Deep Glamour: At the Intersection of Imagination & Desire

DG Q&A: Electra Lang Founders on "Sensible Chic" Clothing for Real Bodies

Most women of a certain age, especially those who've had a few kids, face a fashion dilemma: how to look chic and stylish without veering either into youthful indiscretion (Forever 21 doesn't mean you really are) or what the founders of the Electra Lang clothing line call the "Bea Arthur" or "Stevie Nicks" pitfalls. The Los Angeles-based company arose from experience, after Laura Collins (above, middle) discovered that the only way to find clothes that fit and flattered was to design them herself. She teamed up with Electra Lang and Kristi Buckley to turn that inspiration into a line of dresses and tunics with a casual yet polished vibe. Selling primarily online, the first Electra Lang collection launched in May 2011, with an expanded line planned for Spring/Summer 2012, beginning in February. The partners talked with DG about designing clothes "with an actual human body in mind."

Come back on Black Friday for a special giveaway contest from Electra Lang.

DG: Who's your customer?

EL: Our customer wants clothing that she doesn’t need to think about—she can be comfortable and look stylish, but not be a slave to fashion. We thought a lot about what works for most people’s bodies and we came up with Electra Lang’s Manifesto: “The Proper Principles of a Perfect Piece” 

Chic
Simple to wear
Versatile
Enough coverage
Comfortable
Lined
Reasonably priced
Easy to buy
Voila…. Electra Lang Clothing was born.

DG: You talk about "dressing with style but with some propriety too." What do you mean?

Too often, we find tops that aren’t long enough, hemlines too short on dresses, lack of much-wanted sleeves, transparent fabrics with no lining, and jersey that clings too much. We designed our clothing to be fun and beautiful, but still cover all the right not-so-beautiful spots.

DG: You use a lot of interesting print fabrics. What do you look for in selecting prints?

One of our favorite parts of the design process is choosing our fabrics. We work with designers who create some of the freshest, most beautiful prints: they need to be sophisticated, yet playful prints. Sometimes a garment is more about distraction and camouflage, and certain prints can provide that, but for us to use them, they have to be glamorous as well.

DG: What's the problem with relying on a body form, or fit mannequin, to develop new designs?

One of the first things we did as designers was to get rid of the mannequin and fit everything on a real human body! Mannequins, unlike humans, look amazing in everything! That’s how we solved the mystery of why so many garments in the marketplace don’t fit well, or seem ill-conceived (a bunch of men in a back room dressing up a giant doll). Our designs are created with an actual human body in mind!

DG: Aside from buying clothes from Electra Lang, how would you advise women to avoid the "Stevie Nicks" and "Bea Arthur" looks?

As women get older, the balance between femininity, fashion, and fit becomes rather tricky. Too many wispy, lacy ruffles become rather theatrical and circuslike—in a bad way. On the other hand, manly pantsuits with long vests or wraps definitely set off the Bea Arthur alarm. Feeling comfortable in your own skin and clothes is what makes you attractive and sexy. If you look good without trying too hard, that says volumes about your style. Electra Lang balances great fashion with comfortable designs.

DG: How do you make your garments adjustable?

We are always working to improve the fit of our pieces. In every piece, whether there is an “adjustable” element or not, we make sure that it has flexibility. Our new silk jersey dress has stretch, but is carefully designed not to cling where it shouldn’t and to flow where it should. Our tunics are designed to camouflage a belly, but are adjustable in the back to create a flattering silhouette.

DG: What have you learned about the garment business in L.A.?

We decided from the beginning to do all of our production here in Los Angeles. This allowed us to control and monitor every aspect of the production, so that our designs were as close to our specs as possible. We also, want to be able to respond quickly to the market and we can’t do that with the long lead times required when manufacturing abroad. Plus, we love our city and want to do our part in keeping jobs here in Los Angeles.

Patricia Heaton in Electra Lang's "Owen" silk jersey dress

The DG Dozen

1) How do you define glamour? Glamour is confidence, a personal style that looks put together and shows some thought behind it.

2) Who or what is your glamorous icon? Katherine Hepburn—she had a signature style that was sometimes adventurous, but she always embodied ease and confidence.

3) Is glamour a luxury or a necessity? For a woman, glamour is a necessity, it is part and parcel of being a woman. It’s not just about fashion, it’s how you present yourself, how you entertain, how you care for others and, ultimately, reflects how you feel. Even if you weren’t born with it, it is something that you can cultivate.

Bill Cunningham: The People's Fashion Photographer

Editor's note: New contributor Dorian Electra is a student at Shimer College in Chicago, who is best known for the playful videos she produces and stars in, including her breakout viral hit, a love song to economist Friedrich Hayek.--VP

“He who seeks beauty shall find it” is the personal motto of 82-year old fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. He’s been riding around on his bicycle, photographing fashion on the streets of New York City for roughly half a century. And although his name and reputation are well established in the fashion world, his personal “fashion philosophy” is by no means conventional.

In the movie Bill Cunningham New York, Bill comes off as a mysteriously simple character, a happy man who loves what he does and does what he loves. But there’s more; in fact, there are many complex and profound ideas wrapped up in the way Bill views fashion and culture, all of which inform the pictures he takes.

When photographing runway shows in Paris, he says, “If it isn’t something a woman could wear, I’m not interested.” His down-to-earth, fun-loving attitude makes fashion approachable to all. He praises daring and originality in clothing choices above all. He’s not afraid to call an outfit boring, no matter who’s wearing it. He may ignore a celebrity on the street wearing a multi-thousand dollar gown in favor of a bag-lady digging in the garbage, whose overlapping patterned shawls and head-scarves he thinks are “marvelous.”

Bill Cunningham’s straightforwardness stems from his ethical commitment to honesty and to celebrating individual creativity. He takes a firm stance against fashion magazines’ “In & Out” lists for attempting to dictate from the top-down what’s “in fashion” and what isn’t. Part of his opposition is moral and the other part is practical. He understands that no matter what magazines and designers decree, real fashion—what is actually “in”—can only be determined from the bottom up, by what everyday people actually wear.

To me, it seems that Cunningham’s incredible ability to capture weekly street-style trends is made possible by his understanding of how culture works. Bill’s photographs show us that in the city, fashion is a silent dialogue between people on the streets. Some respond to the latest designs from Paris; others adopt and revise the looks of those around them, incorporating good ideas from anywhere they can be found. People’s clothing choices are also often responding to the conditions of the local climate and Bill traces these complex and spontaneous orders with skill and grace (see “Boiling Point,” documenting the woven, eyelet fabrics of the hot New York week of August 14, 2009).

In de-emphasizing the role of “top-down” dictates from the fashion elite, Bill Cunningham helps us see how we, as everyday people, have the opportunity to participate in the fashion world. “I’m not interested in celebrities with their free dresses,” he says, “I’m interested in clothes!” He calls our attention to the role each of us has as a potential contributor to the silent dialogue of fashion with the choices we make in front of our mirrors each morning.

Click here for a list of when and where the film is showing.

 

Ditching a Younger Sibling

As I was headed to a going-out-of-business sale at the Border’s Bookstore in Santa Fe, I saw something that probably happens millions of times a day around the world. An older sibling was trying hard not to appear connected to a younger. In the photo shown at left, two sisters are distancing themselves from their parents and younger brother behind them. And, sadly, at some point in her teen years, the older sister will protest if told she needs to let her sister tag along.

