movie history. And her clothes! And that charm bracelet! And the little valise with her nightgown and slippers! I am swooning just thinking about it!
3) Is glamour a luxury or a necessity?
Neither. It is a gift. You either have it or you don't.
In 1993, I was still painting and had a solo show at Long Island University. My friend Isaac Mizrahi dressed me and lent me some pieces of clothing from his couture line to wear at the opening. He put me in a black taffetta skirt, a black leather strapless corset and insisted that I wear a little black cashmere sweater--but he only wrapped it around my shoulders and buttoned at the top. I felt so glamorous that I actually felt foolish, as it felt so foreign and strange to be so dolled up in such sexy, sophisticated, revealing clothes.
The bathroom in the Hyannisport Airport, where I bumped into Jackie Kennedy Onassis coming out of a stall. When I saw her I gasped.
(truly)
8) Most glamorous job?
The great graphic designer, Carin Goldberg, asked me to be the Mistress of Ceremonies for an all day AIGA design and fashion conference in NYC last year titled Body Language. She also asked the designer and editor (and effortlessly gorgeous glamourpuss) Jiae Kim to dress me. Jiae encouraged me to wear clothes that I would never have picked (with color!!!!) and the AIGA had artists do my hair and make-up. I was in heaven. One of my colleagues sons didn't even recognize me!
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't
Donald Trump.
10) Something or someone that you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized
The great screen actress Thelma Ritter. She always played second fiddle to Bette Davis or Marilyn Monroe or Grace Kelly and she was one glamorous dame in her own right.
11) Can glamour survive?
One can only hope and pray.
12) Is glamour something you're born with?
Sadly, yes. I curse the day I was born without it.
EITHER/OR
1) Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett?
Angelina is currently the most gorgeous woman on the planet.
2) Paris or Venice?
Paris, since I have never been to Venice. I'll let you know if this answer changes after my visit there next year.
3) New York or Los Angeles?
New York (as if!)
4) Princess Diana or Princess Grace?
Princess Grace (see above)
5) Tokyo or Kyoto?
Tokyo
6) Boots or stilettos?
Boots. Although my Christian Louboutin stiletto boots are really glam.
Reporting from Seoul, Regina Walton sent us a recent interview she did for the Korean Herald with fashionista extraordinaire, Diane Pernet. She also kindly asked Pernet our Deep Glamour questions at the Daily Projects, a clothing store and art space in the Apgujeong district of Seoul, a few minutes before she screened her latest film, A Shaded View on Fashion Film.
Pernet has been a fashion journalist and critic for heavy weights such as Elle.com and VogueParis.com. She is an associate editor for Zoo Magazine. She is also a consultant and editor for the biggest online fashion network, Igons.com. She is also works as a curator and fashion and photo scout for the d'Hyeres festival. Most important, to those plugged into both the Internet and fashion she is probably best known for having one of the most influential websites on fashion, her blog, named A Shaded View on Fashion (ASVOF). Currently, Diane travels the world showing her film at different fashion events, screenings and art spaces.
Perhaps the most distinctive thing about Diane is her look. She is someone who knows the fashion industry from many angles, but, interestingly her look is static. She’s known for wearing her dark hair in a towering pompadour with a black veil, black cat eye shades, and layers of black clothing. This constant look stands in stark contrast to her pale white skin and dramatic rogue lips.
DG: 1) How do you define glamour?
Pernet: I guess I never really define it. Glamour, I mean, is just something that really catches your eye. It’s very elegant. I like refined more than glitzy, although I can appreciate lots of different things. I’m probably am a bit of a definition of it myself, maybe, because it’s just elegance, a little mystery and refinement. Glamour doesn’t have to be really loud. It can be very subtle but you notice it.
DG: 2) Who or what is your glamorous icon?
Pernet: I don’t really have a glamour icon. I love things like Alexander McQueen, John Galiano, a little of the past and a little of the present because he did amazing things. Marios Schwab has done some things that are very glamorous. There is a glamour also in Gareth Pugh. It’s a dark glamour. Then you have more classic glamour like Dolce and Gabbanna and Versace.
Then the haute couture is the most glamorous, by definition. It’s a laboratory of ideas with no budget restrictions.
DG: 3) Is glamour a luxury or a necessity?
Pernet: It’s a luxury. You make your own glamour. [She then pointed out Junghee Lee, the founder of the Daily Projects store. Lee was wearing a cream colored long formal dress and a mink wrap, but instead of matching it with formal shoes and coifed hair, she did the opposite and wore casual shoes and tousled hair.] What Junghee is wearing today is glamour. It’s contemporary glamour. It’s beautiful. It’s totally elegant but it’s also street and also casual. I like people to see the woman and not feel the clothes are speaking louder than the woman. And that’s something so organic.
DG: 4) Favorite glamorous movie?
Pernet: La Dolce Vita or almost anything by Fellini. Visconti's Death in Venice or Antonioni's l'Aventura.
DG: 5) What was your most glamorous moment?
Pernet: A party for the British Fashion Council at 10 Downing Street. None of us could actually believe that we were there.
DG: 6) Favorite glamorous object ?
Pernet: An Edwardian beaded black cape I bought to wear to the British Council Fashion Awards
DG: 7) Most glamorous place?
Pernet: Santiago de Compostela
DG: 8) Most glamorous job?
Pernet: I suppose when I was a fashion designer.
DG: 9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't?
Pernet: Vulgarity.
DG: 10) Something or someone that you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized?
Pernet: Charlotte Rampling, although I'm sure plenty of people find her glamorous.
DG: 11) Can glamour survive?
Pernet: Glamour is manmade and as long as people want to make the effort, it will survive.
DG: 12) Is glamour something you're born with?
Pernet: No, I think that glamour is cultivated. Dita Von Teese is a perfect example. She said that she was a girl from the midwest who looked up to burlesque stars like Betty Paige and others who through the use of make-up, a hair style, gestures and clothes became glamour icons.
Pernet declined to play our Either/Or game. As Diane Vreeland said, "Elegance is refusal."
Manolo the Shoeblogger answers our "wickedly hard set of questions." As his answers suggest, The Manolo (who is not Maestro Manolo Blahnik) is not just a very funny shoe lover and blogging tycoon but an erudite intellectual whose style comes with loads of substance--something that should surprise no one familiar with his little book, The Consolation of the Shoes, which is modeled on the medieval classic The Consolation of Philosophy (but much more fun).