In Santa Fe I saw a nattily dressed boy of about seventeen purposely walking very fast, forcing his younger sister to periodically have to run or skip to catch up. He was trim, attractive, and had impeccably styled hair. He was wearing a nice sport coat with a well-matched shirt and tie, nice trousers, and well-polished dress shoes. He perhaps looked a bit preppy for the bookstore, but there was no question he looked  confident and sharp.

His younger sister was about thirteen or fourteen, and I could see why he was trying to ditch her. She was pudgy, her hair was a mess, and her unattractive pink dress fit horribly. She had put on a long-sleeved t-shirt under the dress for warmth, and this make her outfit look even worse.

While he looked sophisticated, she looked clueless. Once in the bookstore, they separated, and I never saw him go anywhere near her the whole time I was there.

I told this story at a dinner gathering the other night, and many people starting talking about their relationships with their siblings. One woman’s younger brother (by two years) used to like to hang out with her girl friends when they came over, and she was not happy that her friends found him so funny that they liked having him around. Although she had a good relationship with him, she reached her limit when he tried to join them at their lunch table at high school. After all, she laughingly recalled , “I was a senior!”

No matter how close we might usually be to our siblings, there are times when they can interfere with the image we are trying to project, especially in the strange peer-pressure world of junior high and high school.

[Photo "Hey, Alice, I've been thinking: we're old enough to go out on our own now, without Mom and Dad and our younger brother tagging along and slowing us down" by Ed Yourdon. Used under the Flickr Creative Commons license.]

Are Cell Phones the New Glamorous Accessory?

Randall's post below, “If Someone Glamorous Walked By, Would You Notice?” is about the things you miss when you’re on your cell phone. But the title made me wonder what the person walking by might look like. 

When I searched Google images for “glamorous woman” and “walking,” I discovered a different connection between cell phones and glamour. The top three results were this stock photo, in which the woman is wearing sunglasses, the most classic glamorous accessory, while talking on a cell phone. (She’s also pushing a baby carriage, which may or may not be glamorous.)

Sunglasses, cigarettes, veils, hats, and fans are all classically glamorous accessories. All simultaneously attract attention and create distance. The audience gets an intriguing glimpse of the glamorous person, not a full view.

On a cell phone, the person is similarly present and distant, engaged with someone the viewer can neither see nor hear.  The phone adds an aural dimension to the visual mystery of  sunglasses. At the same time, like wearing jewelry or expensive clothes, talking on the phone signals status: Here is a person who is socially connected, who has friends, who is busy or important.

With cigarettes, veils, hats, and fans all more or less out of fashion, has the cell phone joined sunglasses as a glamorous essential?

["Beauty Talks" image courtesy of Piero Paravidino, Flickr user Sensitive2Light, and used with permission.]

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Vienna as Fashion Muse? Projections of Splendor

Shown at the Paris Fashion week last Thursday, the Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2010 Menswear Collection immediately caught my eye. Not because I am particularly fond of Vuitton (like too many other fashion houses, it has fallen prey to the Plague of Excessive Logos), but rather because of the references to Vienna.

Dominated by narrow-waisted suits, crisp riding boots and structured bags, the collection is described as having been inspired by Vienna's Age of Splendor, and by the Vienna of today. As Vienna has been my home on and off for the past several years, I could not help but ruminate on my own impressions of the city's style, and on the implications of its new status as Fashion Muse.

Over the course of my life in Vienna, I have continuously struggled with how I relate to it. On some level, it has become deeply familiar and even quite mundane, while on another level it has remained a romantic hallucination. In many ways, Vienna is a continental European city like many others – rich in heritage but dynamic in contemporary culture. The streets are full of young trendy people, the museums offer impressive lineups of cutting-edge international artists, the UN Headquarters looms large, and no matter where you are, you can be certain that a Starbucks or an H&M is not terribly far off. And yet, Vienna is not quite of this time. The spirit of the Austro-Hungarian Empire remains present, its rigid, explosive splendor running through the city like a rogue undercurrent.

Experiencing Vienna in this manner is like having persistent double vision, or perhaps even triple vision – whereby reality, history and historical fiction co-exist and struggle for domination over the cultural landscape.

When I ask myself why this is so, one obvious thing that comes to mind is the architecture. Unlike that of other German-speaking cities, Vienna's architecture has largely remained intact after the Second World War. Enormous neoclassical structures erected for the sole purpose of glorifying the Empire continue to surround the city center along the Ringstraße. The towering white marble, the black wrought iron, the vast stretches of cobblestone, and the tall chestnut trees, create a backdrop that insists upon itself and undermines the passage of time. In a sense, it is a romantic backdrop. But the brand of romance is the kind that makes one feel overpowered and somewhat uneasy. The architecture - both in its grandiosity and in the sheer fact of its continuity - sets a mood over the central district that even an army of neon Starbucks and H&M signs cannot overpower.

Granted, architecture can be seen as a passive influence. But there are other areas where Vienna's anachronistic atmosphere is maintained by choice. Take, for instance, the phenomenon of the Viennese Cafe. One can walk into any number of Viennese cafes that look as if they have remained basically unchanged since the 1920s: gilded interiors, plush red upholstery, starched white tablecloths, waiters in tuxedos, sugar cubes in tiny silver bowls, newspapers attached to wooden holders... the head spins from the elegance, and extravagance of it. And the elaborate coffee nomenclature puts other countries' terminologies to shame. (When in doubt, just order a Melange - and stay away from what the Viennese call a Cappuccino unless you want your coffee made with pure cream instead of frothed milk.)

It is not just the look of such a cafe that functions like a time machine, but the atmosphere as well. In a Viennese cafe, you will be called by your title. You will not encounter crammed floor space, even if it means that the cafe is serving only a quarter of the patrons that it could be serving. And you will never be rushed to free up your table, even if you have been nursing the same cup of coffee for hours while a crowd of hopefuls queues outside. And no, such places are not gimmicky tourist traps; they are perfectly normal cafes where the Viennese themselves go to relax.

And then of course, there are the head-turning persons you see in Vienna, the likes of whom I have not encountered elsewhere: from the ladies in floor-length fur coats and sculptural hats who look as if they've walked out of a silent film, to the serious men with heavy, intense gazes and thick streaks of gray in their hair regardless of their age, to the people wearing traditional national costumes as formalwear on a night out. True, the “retro” look has been internationally popular for over a decade, but I feel that in Vienna the look isn't “retro” at all, as it is done entirely without irony. The mixing of the old with the new simply reflects the city's nonlinear sense of time and its playful attitude towards contemporary realities.

An interesting trend I have noted, is how many fashion ateliers in Vienna are simultaneously involved in costume design for the theater. Of all the arts, theater probably occupies the most important position in Vienna, and has enormous cultural influence. Perhaps this explains why even the most contemporary boutiques seem to be at least partly inspired by dramatic turn of the 20th Century style: the designers who make the clothes for the streets are the same ones who create the costumes for the local stage. It would also explain why the past that mingles with Vienna's present seems to be not so much a historically accurate past, as a fantastical one: a romantic notion that the city embraces and projects back onto itself.

Getting back to the Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2010 Menswear Collection, I think that in large part it succeeds in portraying all of these things. The clothing is architectural, theatrical, and communicative, and there is a conceptual depth to it that exceeds what I have come to expect from Vuitton. The garments are rigidly tailored while suggesting fluidity, tightly closed while expressing a potential for openness. They evoke Sigmund Freud's writings on hysteria, Egon Schiele's images of tortured lanky youths, Gustaf Klimt's gilded motifs, and Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis while mixing traditional and contemporary materials and employing deconstructive techniques.

The LV collection is rather impressive really. But... Well, quite frankly, it brings to mind what has been available in Vienna for as long as I have lived there. If you want Viennese splendor that embodies all the anachronistic complexity the city has to offer, visit Vienna itself and walk through some of the neighborhoods that are lined with independent boutiques carrying Austrian designers, including the areas around Neubaugasse and Kettenbrückengasse. Viennese style is at its best in its natural habitat.

[LV runway images via Louis Vuitton/ Antoine de Parceval; all other images belong to the author]

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Bicycle Glamour: Everyday Cycling vs. Competitive Sport

One of my most glamorous memories is of my book editor hopping on her bicycle to go back to the office after a lunch with me in New York. She was wearing a skirt and heels and looked utterly graceful and sophisticated as she rode away.

With their smooth, silent progress, bicycles have great potential for glamour. We use "like riding a bicycle" to mean a physical skill that has become second nature, unforgettable even after years of disuse. We don't say, for instance, "like brushing your teeth," equally second nature but much less impressive. A bicycle can't even stand upright without support, much less move forward.

Yet unlike a car--or, for that matter, a horse--a bicycle depends only on its rider for locomotion. It represents autonomy. In my childhood, getting a bike was the first step toward independence. You could now travel reasonable distances without your parents.

But bicycles aren't on most people's short list of glamorous objects. Competitive cycling, like marathon running, never looks effortless. Kids are burdened with bicycle helmets that make them look dorky and tell them cycling is dangerous. No wonder President Obama skipped the helmet at the beach in Hawaii, after drawing laughs for his helmeted bike ride during the campaign.

As cycling has become more and more an esoteric sport, with complicated gear and lingo, buying a bike has become off-putting to outsiders. When the design firm IDEO worked with component manufacturer Shimano to develop a new bicycle concept, the two firms found were surprised at non-cyclers' attitudes. They loved their memories of biking but were put off by the attitudes and complexity of cycling shops. As Bicycling magazine explained:

"When we asked if Lance Armstrong inspired them, people would say yes, but not to ride a bike," says Shimano's [U.S. marketing manager David] Lawrence. And while all the interview subjects had positive, almost reverential memories of childhood bike rides, Sklar noted that "their feelings about the reality of the biking world are remarkably different." Their dominant image of cycling was one of exercise, speed, uniforms and competition--not of play or fun. "There are a lot of people who feel intimidated and unwelcome in that environment," Sklar says.

To teach cycling enthusiasts what it felt like to be a casual biker in one of their shops, IDEO made them shop for skin products at Sephora. As Daniel Gross recounts in Bicycling:

The Sephora staff, quickly sizing up the bike guys as outsiders and neophytes, treated them with disdain. Says Lawrence: "Everything that happened to noncyclists in a bike shop was happening to our guys in the cosmetics store."

That design collaboration produced a new category called "coasting bikes," designed for casual riders. Another concept, which incorporates more cycling glamour, is the "lovely bicycle," designed for daily, but noncompetitive, use. Here's a description of a lovely bicycle from the blog by that name:

When utility and romance coexist not despite, but because of one another, that is a Lovely Bicycle! A Lovely Bicycle does not only look beautiful in itself, but allows you to look your best while riding it.

Our notions of personal aesthetics vary, and, naturally, so will our bicycles. For the individual whose personal style consists of casual or athletic clothing, a roadbike can be a perfectly appropriate choice. For the individual whose style revolves around formal attire - including suits, skirts and high heels - an upright city bike works far better. The main idea, is that the bicycle should not require the cyclist to change their preferred way of dress or their lifestyle in order to ride it.

Recounting her yearning for a lovely bicycle untainted by the butt-up, head-down, Lycra-legged aesthetics of competitive cycling, blogger Filigree writes:

Only on vintage posters and in old art films did I see the romance that made me long for cycling again. Seeing these fictional lady cyclists of yore, the relaxed chic they exude is alluring and enticing. It makes cycling seem cool and fashionable. But can these associations exist in today's world?

They certainly do on her blog, from which these photos are taken. Although I'm a dedicated walker, she makes me want to get a bike—at least once the rain stops.

[Vintage poster from Swann Galleries and up for auction February 4.]

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Learning from Our Homes

In How Buildings Learn author Stewart Brand quotes Winston Churchill, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” While remodeling the home we purchased in Colorado, my wife and I had bookshelves built into one room, and had swing-arm lamps attached to the walls near two easy chairs. During construction we called this room our “library,” and now when we want to read and relax, this room has become a haven that beckons to us.

One small appliance in the remodeled kitchen has also reshaped my daily life. The graceful device shown in the photograph is an InstaHot, which, through a small electrical heater located under the counter, delivers filtered, near-boiling water with the touch of a lever. This small convenience has transformed me into a tea drinker.

My wife starts her day with coffee, then moves on to dark teas, and then herbal teas. But coffee bothers my stomach and makes me nervous. So I have never been able to enjoy coffee.

And I had never become a tea drinker. I realize that many people find putting on a pot of water for tea a special pleasure, but to me it always seemed a bother. But now I had access to a beautiful object that magically delivered super-hot water when you pulled it’s red-tipped lever. It cried out to be used, and I began to try various green teas, and then herbal teas. Soon we filled two cabinet drawers with a wide variety of black, green, and herbal teas.

Now each morning, afternoon, and evening I hear the seductive call of the InstaHot, urging me to enjoy the pleasure of some fragrant tea. And, especially as the weather cools, I have learned that sitting in the library with a good book and a cup of hot tea can create a feeling of priceless luxury and relaxation. When the house was being remodeled, neither of us realized just how much we would learn to enjoy this quiet retreat, or that I would learn to love tea.

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The Glamour of Glass

“I have very expensive wallpaper.” So said Philip Johnson, architect of the modernist masterpiece Glass House, which he designed as his own residence in 1947 and inhabited until his death in 2005. Beyond its expense, Johnson’s glass walls create a glamorous atmosphere unique for a small suburban residence. Undoubtedly his lifestyle did much to enhance this feeling. The house was a setting for frequent salons and parties, hosting many luminaries of modern art and design. Johnson was so devoted to entertaining he had a hob in his kitchenette island removed so he could add an extra ice maker.

But the glamour of the house isn’t just about what happened inside; it emanates from the structure itself. Similarly, countless other glass buildings, from the Crystal Palace to the Burj Dubai (which contains a breathtaking 20 acres of glass) transcend the idea of buildings, becoming surreal settings of fascination and desire. Something about glass captures our imagination and creates glamour like no other architectural material.

Glass’s glamour arises from its physical properties: fragility, luminosity, and transparency. Rigid but delicate, glass is notoriously difficult to work with. It first appeared in architecture in ancient Rome around 100 AD, adorning only the most important buildings and expensive private homes. It remained a luxury through the middle ages, typically found in palaces and churches. Though glass is now ubiquitous, its use at large scale still feels lavish, and it wasn’t until the middle of the last century that technology allowed for the construction of multi-story glass facades such as those on Bunshaft’s Lever House and Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, and the many other glass skyscrapers that comprise the Manhattan skyline.