DG: What makes shoes glamorous?
Manolo: Who wears them. Manolo Blahniks and Christian Louboutins are glamorous because they are worn by glamorous peoples. Aside from this, however, they are also exceedingly beautiful and costly objects, to be desired in their own right, and one would wish to own and wear them even if they were not on the feets of the famous.
DG: Glamour requires mystery, something you know a lot about. Short of creating an anonymous persona, what do you advise people who want to maintain some mystery and glamour?
Manolo: The Manolo is convinced that it is almost impossible to make yourself glamorous, especially since you have no way of judging if you've succeeded short of being feted by the President at the Kennedy Center. After all, if you wake up one morning and say to your self, "Huzzah, I have achieved glamorousness!" you may be certain that you have not, and that are you are surely and unattractively self-deluded.
----
If you feel the need to talk, as the Manolo frequently does, keep your conversations glittering and light and witty. Avoid telling everyone about your difficult childhood, your terrible divorce, or the details of your recent colonoscopy.
----
However, it is always and forever the good idea to surround yourself with the little bit of mystery, and the easiest way to do this is by shutting your mouth. Strong silent men and mysterious women who say little will always be objects of desire and admiration. It is not necessary in ordinary conversation to reveal every detail of your life, so do not. If you feel the need to talk, as the Manolo frequently does, keep your conversations glittering and light and witty. Avoid telling everyone about your difficult childhood, your terrible divorce, or the details of your recent colonoscopy.
As for the glamour part, nothing we mortals can do will ever get us closer to glamorous than putting on formal wear for the evening-time event. If, like the Manolo, you are not possessed of physical beauty and great wealth or fame, dressing up in the tuxedo and going out for the fancy dinner and dance is perhaps the best simulacrum of glamour that can be achieved.
Otherwise, you should dress stylishly, wear excellent shoes, be confident and cheery, and treat others with courtesy and kindness. That may not be glamorous, but it is the Manolo's definition of super fantastic.
DG: What books would you recommend for understanding glamour?
Glamour is the peculiar and elusive characteristic that combines, in unspecified and unspecifiable proportions, the qualities of charisma, style, beauty, desirability, confidence, rarity, and mysteriousness. In fact, it is almost impossible to fully define what makes something glamorous. As with the Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's definition of obscenity, we have trouble defining glamour, but know it when we see it.
Having said that, the Manolo further avers that of all the previously mentioned characteristics, the most important are beauty and mysteriousness.
That which can be held closely and examined intimately loses its glamour, which is why the most glamorous of persons (Jackie O, Greta Garbo, Lord Byron, Galla Placidia, Cleopatra, Sappho) have always had something wonderfully opaque about them. Their motives are not well known, perhaps even to themselves, and thus it is this mysteriousness that in large part makes them glamorous. Likewise without beauty, such mysteriousness does not fully compel us.
By this definition, to be glamorous is to be extraordinary, perhaps even uncanny, unheimlich, if you will; the exact opposite of ordinary. What makes someone glamorous cannot be fully and clearly comprehended.
This, of the course, naturally raises the important question, can inanimate objects can be "glamorous" in and of themselves. Or is it perhaps true that only people can be glamorous?
The Manolo is of two minds on this topic. On the one of the hands, objects can be indisputably and often indescribably beautiful. And, as we know, beautiful objects clearly have the ability to evoke powerful emotions, of lust, love, desire, envy; indeed, they can even inspire some to commit great crimes, or others to great acts of charity.
----
Mysteriousness does not apply to something as comprehensible as the Aston Martin automobile; it is the work of mechanics and men, of designers and engineers. There is little of that necessary glamorous mystery about it.
----
The Manolo believes that what we consider to be the glamorous object is only is only glamorous by reflection, because of the person or persons who are closely associated with the specific things.
For the example, our Aston Martin automobile is glamorous because it is associated with James Bond and rich English playboys, not because it is inherently glamorous in itself. The Aston Martin is beautiful, costly, well made, rare, and extremely desirable, and yet it was not fully glamorous until it was adopted as the symbol of the particular and desirable mode of life. Without Ian Fleming, the Aston Martin would simply be one more marque of luxury automobile.
Thus glamorous objects are glamorous by association, and are not inherently glamorous. And here, in the matter of objects of desire, the Manolo nods in the direction of Thorstein Veblen, even as the Manolo denies that personal glamour can be explained by reference to theories of class. (The glamour of the glamorous person is too individually unique to be explained by such methods.)
And so, to come back in the circular fashion to the Manolo's original point, glamour is intensely difficult to define. It is elusive and will-o-the-wisp, but beauty and mystery are its chief components.
2) Who or what is your glamorous icon?
Pericles.
3) Is glamour a luxury or a necessity?
It is neither. True glamour is like the shooting star, it is unpredictable and transitory, it cannot be willed into existence, and can be destroyed far too easily to be relied upon. You cannot buy glamour, you can only buy objects that reflect the glamour of others. Glamour is created within the individual person, and is not the style to be worn like the suit of fashionable clothes, but rather something inherent.
Ray Ban aviator style sunglasses. Because they are the rare example of the object this is very common, relatively inexpensive, and yet indisputably glamorous. If objects reflect the glamour of those who wear them, then Ray Bans reflect the glamour of heroic fighter pilots, who like bullfighters, astronauts, and football quarterbacks, have the sizable portion of glamour baked right into their jobs. Also, sunglasses are inherently glamorous accessories because they conceal.
7) Most glamorous place?
Can the place be glamorous? Yes, but only until you visit it, and then your illusions of glamour are dispelled by the mundane things of the everyday world that you cannot help but notice, like traffic jams, and garbage collection, and sewers that back up when it rains too much. Thus Venice is glamorous, until the breeze off the Adriatic brings in the smell of rotting fish and raw sewage, at which point it is like Hoboken with better architecture.
And so, the Manolo would have to say, that for him, the current most glamorous place in the world is Saint Petersburg, but only because he has never been there.
As the footnote, the Manolo must explain that romantic and glamorous are not the same. The place like Venice, which sometimes smells of rotting fish, or Paris, where the traffic is sometimes horrific, are still terribly romantic, while Hoboken will never be romantic, even if it were to smell constantly of roses and freshly roasted coffee.
8) Most glamorous job?
Bullfighter, indisputably.