Glass’s precarious nature, combined with its scintillating reflective surfaces, give it a jewel-like quality at any scale. Cinderella’s slipper was glass, embodying hope, fantasy, and royalty in one fragile token. The glass structures of the world are like Cinderella’s slipper writ large, containers of dreams that always feel a little bit impossible. I.M. Pei’s pyramid at the Louvre, and the cube above the Fifth Avenue Apple Store that references it, have this gem-like presence. The same can’t be said for structures made with transparent plastics like acrylic or polycarbonate; poor cousins, too optically inert to stir our emotions.

Like all truly glamorous things, glass eludes us. It moves in a perpetual dance between two kinds of ephemerality. Lit from outside, it is luminous and reflective, taking on the character of what surrounds it. Johnson’s Glass House feels alive, an ever-shifting pattern of trees shimmering across its surfaces. Glass skyscrapers literally become pieces of sky, translucent blue by day and inky black at night. In this state, glass is like a mirror, restless and mysterious.

But light a glass structure from within, and it vanishes in another way, revealing its contents to the world. This glass is deceptively sheer. It yields to what’s behind it, inviting us to peer inside. It’s this invitation — to admiration and to voyeurism — that makes glass so special.

Inscribed in any glamorous object is the gaze which makes it so. Pull back from the object. Zoom out, and there is always someone watching and wanting, infusing it with the desire that is glamour’s driving force. Without a viewer through which fantasy can be filtered, there may be elegance or sophistication, but there can be no glamour.

Glass, with its tantalizing non-presence, creates the illusion that inside and outside are one. But not so fast. As anyone who has accidentally walked into a freshly-washed glass door will tell you, it’s a formidable barrier. This impenetrability is also part of its glamour. Glamour is an expression of a paradox: a fantasy so close you can feel yourself inside it, but so distant you must admire from afar. Glass facilitates this illusion better than any other material. Think of shop windows, museum exhibits, and jewelry display cases. Glass says look but don’t touch. It beckons to you to lose yourself in fantasy at the same time as it precludes you from making it a reality.

Playing directly with this paradox, the Standard Hotel has captured the essence of glass’s glamour in its 18-story New York tower. The hotel touts the spectacular views of the Hudson River from the picture windows in each room, but the real story is guests’ exhibitionist behavior, encouraged (and sometimes engaged in) by staff and management. Ostensibly about looking out, the allure is really about looking in. The glamour is in feeling admired and coveted inside the glass box — exposed, yet protected.

Johnson supposedly prized his house for its outward views. A nature-lover, he lit the house with the intention of making the natural surroundings visible rather than calling attention to the architecture, and he slept facing out towards his favorite view. But the house is also undeniably about looking in. Johnson considered the threshold to be outside the house, at the first point when you get a full view of it just past the stone wall that runs alongside the driveway. In the foyer of a typical home, you acclimate to the new environment whilst inside it; in Johnson’s schema, you are welcomed first by standing outside looking in. You must appreciate before you enter.

Glass is not a comfortable material, and Johnson was well aware of this. He never aspired to comfort in his home, but to an aesthetic purity. The Glass House existed not to coddle his senses, but to stimulate them. He has said:

...Comfort is not a function of beauty... purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful...sooner or later we will fit our buildings so that they can be used...where form comes from I don't know, but it has nothing at all to do with the functional or sociological aspects of our architecture.

Glamour, like glass, is beautiful but rigid. It doesn’t bend to our convenience; rather, it offers a fantasy, and if we desire it, we conform ourselves to its standards. In this way, glass it like countless other tools of glamour — corsets, stilettos, sportscars — enforcing an uncomfortable, even painful transformation. It is not easy to be glamorous, just as it is not easy to live in a glass house. But it is beautiful. And for some, it’s well worth it.

[Images: Glass House images, © Ingrid Fetell. Crystal Palace, Wikimedia Commons. All others via Flickr, used under Creative Commons license: Burj Dubai by Paolo Rosa, Seagram building by gmpicket, Louvre Pyramid by carlos_seo, and Standard Hotel by laurenatclemson.]

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Blogs, Fashion, and the Resurgent Glamour of Smoking

Jennine of The Coveted is calling on fashion and street blogs to stop posting “images of cool, chic people standing around casually smoking.” Such images, she argues, promote a seductively glamorous image of a gross and dangerous habit. “Even...people who hate smoking in real life, get a voyeuristic joy out of these cool people who are immune to health hazards and smelly breath.”

“Would it be too much to ask to put out the cigarette for a moment, for the sake of social responsibility?” she asks.

She’s not the first to make that argument. Her prime target, The Sartorialist, has long drawn criticism for showing so many street-fashion icons with lit cigarettes. (Examples here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) The topic has become something of a joke among commenters, and this post included a disclaimer declaring that the image isn’t supposed to celebrate smoking.

The problem, of course, is that these cool, chic people do smoke, particularly on the street. (The New Yorkers in these photos often look like they’re on the street precisely because they’re smokers fleeing no-smoking buildings.) But, Jennine correctly notes, such photos are always selective. Why not edit out the cigarettes? In effect, she’s arguing that fashion blogs should further glamorize their subjects by deleting their nasty habits.

In truth, these blog photos rarely glamorize smoking. Unlike images like this, this, or this, they don't emphasize the smoking. It is unimportant to the image and the emotions it evokes. Rather, these photos normalize smoking, by depicting cigarettes as no more unusual or problematic than cell phones. You have to care about cigarettes to imbibe any message about them.

Of course, that normalization is something of a change from the treatment of cigarettes in my youth, when smoking was generally viewed as a low-class habit for losers. The unrelenting campaign against it has given smoking new cachet, making it an emblem of “heroic, sexy social outlaws,” as one observer put it in British Vogue.

Still, the main pro-cigarette bias on fashion blogs isn’t overt. It’s a side effect of the photographic medium. The still image removes the smoker from time and, thus, from the long-term consequences of the smoking. In this way, the photos are indeed glamorous, offering escape into a perfect, and illusory, moment beyond entropy, age, decay, or death.

[Celia enjoying a cigarette by Flickr user Malias, St. Tropez smoker by Flickr user FaceMePLS, both used under Creative Commons license.]

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Hotel Week: How John Portman Reinvented the Lobby with Visual Excitement

When the Atlanta Hyatt Regency opened in 1967, its glass elevators and rotating rooftop restaurant were the talk of the Southeast. To me, growing up a couple of hours from Atlanta, the Hyatt represented “the future” as surely as any World's Fair. Architect-developer John Portman had designed it to wow visitors for whom Atlanta represented the big city. As critic Paul Goldberger writes:

Portman devised a scheme for a modern hotel built around an open atrium as a conscious rebuke to the standardized, boxy modern hotels of the nineteen-fifties and -sixties (including a preliminary design of his own, which he rejected as too conventional), based on the belief that in the troubled urban climate of the mid-nineteen-sixties, a new hotel going up in an urban site had to serve as a magnet to attract cautious suburbanites and out-of-towners. Everything about the Hyatt was geared toward visual excitement: a 220-foot tall central atrium, glass elevators, a round, revolving rooftop lounge, perched atop the building like a flying saucer.

Portman’s design did indeed represent the future of hotels. Its atrium lobby in particular became a much-imitated feature, helping to establish Hyatt as a national brand and Portman as a sought-after architect, especially in the hospitality industry. His iconic hotels include the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, shown to the right, the Westin Bonaventure in downtown L.A. (famous from In the Line of Fire, where Portman's glass elevators were important to the plot), the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, and Embarcadero Center (and its Hyatt) in San Francisco.

Ric Garrido of the Loyalty Traveler blog fondly remembers his teenage awe at the San Francisco Hyatt's atrium and the large metal sculpture that dominates it. (Photo below.)

Back in the 70s sitting in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency at Embarcadero Center provided a respite from the streets of San Francisco, same as today. Here was a large hotel space I could sit and rest my feet, use a free toilet, and drink some water while watching people move vertically through the hotel in the glass elevators and take each other’s photos in front of the sculpture.

Ironically the criticism of John Portman’s hotel atrium designs is that the focus of these large buildings is interior rather than exterior. The buildings are considered exclusionary to the people outside on the city streets. My memories of the Hyatt Regency San Francisco as a place where I could enjoy the beauty and comfort of a grand hotel as a person seeking shelter from the streets defies that criticism. The Hyatt Regency San Francisco is a hotel I have visited for over 30 years, yet I was a registered hotel guest for the first time in 2008.

Portman in effect reinvented the American hotel lobby as it had been experienced in the 19th century, a trend that has intensified over the past decade or so, even as Portman's once-radical designs have come to seem somewhat old-fashioned.

On October 17, an exhibit devoted to Portman's work opens at the High Museum in Atlanta. The following description of the Atlanta Hyatt Regency is drawn, with permission, from the catalog, John Portman: Art and Architecture, to be published by the University of Georgia Press.

The hotel, John Portman’s first, revolutionized an entire industry by introducing the atrium concept to contemporary hotel design. The hotel was conceived as a totally new guest experience: the antithesis of the traditional, tightly confined double-corridor hotel. The design goal was to open the interior space to create a dynamic, uplifting environment, one that would bring the energy and life of the city indoors, while providing restaurants, cafés, and bars that would attract visitors, not just guests.

The 22-story concrete structure was figuratively “exploded” to create the huge, sky-lit atrium. With natural light, sculpture, trees, and water, the interior resembles a large outdoor piazza bordered by a sidewalk café. (Originally, the lobby featured a three-story aviary, home to colorful Macaws and other tropical birds.) The glass elevator cabs were exposed, turning the elevators into kinetic sculptures, creating a sense of movement and drama. Passengers on the glass elevators could view the Atlanta skyline as the elevator continued through the atrium roof to the blue-domed revolving restaurant above.

Many professionals saw the atrium design as a liability—an enormous waste of space. During the hotel’s construction, legendary hotel operator Conrad Hilton was quoted as observing, “That concrete monster will never fly.” When the hotel did open, it was visited by thousands of tourists a day, forming lines around the block. The great success of the original project, which comprised 800 guestrooms, quickly prompted the expansion of two adjacent towers, creating an additional 200 and 350 guestrooms, respectively.

Hyatt’s owners, the Pritzker family of Chicago, were richly rewarded for taking a chance on Portman's unconventional designs. In fact, writes Goldberger in his catalog introduction, the hotel “tied the reputation of the Pritzkers to architecture to such an extent that a dozen years later the family established the Pritzker Prize, which has become the most famous architectural prize in the world.”

[Hyatt Regency Atlanta, 1967, view of the atrium, photo by Michael Portman and Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel, 1985, view of the atrium, photo by Jaime Ardiles-Arce, both courtesy of the High Museum of Art. Grand Hyatt Lobby, San Francisco, by Flickr user amnesia_x under Creative Commons license. "Atlanta Lights" by Flickr user Old Shoe Woman, used with permission.]

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The Glamorous Life of Sorority Girls

A month or so ago, I started to write a post on sorority glamour. At first, it seemed easy enough, especially since I spent several years donning “pin attire” (something dressier than a sweatshirt and jeans) for Monday night meetings and shopping for formal dresses that could stand up to beer stains. Sororities aren’t just about the clothes (and the parties those clothes are for) but some of the glamour to be found in those institutions is definitely related to dressing up. In that respect, sororities bridge the gap between the high school prom and the board rooms and charity galas that loom after graduation.

But glamour is more than just trappings – otherwise there’d be no blog called Deep Glamour. In an effort to figure out what lies beneath the formal dresses and little gold sorority pins, I dug out a few books on the subject to see what they had to say. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a whole lot. In Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities, a very honest look at life as a member of a sorority at a big southern school, author and undercover sorority girl Alexandra Robbins used the words “glamour” and “glamorous” exactly zero times each. Same goes for Inside Greek U. by Alan D. DeSantis.

Then I moved on to Google and Flickr, searching for “sorority and glamour,” and similar variations on that theme. Most of what I found was designed either to mock ditzy sorority girls or to capitalize on their image as, shall we say, morally casual. Or, as in the case of the movie Sorority Row, which opens tomorrow, to do both, while a serial killer chases the girls around campus. But no serious discussion could be found.

So finally, I went straight to the source, asking the opinions of a bunch of women I know who were in sororities during college. Finally, I got some real answers about the role of glamour in Greek life.

According to my friends – and my own experiences back this up – it’s all about the mystery. There’s something fascinating and exciting about a group that’s got secrets and rituals at its core, and a hundred-plus years of history to back them up. On top of that, the exclusivity factor, though it draws ire from the anti-Greek crowd, keeps the organization’s secrets just that – secret.

Secret rituals and codes built on long-standing, somewhat mysterious traditions - these are the things that sell us on books like The Da Vinci Code (well, these and danger), and they’re also what drive thousands of college kids to sign up for rush every year.

All that said, we can’t forget the clothes. Formal dresses and pin attire might be simply the superficial manifestation of sorority life, but when we start learning about glamour and deciding what it means to us, personally, we have to start someplace – and usually, we start with the outifts. Once we're dressed, then we can worry about secrets and codes.

["Sorority Row" poster from Summit Entertainment. I wish I had a picture of my own sorority house, but all of my pictures of the house also include a bunch of squealing girls - squealing girls who are now doctors and lawyers and scientists, and who definitely don't want their college pictures posted all over the internet.]

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Suits and Knives

A young corporate lawyer that I know was thrilled that he found a $4,000 Paul Smith suit in his size on sale for $800. He snatched it up and took it to his tailor to be fine tuned in fit. (The photo at right shows one of Smith’s suits.)

A friend of mine whose work never requires that he dress up could not understand why anyone would pay thousands of dollars for a suit. This friend likes to cook, and, while looking around a kitchenware store with our wives, I pointed out a Victorinox chef's knife which Cook’s Illustrated had praised as a inexpensive, yet favorite tool in their test kitchen. He then showed me the knife that he wanted, a Shun chef’s knife. It was incredibly beautiful, but given that it was priced at about five times as much, I wondered if it could possibly function five times as well?

I suppose that depends on what “function” means. If you love to cook and love to work with beautiful tools, then owning the Shun knife might be a daily source of pleasure. And if your work involves frequently dealing with clients who wear suits worth thousands of dollars, then wearing a suit in which you feel just as well-dressed could be both valuable to your business and personally pleasurable. Value in both cases depends on just how much the suit or knife means to the self-image of the buyer.