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't
Madonna, George Clooney, Scarlett Johannsen, Kate Hudson, Katherine Heigl, and 99.97% of the people who are commonly considered glamorous, to include almost anyone seen in the most recent issues of Us and People magazines. Also, by definition, any person who appears in the regular network television series cannot be glamorous.
10) Something or someone that you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized
George Washington. Tall, handsome, wealthy, mysterious, and possessed of real charisma. This is the test of true glamour: If your countrymen wish to make you king, you are probably glamorous. If you then refuse to be made king, you are indisputably glamorous.
11) Can glamour survive?
Individual glamour never survives intimate contact (hence Marilyn Monroe's many divorces), and very rarely can it survive the ravages of old age (Garbo and Jackie O. are perhaps the only counter examples) which is why dying young is the surest way of maintaining one's glamour indefinitely.
As for the larger question, can glamour survive the ravages of our paparazzi-and-Perez-Hilton-ridden, Age of Full Disclosure? The Manolo does not know. Glamour depends upon mystery, which is becoming harder and harder to maintain in our time.
12) Is glamour something you're born with?
The uncanny nature of glamour, the mysteriousness of its genesis, and its persistent elusiveness tempts the Manolo to say yes, and yet, real glamour can only be expressed in the full bloom of adulthood. Can you train yourself to glamour? The Manolo supposes anything is possible, although it seems to happen far more by accident than planning.
EITHER/OR
1) Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett?
Cate Blanchett. Until the few weeks ago, it would have been Angeline Jolie. But then the People Magazine published the pictures of her in the matronly cotton nighty. Matronly nighties are like kryptonite to glamour.
2) Paris or Venice?
Neither. The Manolo has been to both places.
3) New York or Los Angeles?
Neither. The Manolo has lived in both places.
4) Princess Diana or Princess Grace?
Princess Grace. Without the single tiny second of hesitation.
5) Tokyo or Kyoto?
Kyoto. But, then the Manolo has been to neither place.
6) Boots or stilettos?
Boots. There is more mystery and fable in the good pair of boots than in all the stiletto-heeled sandals combined.
7) Art Deco or Art Nouveau?
Art Nouveau. The 1890s are far more glamorous than the mundane 1930s.
8) Jaguar or Astin Martin?
Aston Martin
9) Armani or Versace?
Versace.
10) Diana Vreeland or Anna Wintour?
Diana Vreeland. Please this one is fish in the barrel.
11) Champagne or single malt?
Champagne.
12) 1960s or 1980s?
1960s, but only because of the first three years, which rightly should be grouped with the 1950s. Likewise, 1980s glamour is confined mostly to the person of Ronald Reagan alone. All else, including Nancy, is not especially glamorous.
13) Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds.
14) Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell?
Models are rarely glamorous. Only those like Charlize Theron who become actresses have achieved true glamour.
During last year's book tour for The 5-Minute Face: The Quick & Easy Makeup Guide for Every Woman, makeup artist Carmindy of TLC's What Not to Wear answered questions from women all over the country. She was disturbed by what she heard. Instead of asking how to highlight their assets, most women launched into a list of self-denigrating complaints about how they looked. “I’d meet a woman who had beautiful skin and I would say, 'Gosh, you have such beautiful skin.' And she's say, 'Oh I’m breaking out and my pores are so big and I hate my lips. I want you to teach me how to make mine look so different.'” To fight such negative attitudes, she wrote another book, which she calls her "manifesto," Get Positively Beautiful: The Ultimate Guide to Looking and Feeling Gorgeous. She spoke with DG while in Los Angeles to promote the book.
CARMINDY: My mother was a watercolorist, and I was obsessed with painting and art, but I also had this strange fixation on fashion. I met somebody whose father was a makeup artist for Hill Street Blues. I thought, “Oh my God, there’s a job as a makeup artist? This is great. This is what I want to do.” I was only 15 or 16 years old.
One year my father asked me, “What do you want for Christmas?” I said, “I wanted one of those big Hollywood-style makeup mirrors with the balls all around and a director’s chair.” He built me that, and I started doing makeup on neighbors and friends. Later, I would drive up to Hollywood and walk into all the agencies and say, “Is there anybody I can help for free?” I became an assistant, and it went from there.
DG: One of the sections in your book starts, “Everyone loves a makeover.” Why does everyone love a makeover?
CARMINDY: It’s that caterpillar-becomes-a-butterfly moment. When you’re teaching a woman how to recognize her own beauty--whether it be beautiful skin or beautiful lips or how to take her eyes and make them shine--she’s starting to feel better about herself. Her self-esteem is boosted, she starts glowing, she’s smiling a lot more. That’s really fascinating to us.
DG: You disagree with the idea that makeup is the art of creating an illusion.
CARMINDY: I do. I am not for anybody contouring a face or changing eye shape. I think you really should enhance what you have. Makeup should be used highlight features, not change, correct, camouflage, and contour them.
DG: I forgot to put on my makeup this morning, because I was in a hurry to get to a conference. Could that ever happen to you? And if so, how would you react?
CARMINDY: Absolutely, absolutely. It happens a lot of times when I’m just going to run out of the house. You’ve got to be completely and utterly happy with who you are barefaced before you can put any cosmetic on your skin. That way, if you walk out of the house and you don’t have makeup on, you’re not afraid of the way people are going to perceive you. It starts from within.
The DG Dozen
1) How do you define glamour?
Being comfortable in your own skin and the most confident you can possibly be. Not makeup, not money, not competing with a celebrity of the moment but feeling good in your own skin. To me that’s glamorous--walking in and being confident.
2) Who or what is your glamorous icon?
Isabella Rossellini. I worked with her once. It was a last-minute thing. She walked in, she didn’t have any makeup on. She was dressed very casually. She looked so radiant. She didn’t have an entourage with her. She walked in the room with confidence. She was intelligent. It was just this kind of grace. She was a glamorous, iconic woman to me because she knew who she was and she was so radiantly beautiful because of that confidence.
3) Is glamour a luxury or a necessity?
It’s a state of mind.
4) Favorite glamorous movie?
Out of Africa. I loved Meryl Streep’s character and thought she was totally glamorous. She was a strong, real, dynamic woman who was not afraid to show weakness at times but always pulled herself through with dignity. Not to mention the scenery and outfits were fabulous!
5) What was your most glamorous moment?
I would have to say it was in Havana, Cuba, the night I met my husband. I was swooning because it was such a romantic place. I was hot and sweaty, and it didn’t matter. I had met the man of my dreams and I felt beautiful. That was probably the most glamorous moment ever.