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"A Symbol of Grace"

Hats
by Glenis Redmond

Sistahs have always been able to style in hats.

You know they got it going on.
Those women can wear hats from dust ‘til dawn.

You’ve got to be bold and have snap to sport a hat.
You’ve got to have it and know where it is at.

You’ve got to stop and cock it to the side.
Check them out and continue with your stride.

Profile it. Style it.
Then let them wow it.

Tilt it, lean it, or wear it straight in place.
A well worn hat is a symbol of grace.

You have heard people say it. I have too.
“Oh, she can wear a hat.
She sho’ ’nough knows what to do.”

Oh, a hat can get those oohs and aahs.
If it is totally bad, it gets applause.

Some hats are so bad, they are just bad to the bone.
People stop and say, “that girl has got it going on.”

Or say “You just go girl, you just go on, girl,
‘cause with that hat you’re the finest thang in the world.”

            HATS
                                    HATS
HATS

Big ones, tall ones, small ones, fruity ones,
pointy ones, veiled ones, flowered ones
sporty ones,
polka-dot ones,
plain ones,
and kufis too!

Lean it,
            cock it,
style it,
            profile it,
                                    tilt it,
                                                 tip it,
                        check it,
            sport it.

                        HATS
HATS
                                    HATS

Do you dare to wear?
How do you fare?
Do you want to be bad to the bone?
Then, get you a hat and get it going on!

[Copyright  2000 by Glenis Redmond. Used with permission of the author. Photo of Virginia Postrel and Amy Alkon watching slide show of Kirk McKoy's photos of women in church hats by Karol Franks, from her DeepGlamour party set on Flickr.]

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The Power of the Written Word

Earlier this week, Randall Shinn wrote about the impact of voice. He writes of patterned language, saying, “Hearing such language performed by a great vocal interpreter remains a magical experience.”

It’s true that some voices and some styles of delivery make words more powerful. It doesn’t stop, though, with the spoken word. Graphic novelists, especially, understand this, creating images and deliberately drawing words to convey a certain mood. Artist Maira Kalman tells stories (most notably in The New York Times) using simple drawings, bright colors and incredibly expressive handwriting that is one part childlike, one part sophisticated and completely distinctive.

The majority of us, though, don’t have the artistic ability to communicate like Kalman, or any graphic novelist. But we do have Microsoft Word, which offers us hundreds of different fonts to choose from, plus the ability to easily manipulate font size, to make our words bold, and to italicize. With just a little effort, we can download a font to convey most every mood or concept (including glamour, which has a “font family” of its own, plus an additional “glamour girl” iteration).

This makes me wonder: just because we can manipulate the look of our words to convey extra emotion, should we? There’s something relaxing about reading books and websites that, out of necessity, rely on a single, simple font with a minimum of fuss, and sometimes it’s nice, as a reader, to do a little interpretation. But, then, are we missing out on something the author might share?

[Photo "Words" by Flickr user Emborg, under the Creative Commons license.]

Deep Glamour Pet Week Prize Winners

After careful consideration, and much argle-bargle

"Dogs aren't glamorous!" "Yes, they are!" "No, they're not--slobber is not seductive!"

in which DG's panel of experts fought like, well, you know, Deep Glamour is pleased to announce the winners of the first DG Pet Week contest, canine division. All winners will receive PetHead products.

Most glamorous pose  Lola

Most glamorous photo  Pumpkin

Most glamorous dog  (tie)  Sasha

Most glamorous dog (tie) Vida

Deep Glamour Pets--Cats

Cats are just inherently glamorous, and they seem to inspire boudoir shots.

Deep Glamour Pets--Dogs

Deep Glamour is pleased to present our first Pet Week pin-ups, canine division.

Tail End of Pet Week

Abby by Barbara Ellis.  She reminds me of Greer Garson, in Mrs. Miniver.

Pet Week winners will be announced soon. Stay tuned!

Posh Pet Week Nearly Over

Wonton by Celia.

Sasha by Kelly.  A blue-eyed Siberan Husky. Or maybe those are tinted contacts?

Gabriel by Susan C.  Another blue-eyed charmer.

Hot Dogs at DG Pet Week

Lucy Maybelline by Sheri Squires.  She's lounging on a George Nelson pillow.

Pet Week: Pets with Panache

Pumpkin by Tyler Chesher. She has such a 30s quality--looks like a character right out of Public Enemies.

Incidentally, photographer Deborah Chesher offers her rock and roll photos at a special Christmas in July rate.

Pet Week: Doggie Glamour—Big vs. Small

Dogs might come in all shapes, sizes and temperments, but when it comes to glamorous pets, small dogs get a lot of the love. Tiny dog owner (and tiny dog clothing designer) Paris Hilton is not alone in her love for all things tiny and canine - if photos on the now defunct Celebrity Dog Blog are to be believed, small is the size of choice among starlets all over LA.

While small dogs might have their pick of designer doggie carriers and dresses that would make a beauty pageant contestant green with envy, big dogs have a brand of glamour all their own.

Thanks, simply, to their size, big dogs often have a regal air. When they're in motion they're full of power and grace, showing off what their size can do. Capably glamorous. But when they're at rest, that's when the real power shines through. The most glamorous big dogs are almost feline in their attitude - the way they survey what's around them lets you know that they're in charge. They're Joan Collins, hair wrapped in a turban, sipping a glass of champagne while someone else (their owner) does their bidding.

So which is more glamorous, the trendy petite pooch ensonced in Louis or the grande dame clad in nothing but a collar and a haughty look?

That, I believe, is a question for the ages.

["What's in my bag? A dog!" by Flickr user creme_brulee. "Great Dane for a Walk" by Flickr user Morning Glory. Both images used under Creative Commons license.]

Pet Week: For Your Consideration--Even More Glamour Pets

Mabel and Evie by Sarah Godwin.

Mabel and Evie are both a mix of terrier (probably Cairn) and Chinese Crested (powderpuff) and were adopted from a shelter network. Since their adoption, they have wholeheartedly embraced the princess life.

Pet Week: Mo Pets, Mo Glam

Daisy by Nina Bargiel.  Daisy is a special, special girl and Nina has the stories to prove that statement.

Pet Week Continues

  Sadie by Marjorie Strum.  As befits a Bay area cat, she's sweet and tolerant.

Pet Week: For Your Consideration--Glamour Pets, Redux

Lucy by Amy Alkon.

Incidentally, Alkon, the Advice Goddess, shares her Yorkie's love for luxurious hair care products.  In fact, she uses the same shampoo--Buddy Wash.

Pet Week: For Your Consideration--More Glamour Pets

Vida, a Sheltie by Kevin Knoblock.  Look at those come-hither eyes.

Pet Week: Top Dogs--Pets in the Public Eye, Part 1

 The phenomena of fashions in pets (not to be confused with pet fashions, which is a different post) has been recently pointed up by Bo, a Portuguese Water Dog, chosen by the Obamas. Cute, non-shedding, and smart, this breed hadn't been on the radar of the general public, but now, breeders are besieged by frenzied families, and according to the Wall Street Journal, being very picky about who gets a puppy. Previous First Pets hadn't set off quite the same mania, although Checkers, a spaniel owned by Richard Nixon became a household name.

Before Bo, Chihuahuas were popular, thanks to movies like Legally Blond and starlets like Paris Hilton.

And back in the '50s, Lassie set the standard for family  companionship, despite a frightening intelligence and a coat that required daily, hourly maintenance. Timmy's mom must have had a live-in groomer.

Art at the Beach

The Art Production Fund's "Works on Whatever" project offers beach towels with designs by fine artists. The Alex Katz design has the most glamour, but I'm a big fan of Ed Ruscha and love his nerdy take here. (Hat tip: Liquid Treat)

Beauty Rituals and Their Tools

In a new exhibit, the French Musée National de la Renaissance has assembled quite a collection of Renaissance toilet items, including this luxurious set of 16th-century beauty tools. When grooming was a luxury, its tools were as well. In fact, the difficulty of making grooming tools cheaply was one reason that good grooming itself was a mark of social status. (Here's a page of links to photos of Medieval and Renaissance combs carved from ivory or bone.)

The ideal of a lady's luxurious vanity set lingered into the 20th century. My grandmother owned a typical version: a matching silver brush and hand mirror. If you search online, you can still find new silver-plated cosmetic brushes like these, but the more-elaborate sets will be vintage. (Check out this nail set.) The photos advertising them reveal a downside to such luxury: tarnish.

Nowadays, toilette is a routine chore, to be accomplished with efficiency. Accessories aren't meant as treasures or heirlooms but as useful tools, to be replaced when something better comes along. The most glamorous presentations of beauty tools promise not luxury but order: Buy this organizer, they suggest, and you'll finally get all that bathroom clutter under control.

[Photo: Coffret-nécessaire de toilette, Mathias Walbaum, circa 1595-1600. Musée historique, Bâle © Bâle, musée Historique / photo : HMB M. Babey.]

Matching Up in Style

Anyone whose commute takes them past a high school with liberal dress codes might notice the striking contrast between numerous young ladies dressed to kill and numerous young men dressed to skateboard in t-shirts and dropped-crotch cutoffs. And occasionally you see young couples out on a date in which the clash in clothing styles seems incongruous. (I suspect the style-conscious young Japanese couple in the photo can match styles well when they choose to.)

While I was a professor at Arizona State University a male graduate student entered the program who was tall and handsome enough to quickly attract the admiration of the undergraduate women. He soon started dating the most stylish female graduate student in the school. Within months she had made him over from hair to shoes into as stylish a male student as you could possibly imagine. He had a teaching assistantship, and after that a few of his undergraduate female students were always trailing along asking him questions (except when his girlfriend was present).

I once complimented a stylish engaged young couple on what a handsome pair they made, and he said, “You didn’t see us before she made me over.” She was slightly embarrassed and said, “He always says that.” But given how stylish she was, I had no doubt she had offered him a few suggestions.

I have seen numerous couples out together in which the woman looked considerably more stylish than the man, but seldom the reverse. But when my wife and I talked about this topic at dinner one night, we found it interesting that most of the couples we knew were reasonably well matched in terms of style. I would be curious whether our readers feel that they pair up that way, or whether one of them has mentored the other in matters of style. I had a casual conversation about this with a woman, and she said all her efforts to remake her husband’s wardrobe had been failures. And thinking about it, I realized the two male makeovers I described happened while the couple were dating. Do any of you have tips or stories to share in this regard?

[“Stylish couple”photograph by Javi Motomachi and used under the Flickr Creative Commons license.]

Maureen Kelly on Mom Glamour, and a Tarte Makeup Giveaway

Like many entrepreneurs, Maureen Kelly found her niche out of frustration. She loved makeup--she calls herself a "natural-born product junkie" and has confessed to giving her sister's doll an unrequested makeover as a preschooler--but she didn't like what she considered unhealthy ingredients and "boring, unglamorous black pots." In response, she left her doctoral studies at Columbia (where she received a master's in clinical psychology) and created tarte, debuting her first products in 2000 at Henri Bendel. The company's hit products derive their glamour not only from makeup's eternal promise of "hope in a jar" but from ecological ideals and sensuous packaging.

As Mother's Day approaches, we asked Maureen about motherhood and glamour.

DG: Has your definition of "glamour" changed since you became a mother? How?

MK: Since I’ve become a mom my definition of glamour has changed a bit—I still think of Grace Kelly and Aubrey Hepburn as iconic definitions of the term glamour, but I’m also noting more mother-figures as having that 'je ne se quoi'.

DG: How do you incorporate glamour into life as a busy mom?

MK: As a busy mom of two boys, I try to incorporate glamour into my life through makeup! A new shade of lipstick or a pretty pop of color on your cheek instantly updates your look and helps you stay current. I love makeup because it’s an inexpensive and easy way to update your style-these days we can all appreciate that! Being a mom means we don’t get to spend as much time on ourselves as we’d like so whether it’s a pretty pucker or a smokey eye, makeup is a quick and easy way to feel better about ourselves. It’s all about the little things these days.

DG: Who is the most glamorous mother you know of? What is it about her that makes her glamorous to you?

MK: Salma Hayek. She’s not only beautiful, but smart. Her work with UNICEF helps pregnant women get tetanus vaccines—to me that’s the epitome of glamour.

Tarte has generously agreed to give one of its scrumptious-looking Spring Greening makeup palettes to a lucky DG reader.

The Spring Greening palette includes six vibrant eyeshadows, three lip glosses with the company's t5 super fruit complex™ to keep lips soft and smooth, and a bamboo eyeshadow brush—all in a reusable compact made of straw and recycled materials.

The Spring Greening palette retails for $38.50 at Tarte.com, Sephora, Sephora.com, and Beauty.com.

To win yours, be the first reader to email me at virginia-at-deepglamour.net with the subject line TARTE. Please include your mailing address.

[Contest open to U.S. residents only. Prize will be shipped directly from Tarte.]

Venues for Glamour

I suppose that one could choose to be glamorous anywhere. While staying in a B&B in Harlech, Wales, we dressed casually and asked where to find a good local pub. After telling us, our host recalled a Parisian couple that had come down from their rooms on a Saturday night, he wearing a tuxedo, and she an evening gown. When they asked, “Where is the nightlife?” he looked at them and said, “You’re it.” Then he explained the local customs, sent them to a local pub dressed as they were, and they had a great time.

The Kentucky Derby provides an opportunity to wear outrageously extravagant hats and drink during the day. Seeing photographs such as this one, I am reminded of Ovid's line in The Art of Love advising young men “to learn to know the places which the fair ones most do haunt.” Places where “they come to see and, more important still, to be seen.” And he mentions Roman horse races as one possible venue.

In large, reasonably fashionable cities, glamorous events are more of a possibility. Theater events, charitable events, perhaps some country club gatherings, and maybe even some night spots where you might feel comfortable dressed in relatively glamorous clothing. While living in New Orleans I was invited to observe the carnival ball of one of the Mardi Gras Krewes, an event so costumed and formal that a tuxedo was required to sit in the balcony and watch. In smaller cities and towns, dress is usually more casual, though in small fashionable cities like Santa Fe, there are more chances to dress up.

How do readers feel? Is an occasion or venue required in order to wear glamorous outfits? Or can touches of glamour be incorporated into more ordinary clothing? While in Breckenridge recently to ski, I noticed that young Japanese skiers were, on the whole, strikingly fashion conscious, and this was true of both young men and women as they were merely window shopping in town. No wonder Japan has become one of the world leaders in style.

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user Velo Steve under Creative Commons license.]