6) Favorite glamorous object?
I have an antique mirror coffee table that is very glamorous. It’s aged, it looks like it’s been under the sea.
7) Most glamorous place?
Havana. It’s rough around the edges, but it’s just so glamorous to me.
8) Most glamorous job?
What I’m doing now.
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don’t.
Celebrities.
10) Something or someone that you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized.
My friend Kathy Atkinson, who is in my book in the makeover chapter. She is 50. She is not only a physically beautiful woman but one who shines. She is never afraid to tell it like it is, call people on their bad behavior or celebrate the goodness in them. She knows how to dress her body, play with makeup to accentuate the positive and never puts herself down.
11) Can glamour survive?
Absolutely, forever. It’s been here forever and it can last forever.
12) Is glamour something you’re born with?
It’s probably at its most pure form when we’re born with it. It’s what we do to it when we grow older that makes it shine or makes it diminish.
EITHER/OR
1) Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett?
Cate Blanchett
2) Paris or Venice?
Venice
3) New York or Los Angeles?
New York
4) Princess Diana or Princess Grace?
Princess Grace
5) Tokyo or Kyoto?
Tokyo
6) Boots or stilettos?
Stilettos
7) Art Deco or Art Nouveau?
That’s a hard one. Probably Art Deco.
8) Jaguar or Astin Martin?
Astin Martin
9) Armani or Versace?
Armani
10) Diana Vreeland or Anna Wintour?
Diana Vreeland
11) Champagne or single malt?
Champagne
12) 1960s or 1980s?
1960s
13) Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds. I like raw pearls. I like raw pearls and I like diamonds.
14) Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell?
Neither. Kate Moss if I have to choose.
15) Sean Connery or Daniel Craig?
Sean Connery
Posted by Virginia Postrel on October 20, 2008 in
Q&A, Makeup
Novelist and writer Francesca Segrè, who contributes to the NY Times Vows column, answers our questions. Her novel, Daughter of the Bride, is based on her own experience of watching her mother get married. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her daughter (captured at left by photographer Orit Harpaz) , and is constantly on the lookout for a good love story.
DG: For most women (and
even some men), the wedding day is the single most glamorous event in
their lives. What are your thoughts? Is glamour attained at the expense
of romance, family feeling?
FS: Today’s slothful and
pragmatic society has stooped to accept velour sweat-suits as ‘style’
and weddings, thankfully, provide us with an excuse to get dressed up
and get glam.Brides, grooms, and guests
seize the opportunity of nuptials to reveal what they
really
look like when they kick off the daily glamour-proof sneakers of practicality. Of course, the bride has
probably spent more money on her appearance for this day than for any
other day in her life. But beware! Money does not buy class. Ahem, Paris
Hilton. If you’re trashy, nasty
or a raging Bridezilla, no lipgloss, silk chiffon or orchid arrangement
can make you or your event glamorous. It’s all in the attitude.
DG: What's the most important part of wedding day glamour? The dress,
the mood, the true love?
FS:Wedding day glamour depends
on the aura of the bride and groom. Ultimately, the newlyweds are hosts.
If they are sincere, gracious and emotionally committed to one another,
it will be apparent. They will act as one entity putting the guests
at ease. For all the compliments the newlyweds receive, they will respond
with equally sincere flattery. It’s not about the gown
- it’s about how she wears the gown, how she smiles in the gown, how
he is a gentleman – lifting the train of her gown or holding her hand
so she can move freely.
DG: After the rice has been swept up, how to sustain that glamorous feeling
and mood--not just for the honeymoon, but all through your life? Any
tips
?
FS: Oh, that’s tricky. I’ve
been married for two years now, and it’s easy to get sloppy – especially
when my husband-o compliments me while I’m looking my worst. Often,
when I’m leaning over the sink washing dishes, wearing pink gloves,
ratty pajamas and no makeup, my husband lightly slips his arms around
my waist. If he likes me this way, do I really need to dress up? When we met, I was an on-air
international TV news reporter in Manhattan. I was polished -- tailored
suits, heels, styled hair and impeccable makeup. Now we live by the
beach in Los Angeles, and more outfits than I’m proud to admit end
in the two words, “with flip-flops.”
To maintain glamour in
a marriage, we try to be as gracious with each other as we were on our
wedding day. “Please,” “thank you,” and opening a door for each
other suggests a mutual respect that is so elegant and classy. As far
as I’m concerned, there is no glamour without manners. Now that we’ve got a
shrieking, explorative, glorious one-year old daughter, going out at
night requires a whole new level of logistical gymnastics. The last
time we had a date, we went to the Avalon Hollywood for a comedy show
benefit. We knew we’d be a tad overdressed for the occasion, but we
were dressing for each other. I was wearing a dress (no jeans- gasp!)
and he was wearing a corduroy blazer on top of his dress shirt (that’s
two dress-up garments on one LA man!) We’ve got to prove that we can
always pull it together for one another. In marriage, it’s so easy
to slip out of style.
The DG Dozen 1) How do you define glamour?
Glamour is self-confidence. She who is self-possessed, thoughtful in
her choices, and graceful in her personality and appearance is glamour
incarnate. If the execution of these character traits appears effortless,
she is all the more glamorous. Just think about the models in the Ralph
Lauren ads, or any ads in a glossy mag. These men and women never appear
to be trying very hard. They just seem light, comfortable, and relaxed
in their thousand dollar frocks.
2) Who or what is your glamorous icon?
My grandmother. She escaped from France during WWII and came to New
York. She didn’t know English, but she had an exquisite artistic eye,
a sensational sense of style and a gift for designing and wearing great
clothing. One morning, she waltzed into Saks Fifth Avenue with sketches of her
Paris-inspired suits and gowns in hand. At the time, Americans had no idea what the French were
wearing (rags) and my grandmother convinced the buyers at Saks that
her designs were the most au courrant mode in France. That day, she
launched her decades-long career as a fashion designer when she made
an exclusive deal to sell Saks her designs. She dressed impeccably
every day of her life.
3) Is glamour a luxury
or a necessity?
Clearly a luxury. Glamour
is special because most people don’t have it.
5) What was your most glamorous
moment?
Interviewing Jamie Rubin during the Democratic Convention in 2004. I was in the risers next to
the main outdoor convention stage. The lights and camera were on me
and this powerful, intelligent, exceedingly handsome former Assistant
Secretary of State was answering questions into my microphone for live
TV. It was exhilarating.