This Time With Feeling! Belgians Bop

If only everyday life was more like musical comedy! The Antwerp train station was the scene for a seemingly impromptu song and dance number. (Actually, a Dutch TV series is searching for the next Maria to star in The Sound of Music, but it's still festive and fun, and even a little touching.)

Here in LA, Union Station would be the perfect setting for You're the One That I Want from Grease.

Small Daily Pleasures

Twice in my life I have been invited into homes that contained no objects designed to provide visual pleasure. No artwork, no family heirlooms, no knickknacks, plain  furniture, and plain food served on the plainest plates imaginable. In both cases the husbands were tenured university professors, so poverty was not the cause. One family was Quaker, but lacked the love of beautifully made, simply-designed furniture that many Quakers have. The other family was Jewish and had escaped Europe during World War II. Despite the husband’s success in America, their outlook on life remained as bleak as their home.

In both cases I went home needing to look at some of the visual “treasures” my wife and I have collected for our home. Their cost, whatever that was, is not what makes them treasures to us--what makes them valuable is the pleasure we have in using and looking at them.

The mug shown in the photo is a contemporary version of one designed by architect Mary Colter (1869-1958) for the Santa Fe railroad as part of her Super Chief china. The quail motif is a stylized version of one found on ancient pottery from the Mimbres culture , long vanished from the American Southwest. Coulter was one of the first women architects, and she designed several important buildings for Fred Harvey and the National Park Service. Her buildings remain stylish even today.

I love having morning tea in this mug. It’s beautifully shaped, sturdy, and feels good both in your hand and on your lips. Like most of the objects any of us collect, this one brings back memories and associations, including where we were when we purchased it.

Unfortunately, with familiarity we often take for granted the beauty and pleasure that our collected objects provide us on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s good to remember, to stop and look at them. In an important sense, they help define who we are. I had taken a seminar with one of the professors mentioned above, and I learned more about him as a person in one quick glance around his living room than I had in a whole semester of discussions.

Get a Bollywood Butt

With all the Oscar buzz around Slumdog Millionaire, it's not surprising that all things Indian are hotter than vindaloo. (See? I can write cheesy woman's magazine copy, too!)

My faves are Hemalayaa's workout videos, Bollywood Booty, Bollywood Burn and so on. There's an abs one, but it's not called Delhi Belly, alas.

The bhangra beat is infectious at first, and then so annoying you could scream. Go ahead! Screaming works the diaphragm like nothing else.

Is 35 the Ideal Age?

The ads for Isaac Mizrahi's new line for Liz Claiborne feature women, only one of them a professional model, whose ages range from 19 to 68. What they have in common, reports the NYT's Stephanie Rosenbloom,

is what the company’s executives call “perpetual 35-ness.” In other words, the notion that in most women’s minds (if not their bodies) they are all 35. That is the age, Mr. Mizrahi said, when women are “perfectly ripe”: old enough to feel independent and confident, but not so old that they feel, er, old.

What do you think? Is 35 the perfect age? Was it the perfect age 10 or 20 years ago? Do ideal ages vary in different parts of the country? When we lived in Dallas, we often remarked that women seemed to aspire to look a bit older than they do in L.A.--not old, mind you, and probably not even 35, but older.

One of the "models" is movie blogger Karina Longworth, interviewed by DG here.

A Little Cheap Cyber-Popularity

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote Bernice Bobs Her Hair, about the transformation of a lumpen cousin from Eau Claire into a belle with a wicked line of party patter, social success was visible--if there was a line of men waiting to cut in and dance with a girl, she was popular.  Now,  Facebook friends and Twitter followers and other social media rosters fill the same function. Or do they?

Recently, I'd unwittingly conducted an experiment in measuring my own popularity and name recognition.  An zealous underling updated my Facebook profile by sending out friend requests to everyone in my combined address books.  I went from some 200 friends to nearly 600--with only 6 people sending me "who the hell are you?" emails.  I figure this is probably about half of the recipients of the request, which isn't a bad average. Still, I'm a wallflower compared to Andrew Breitbart who's got 2,300  friends, or Arianna Huffington with nearly 4,958. (Virginia Postrel  has some 700, and her own devotee group, but then she's a person of charm and substance. I'm just chatty.)

Facebook has a 5000 limit, and some experts think that hitting the magic number doesn't mean much.  The average user has 100 friends, and I did notice, not that this proves anything, that people who had very few friends or were concerned about privacy, were the people who wanted  reassurance that I wasn't a spam-bot.  I accept everyone's friend requests--being a Facebook pal doesn't mean I'm having you over for birthday cake.   Slate's Farhad Manjoo was a little more blunt--get on the bus, Gus--

Nobody avoids meeting people in real life by escaping to the Web.

If anything,  the opposite is true for me--the more F'bookers I know, the more places I go.  What about you, DG readers?  Leave a comment, scoot me an email, or find me on.... Facebook.

Put the Sex Back In Science--Look at the Space Race

Thomas Friedman, in the NYTimes, wants more money for math and science education, which is hard to argue against. But since the big days of Silicon Valley are pretty much over, engineering and hard science seems rather drab.  Back in the JFK race for space years, science was a lot sexier.

Take a look at this Space Center team, celebrating one of the Apollo missions.
                                                                                                            

  These guys are peacocks! They're wearing colorful shirts, smoking cigars, applauding each other. I'll bet someone has a flask in his desk, and there's Johnny Walker in those paper cups.

Contrast and compare a contemporary JPL crew.

They're in matching polo shirts, which gives them the look of a fast food outfit or maybe the toner sales force at some team-building seminar. No cigars, everyone is seated--it looks about as exciting as 5th grade, waiting for milk and cookies.

Lost a Bundle with Bernie? It's All the Rage

The chicest way to plead poverty--just say you lost everything with Madoff!

Everyone's doing it.  Joan Rivers, Eliot Spitzer, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Nancy Silverton and fils, Mort Zuckerman, screenwriter Eric Roth and host of others.

When no one has any spare millions, it's the same as if everyone has.  Even if all you ever invest in is a mocha latte, you can easily join the club of the newly broke.

But don't let the lack of cash keep you from acting lavishly, in small ways.  Rush to be the one to tip the valet or barista, spring to pick up the tab for a fast-food lunch.  Then, you can sit back and let someone else pull out the plastic for a really big bill.   I'll have some more tips for living the high life when you're on your uppers soon.

What The World Needs Next: Deep Glamour Rose

In a perfect world, David Austin would develop Deep Glamour rose: showy, scented, and purple. Until that day,  I can order the 2009 calendar and dream.

Perhaps something like  Harlow Carr (left) or The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild.

 

Everyday Glamour: "Powerful and Confident"

When I saw Ines Kembel walking down Westwood Blvd., I thought she and the silhouette on her shirt both looked glamorous--and that was before I saw the writing on the shirt. (Click the photo to see.) I asked if I could take a photo for DG, only to discover that I'd left my camera at home. So Ines sent me this one.

Ines says she loves the T-shirt because it features a woman of African descent who "wears her afro with pride" and "looks powerful and confident." I think it's that confidence, along with her good looks and the graphic contrast of positive and negative space, that makes her silhouette an emblem of glamour.

A singer-songwriter, Ines is looking for day job as an administrative assistant. She has a marketing background and knows five languages. (Ah, the Netherlands.) If you're in the market, check out her website or email her at ineskembel-at-gmail.com.