6) Favorite glamorous object?
My novel, Daughter of the Bride. People think it’s pretty glamorous that I wrote a book.
7) Most glamorous place? Monaco. Or Lago di Como in the Italian Alps.
Both are dramatic, exciting playgrounds that James Bond frequents.
8) Most glamorous job?
TV reporter for Reuters in New York. My face was on one of those jumbo-tron
screens in Times Square!
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't?
Those fluffy, miniature
rat dogs. And hand bags with logo prints on them. Those logo prints
like the Goyard are ugly. They might as well print dollar signs on those
bags. Tacky.
10 skipped
11) Can glamour survive?
Yes. Even with the current American financial collapse, glamour will
survive. It becomes even more rarified. Glamour is timeless.
12) Is glamour something you're born with? No. It’s clearly learned.
Manners + style.
EITHER/OR
1) Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett? Angelina. I interviewed her. I
was stunned by her beauty. I complimented her. She returned the compliment.
Class act.
2) Paris or Venice?Paris. Venice is tourists, trinkets, and stinky
canals. Paris is timeless inspiration- the source of art and style.
3) New York or Los Angeles? So New York. In LA, unless you’re on the
red carpet, you’re in flip-flops.
4) Princess Diana or Princess Grace?Grace. Diana was too commercial. 5) Tokyo or Kyoto?Kyoto. It’s graceful and artistic and it has fewer
vending machines (than Tokyo does) selling schoolgirls’ underwear.
6) Boots or stilettos?Stilettos are most glam – boots are practical.
(I wear boots.)
7) Art Deco or Art Nouveau? Oh that’s tough. I have to say Deco, the
lines are cleaner.
8) Jaguar or Astin Martin?Astin Martin. Glamour requires a joie-de-vivre,
not stuffy formality.
9) Armani or Versace? Armani. Armani is classy, Versace is flashy. 10) Diana Vreeland or Anna Wintour? Wintour has a reputation for being
nasty. Nasty is not classy.
11) Champagne or single malt?Single malt - because it’s more rarified. 12) 1960s or 1980s? neither. 1920s.
13) Diamonds or pearls?Diamonds, though their controversial origins
dull the glitter. Pearls are classy – but they add 10 years to anyone
wearing them.
14) Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell?Campbell. Moss’s status for being
skinny does not strike me as elegant.
15) Sean Connery or Daniel Craig? Sean Connery. Can’t get better than
the original Bond.
Posted by KateC on October 13, 2008 in
Q&A, Weddings
Joan Kron epitomizes substance with style--a combination she has turned into a remarkable career in journalism. Over the years, she has brought style to The Wall Street Journal (originating the fashion beat), The New York Times (helping to create the Home section), and Clay Felker's New York magazine (covering design). Since 1991, she's been the contributing editor-at-large for Allure, where she covers plastic surgery, the subject of her 1998 book Lift: Wanting, Fearing, and Having a Facelift, a must for anyone contemplating a cosmetic procedure. Her work displays a keen intellect, a great knowledge of both art and social science, and an unusual ability to talk shop with surgeons. We're honored that she agreed to share her thoughts with DG.
DG: In the 1980s. you wrote about interiors and the meanings people attach to their homes. What's changed since then? Have people become more house-obsessed, or do we just have more cable makeover shows?
JK: People still care deeply about their homes—as a refuge, a status symbol, and identity device. But the rash of less-pretentious home magazines and home-design cable shows has made the younger generations more self-assured about their taste. I see much less “fear of furnishing,” a condition I identified in Home-Psych, my 1983 book. The pendulum has swung in the other direction, toward taste self-confidence, encouraged by some dreadful design solutions (sorry if that sounds judgmental) on home makeover shows: If you have a jigsaw machine from Home Depot, what better use for it than making empty picture frames for wall décor? Home Depot, shade warehouses, paint stores with designers on staff, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Pottery Barn, Design Within Reach, etc, are all enablers. Taste arbiters are out and DIY (with patterns we can copy) is in.
I also see a decline in traditional gender roles in home decoration. Husbands are often taking charge. I have young neighbors who are renovating, and the husband, a financier who never heard of Mario Buatta or Dorothy Draper, is making almost all the design decisions. Needless to say, media rooms and large TVs play a bigger role when men are in charge. Aside from Williams-Sonoma Home catalogue, one of the biggest design inspirations today is hotel design. Instead of What Happens in Vegas T-shirts, vacationers are bringing back decorating ideas. Forget stealing towels. Now, if they sleep well out of town, they’re buying the beds from their hotels.
DG: Celebrities with bad plastic surgery are so well known that it sometimes seems as if plastic surgery never makes people look better. Can you give us some famous examples of good plastic surgery?
JK: Ironically, good plastic surgery is invisible…there’s lots of it, but naming names would be an invasion of privacy. Take it from me, however: Almost everyone in Hollywood, TV, and politics (except possibly Madeleine Albright) has had some cosmetic enhancement—and they do it quietly and frequently.
DG: Is acknowledging that you've had plastic surgery antithetical to glamour?
JK: Absolutely—that’s an admission that one’s beauty is neither natural nor effortless.
DG: In January, you had a very public 80th birthday party, and you've been equally public about having had three facelifts. How do you respond to people who say they believe in "aging gracefully"?
JK: How one ages is a choice. It’s no different from deciding how often to have a manicure or a haircut. As someone who covers plastic surgery, I feel a responsibility to be truthful, since most people lie. I joke that I prefer to “age dis-gracefully.” I don’t see getting rid of my double chin as a moral issue. Some people say they’ve earned their wrinkles, but frankly I don’t care to wear my emotional resume on my face. There is no such thing as natural. I cut and dye my hair, I wear lipstick. I shape my eyebrows. I have no illusions about becoming a beauty object. But why should I give up and look like Yoda, or Jane Wyatt when she left the sanctuary in Lost Horizon (rent the movie) if I don’t have to? The technology is available. I don’t want to look bizarre, so I don’t ask for extreme procedures. And I draw the line--for myself--at lip-filling injections. They look so phony on someone my age. I hope I don’t look “done” but if someone thinks I do, I find it preferable to looking “undone.” Now could you all stop staring at my face.
The DG Dozen
1) How do you define glamour?
Glamour is enchanting superiority. It appears effortless (even though it’s not) and beyond the reach of mortals.
It’s a necessity—like a fairy tale or a myth that inspires and distracts from the mundane.
4) Favorite glamorous movie?
I was knocked out by Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast when I first saw it in 1946. It seems dated when I see it now—but at the time it was magical. I copied Beauty’s pearl crown when I got married, the first time. Also, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire "dancing cheek to cheek."
5) What was your most glamorous moment?
Landing in a private helicopter on a host’s 350-foot yacht in the Greek Islands and being greeted by butlers with trays of champagne in flutes. Spending two days in L.A. interviewing Sophia Loren.
I love my Treo but it’s not glamorous. It’s a necessity. No one needs sterling silver flatware, stainless steel would do, but I find silver incredibly glamorous. People say to me, “But you have to polish it.” And I do, with pleasure. It’s no different from washing your precious convertible by hand.
7) Most glamorous place?
I can’t choose one. The lobby of New York’s Hampshire House by Dorothy Draper, the Chrysler Building, French designer Andrée Putman’s loft in Paris with the bed in the open behind sheer curtains, the Versailles Hall of Mirrors, the gardens in Last Year at Marienbad, the Parthenon, Manhattan on a summer night seen from the water. For years I was enchanted by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water in Pittsburgh until I visited it and found the rooms so cramped—but as a dream house, viewed from a distance, it still qualifies.
8) Most glamorous job?
Astronaut, architect, magazine editor.
----
"Some people say they’ve earned their wrinkles, but frankly I don’t care to wear my emotional resume on my face."
----
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't.
I enjoy “red carpet” parades but they’re more glitz than glamour.
10) Something or someone that you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized.
Extraterrestials
11) Can glamour survive?
There will always be mysterious superior beings or entities, but the forms as we know them, will evolve.
Over at her blog, readers are voting on her author photo, but we went with the classic.
DG: As a writer, you've seen
both sides of glamour--the seedy and the soaring. How does that proximity
affect your perception of glamour or the glamorous?
NR: As a writer, I am always trying to look past what’s presented to the
intent, and I think glamour is all about intent. The most glamorous
person I recall from my childhood in New York City in the late 60s/early
70s – besides my mother, who wore Emilio Pucci and paper dresses and
skintight silver pantsuits with Pop-Art sunglasses, her long black hair
professionally wrap-set each week on West 57
th Street –
was a mad woman who used to wander the streets of Brooklyn Heights at
night, but who, in her absolutely impeccable 1940s gowns and platinum
up-do was for all the world as haunting and gorgeous and glamorous as
Vivian Leigh. And the woman was mad! Seriously mad. But she had dressed
with deliberation, and as she passed would stare into my eyes as though
she were bequeathing me “the” secret. Clearly, if I am recalling
her 30 years later, she was.
DG: And as a woman, you're pretty glamorous yourself? Or has domestic
life in Portland given you a different perspective? What about having
a daughter--can you advise her on glamour?
NR: When I arrived in Portland,
I quickly met another LA-transplant, a TV writer named Jill Cargaman,
with whom I made a pact: each time we saw each other, we’d be showing
cleavage and/or nipple; wearing mascara, and, preferably, drinking cocktails,
a pledge that inspired her to write the following ode:
No matter who wears Birkenstocks Or fleece-y garb
and limp dull locks
I'm clinging fast
to my state of bliss
What Portland calls
"Midlife Crisis":
My make-up thick,
my hair a'blown
My cleavage bared,
my "rise" too low
I'm proud to front
my style and class
(Although I'm freezing off my ass!)
Was I bereft when she hightailed
it back to LA? Oh yeah. But aside from occasionally putting on my husband’s
fleece jacket in the house when it’s cold, I don’t dress like a
typical Portland gal. Not that I don’t appreciate what can be done
with a sturdy build, a no-fuss haircut, and a bicycle, but it’s not
for me. I like to dress – even if it’s in jeans and a t-shirt, which
it often is – as though when I step outside, I might run into, say,
William Langewiesche or Javier Bardem; I want to be ready. I want to
look good. As long as my boobs have bounce, they will occasionally be
the featured player in the ensemble. I want my husband to slip his hand
around my waist because the waist, you see, is asking to be embraced.
For me, glamour is about the frisson of being connected to that spot,
that moment; to paving the way for that moment to come.
I once wrote: “About a decade after a woman gives
birth to a girl, she begins to know exponentially and unequivocally
less about fashion than her daughter.” When my daughter was 12, she
rolled her eyes as my '80s Lurex blouse with the ruche sleeves; now,
at 18, she wears it. I will freely admit she’s so easy in her skin,
so curious and inventive, that she can make anything look good. Because
she’s a
budding designer she pays a lot of attention to clothes,
and so I find myself looking to her for ideas, whether it’s what pair
of jeans to buy (“Oh, mom, god, not
those”) or which dress
to wear to a party, and she’s pretty much never wrong.
The DG Dozen
1) How do you define glamour?
Glamour takes deliberation,
taking what fascinates you today – be it a building, a book, blue
eyeliner – and investigating it and reworking it and trying it out
yourself. I do think the work of doing is what makes glamour work.
If you’re interested in exploring
the worlds of art and ideas and fashion and beauty and politics and
sports and and and… then clearly, it’s a necessity.
4) Favorite glamorous movie?
Vertigo
5) What was your most glamorous moment?
Singing karaoke at the Grand
Star restaurant in Los Angeles’s Chinatown, during the 1995 Super
Vixens Christmas/book release party, while wearing a shantung silk gown
in a pink/navy/purple print with gold sequin straps and a matching bolero
jacket.
6) Favorite glamorous object?
I have an YSL black fox fur-trimmed
cape that I bought at a Beverly Hills estate sale for $50. The moment
I saw it, I thought,
I will someday wrap my sleeping grandson in
this
.
7) Most glamorous place?
I do like the Pool Room at
the Four Seasons in New York, but have not been in a long time, in case
anyone reading this would like to take me to lunch.
8) Most glamorous job?
Interviewing authors.
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't?
The red carpet
10) Something or someone that
you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized?
I’m going to go with Anthony
Bourdain
11) Can glamour survive?
Of course! Just look at any
three-year-old girl in her tutu. We strive toward glamour even before
we know what it is.
12) Is glamour something you're
born with?
No, I don’t think so. I think we’re born with, as above, an innate
fascination with it. But glamour is something that takes intent; it’s
a decision. Thank goodness. Much more interesting that way.
EITHER/OR
1) Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett?
The right woman in me longs
to say Blanchett, but damn if
Jolie doesn’t fascinate me. And she
can fly a plane?
2) Paris or Venice?
Paris for a visit; Venice long
enough to write a book.
3) New York or Los Angeles?
New York.
4) Princess Diana or Princess Grace?
Princess Grace. So flawless,
so knit together, and she had so many fascinating lovers!
5) Tokyo or Kyoto?
I never before noticed they’re
anagrammatic, but anyway,
Tokyo.
6) Boots or stilettos?
Stilettos. I can’t really
wear them but I appreciate when others do.
7) Art Deco or Art Nouveau?
Art Deco.
8) Jaguar or Aston Martin?
Jaguar.
9) Armani or Versace?
Not even close: Versace
10) Diana Vreeland or Anna
Wintour?
Diana Vreeland.
11) Champagne or single malt?
Single malt.
12) 1960s or 1980s?
1960s.
13) Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds. And speaking of:
yesterday I saw both Moissanite and cubic zirconia; the first are twice
as refractive as the real thing, and the second made my pretty spanking
nice, real diamond engagement ring look drab.
As is well known, the emotional and monetary value
of diamonds is completely manufactured by de Beers. Buy fake, I say!
14) Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell?
Kate Moss.
15) Sean Connery or Daniel
Craig?
Daniel Craig, and I know this
to be empirically true because when last night my husband said, “I
want to see the new James Bond movie,” both my daughter and I, with
the same little longing in our voices, each said, “Me, too.”
Film writer and critic Karina Longworth blogs at Spout, was a founder of Cinematical and can also be found here. She frequently writes about film, new media and popular culture. Longworth's informed, thoughtful, skeptical and funny as hell. Seen at left, she's doing her famed Linda Blair imitation.
Naturally, DG was thrilled when she agreed to answer our questions.
DG: Do movies today even try to depict glamour? Do they succeed?
KL:We're in a weird point in terms of Hollywood glamour. In general pop culture about 15 years ago there was a
big backlash to the "overdoneness" of the 80s, and the result is that
most of today's big female stars (Reese, Cameron, Drew, Kate Winslett,
Kate Hudson) have a kind of tomboy
practicality to their personas that goes against what the fantasy of
old Hollywood glamor was all about. Its all about being endearingly
frazzled and relatable. The sort of exception to this is Angie Jolie,
but even though she always rocks an other-worldly attainability that is reminiscent of the great old world stars, she's most successful in
dominatrix action hero mode, and films which try to cast her as a "regular" woman can seem laughable.
DG: You're a film critic--is it as glamorous as it sounds? Screenings, festivals, parties--it's not just a job, is it? C'mon, spill.
KL: Actually, my past life working in restaurants and gourmet stores was probably more glamorous on a
day to day basis---now, I work from home, staring at screens trying to
be clever all day, rarely leaving the house when I'm not traveling. But
I DO get to travel quite a bit, and even in this age of cookiecutter hotels and air travel nightmares, there is a scrappy glamour to life out of a
suitcase that j enjoy. I'm not particularly good at real life, so
dividing my waking hours between airports, screening rooms and
sponsored receptions really works for me.
The DG Dozen 1) How do you define glamour? KL: Glamour isn't interesting unless it's done with a wink, and most women today are too self-consious to be able to have a sense of humor about it. My current conception of glamour involves a
keen familiarity with the following: square-tipped red nails (which I
can't pull off), the dominatrix boots Cher wears under her dowdy old
maid skirt in
Moonstruck (ditto), Palm Springs, baroquely garnished
bloody marys, early-Playboy style tanlines, the "fuck you" behind the
eyes of a Barbara Stanwyck or Nina Simone.
2) Who or what is your glamorous icon? KL: It's cliché, but I still can't get over Louise Brooks. And Anna Karina.
Also, Sara Diaz, the girlfriend of filmmaker Azazel Jacobs and the star
of his movie "The GoodTimes Kid", has the most amazing sense of style.
3) Is glamour a luxury or a necessity?
KL:I would think of it more as a curse.
4) Favorite glamorous movie?
KL: An impossible question to answer considering my line of work, but I love anything like Baby Face, where a gal without breeding is suddenly encrusted with jewels, but her shifty morals and low birth class can't be obscured
5) What was your most glamorous moment?
KL: The last time I was in LA I found myself at the Polo Lounge wearing an
outfit purchased at Sears. To paraphrase the inimitable Sean Combs,
this is just how I live.
6) Favorite glamorous object?
KL: I bought a travel caddy at a
flea market in Williamsburg. It's brown leather, lined with red felt,
and inside there's room for two bottles, and on the other side there
are 4 built in shot glasses.
7) Most glamorous place?
KL: I love the vestiges of the Vertigo era sprinkled around San Francisco.
8) Most glamorous job?
KL:I would love to program a film festival in Nor Cal wine country. Hint hint, Mill Valley!
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't? KL: Pretty much all red carpet style is very, very boring to me these days.
10) Something or someone that you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized? KL: Patricia Clarkson.
11) Can glamour survive?
KL: not as long as cockroaches.
12) Is glamour something you're born with?
KL: I wasn't, that's for sure.
EITHER/OR
1) Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett? Tilda Swinton
Sharing her thoughts on glamour is Jackie Danicki, the director of marketing for Qik, the live mobile streaming video platform. She's also the proto-type of the earlier adapter, having been in on every tech innovation since the whole thing began. And she blogs with Hillary Johnson at Jack & Hill, a beauty blog with wit, style and a post (by Hillary) about Sarah Palin that had the regulars reeling.
Who better to help us navigate the corridors of tech while seeking glamour?
DG: You cover two seemingly unrelated worlds--beauty and high tech. Glamour in both places? Or do you just ignore the lack?
JD: I didn't realize until you asked me this that I've cultivated a deep appreciation for those spaces where glamour is surplus to requirements. There is something pressured and thrilling about a
context in which utilitarianism is the purest form of beauty; charm and pulchritude might get you funded, but your technology still has to work. The contrast with our workaday version of glamour, all tans, hair products and French manicures (which I like, by the way) is stimulating.
DG: Has the internet made glamour more accessible? Or is accessible glamour a contradiction in terms? JD: We always hear how the internet has "democratized" everything - politics, media, entertainment. I disagree, and don't think that we should settle for democratization anyway, but the internet is a scarcity killer at its core, and has definitely done a good job of killing the scarcity of the instruments of glamour. Whether actual glamour is being achieved in many places is up for debate. Ludwig von Mises wrote that "The luxury of today is the necessity of tomorrow," but I don't think glamour is as fluid as luxury. What was alluring and charming 100 years ago would probably work today, too.
The DG Dozen
1) How do you define glamour? JD: For me, it's a level of allure and beauty that is striking for being so exceptional. It's a cliche, but glamour can no more be bought than class.
2) Who or what is your glamorous icon? JD: Nigella Lawson. She's a bit sluttish in her personal and domestic upkeep, all those cupcakes and homemade graham crackers notwithstanding, but is as glamourous with unwashed, tangled hair and no makeup as she is in a Vivienne Westwood corset gown and stilettos.
3) Is glamour a luxury or a necessity? JD: It's only glamour if you don't need it, but want it so much that it feels as if you do. Life does not owe us glamour, is not obliged to produce the exceptional; that is what makes glamour itself so remarkable.
4) Favorite glamorous movie?
JD: I'm probably the only person who will say The Breakfast Club. It made a huge impression on me as a little girl (I was six when the film came out). Here you had two (ostensibly) teenage girls, one with bright red hair and freckles, one who was a complete mess. The redhead is scorching hot in classic riding boots and knee-length skirt. The pseudo-Goth turns pretty with the help of a hairbrush, a headband, and mascara. It definitely made me think that glamour was not the exclusive domain of the Rita Hayworths of the world.
5) What was your most glamorous moment? JD: I grew up as a fairly dumpy nerd on a farm in Ohio; almost every moment since I hightailed it out of there has seemed comparatively glamourous to me. There have been many amazing nights in London, Paris, New York and Beverly Hills - champagne, the perfect dress, heady perfume in obscenely exquisite settings with charming company. But I observe apart from all that; the glamour belongs to everyone around me, it's not mine. I feel lucky to be in that world even if I am not of it.
6) Favorite glamorous object?
JD: Aston Martin DB9. I tell myself I'll buy one when I can afford to pay cash outright for it - there's nothing glamorous about debt.
7) Most glamorous place?
JD: Paris, with almost zero effort. Unoriginal but true.
8) Most glamorous job?
JD: Kept woman for the world's most glamorous, brutal man. I wish I knew who he was.
9) Something or someone that other people find glamorous and you don't? JD: Gold lamé is unspeakably common, and yet it keeps showing up on otherwise cultured women and in the pages of Vogue. I remain baffled.
10) Something or someone that you find glamorous whose glamour is unrecognized?
The Breakfast Club. It made a huge impression on me as a little girl (I was six when the film came out). Here you had two (ostensibly) teenage girls, one with bright red hair and freckles, one who was a complete mess. The redhead is scorching hot in classic riding boots and knee-length skirt. The pseudo-Goth turns pretty with the help of a hairbrush, a headband, and mascara. It definitely made me think that glamour was not theexclusive domain of the Rita Hayworths of the world.
JD: The humble bobby pin: Functional, streamlined, enables glamour and gets closer to the action than a fly on the wall.
11) Can glamour survive?
JD: Glamour will thrive, especially as capitalism spreads around
the world and the standard of living is raised globally as a result.
Glamour holds no truck with socialists.
12) Is glamour something you're born with?
JD: Nothing so extraordinary can be the sole spoil of those who have won a lottery of birth.
EITHER/OR 1) Angelina Jolie or Cate Blanchett?
Cate Blanchett is more glamourous, but I'd rather go with Angelina.
2) Paris or Venice?Paris ("of course," I want to add).
3) New York or Los Angeles?
New York, if only because all that
sunshine doesn't allow the dark side you need for proper glamour.
4) Princess Diana or Princess Grace?
I should say Grace, but Diana
wins on purity retention; there's something glam about extended
innocence, no matter how spectacularly it eventually shatters.
5) Tokyo or Kyoto?
Tokyo; how glamorous can a city be once it's so closely associated with proposed legislation?
6) Boots or stilettos?Stilettos - no clear plastic, though.
7) Art Deco or Art Nouveau? Art Deco, by a mile.
8) Jaguar or Aston Martin? Aston Martin(see above. ed)
9) Armani or Versace?
I find myself wanting to pick neither. I have Versace glasses, though.
10) Diana Vreeland or Anna Wintour?
Anna Wintour, if only because she's stayed admirably quiet.
11) Champagne or single malt?
I was never woman enough for whiskey, so will choose Champagne with slightly hurt dignity.
12) 1960s or 1980s?
The 1980s seemed more fun, but shoulder pads
versus all that ultra-feminine tailoring is no real contest for glamour.
13) Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds, for versatility and inherent lack of dowdiness.
14) Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell? It says something about the
accessibility of glamour that we have two South London girls pitted
against one another, but I think Pete Doherty disqualified Kate Moss
from winning this one.
15) Sean Connery or Daniel Craig? Oh, Daniel Craig.
Joanne McNeil blogs at The Tomorrow Museum, when she isn't writing about sex workers, art and culture, reviewing books, and generally stirring things up in Cambridge, Mass.
features conversations with 21 leading lights. Debbie is not only a good listener but as interesting as the people she talks to. She was kind enough to let us turn the tables and have her answer the questions.
. These objects and brands mark time for me, they represent age and rites of passage; they represent longing, and in my mind, they represent the glamorous moments of my life when I fit in, and was happy and loved.
, for one. I would also recommend the books 
, the 
books designed by Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler at the design firm 
by Gloria Steinem, 
by Paul Fussell, and 
by Veronique Vienne.
is the most glamorous performance in movie history. And her clothes! And that charm bracelet! And the little valise with her nightgown and slippers! I am swooning just thinking about it!
. Think Pink!
(but much more fun).
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
by William Shakespeare
by Giocomo Cassanova
by Amy Kelly
by Barry Paris
by Thorstein Veblen
. The 1890s are far more glamorous than the mundane 1930s.
, makeup artist 
. She spoke with DG while in Los Angeles to promote the book.
. I thought, “Oh my God, there’s a job as a makeup artist? This is great. This is what I want to do.” I was only 15 or 16 years old.
I loved Meryl Streep’s character and thought she was totally glamorous. She was a strong, real, dynamic woman who was not afraid to show weakness at times but always pulled herself through with dignity. Not to mention the scenery and outfits were fabulous!
, is based on her own experience of watching her mother get married. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her daughter (captured at left by photographer Orit Harpaz) , and is constantly on the lookout for a good love story.
