DeepGlamour: Between Imagination and Desire

New Books in the Mail: Skin Care and Terrorism

2009-11-03T12:28:41-08:00

Return to Beauty: Old-World Recipes for Great Radiant Skin by Narine Nikogosian and also within the purview of DeepGlamour (and the book I plan to read soon) Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism by Michael Burleigh

Souvenirs of New York: Memories or Meaning?

2009-11-03T00:26:00-08:00

You’re in New York on vacation and have just come out of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (left) or Bergdorf’s, FAO Schwartz, or the Apple Store (above).* All along the sidewalk are vendors vying for your souvenir business, most of them selling images of various kinds. Unlike traditional souvenirs, however, very few of these pictures portray famous things tourists might actually see in New York: the Statue of Liberty, the Chrysler Building, Starry Night, the Unicorn tapestries, Central Park buggy rides, the Brooklyn Bridge. Most represent instead symbols associated with the glamorous idea of New York. Audrey Hepburn is far more popular than the Statue of Liberty, sketches of shoes more common than skyscrapers. There are no famous paintings, only vintage Vogue covers. These souvenirs don’t capture memories. They remind tourists of why they first dreamed of going to New York. Is this phenomenon unique to New York, or have...

Learning from Our Homes

2009-11-02T23:13:57-08:00

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...

Travel Glamour and the Domesticated Sublime

2009-11-02T01:04:00-08:00

This photo of Jade Mountain in St. Lucia originally appeared in our Hotel Week interview with Tamara Haber Percy of Mr & Mrs Smith. The photo below is from an Urban Daddy Jetset email (and slide show) titled “A Pirate's Tour of the South Pacific”, about Remote Land’s Bali to Komodo private yacht trip. Both images are intensely glamorous, inviting viewers to project themselves into the scene and feel the promise of escape. The still waters create a sense of grace, the mountains a feeling of mystery. We identify with the ship, imagine ourselves gazing at the green peaks from the orange chairs. Both images are also sales tools. They are designed to create longing. What’s particularly striking about these two photos, as opposed to the more common image of sandy beaches, is that they both incorporate craggy, rather barren mountains—the sort of awe-inspiring scenery traditionally associated with the fearful...

We Have a Winner!

2009-11-02T00:09:00-08:00

Congratulations to reader “adrian,” who won our contest for one of Orient Japan’s automatic watches. She picked the men’s model, shown here. Our thanks to Orient Japan for proposing the contest and providing a watch for our winner. For more Orient watches, check out the wide range of offerings on Amazon

Tina Fey: Funny, but Glamorous?

2009-10-29T00:11:00-07:00

In the November 2009 issue of Harper's Bazaar, Tina Fey trades in Liz Lemon's schlumpy cardigans for several seriously gorgeous designer cocktail dresses. They say that the clothes make the man, but in this case, I wonder. On the subscriber cover (at left), in white Yves Saint Laurent, Fey looks pretty. But she also looks awkward, like a jockish girl all dressed up for a high school dance. Like she can't wait for the shoot to end so she can wash her face and get back into her baggy jeans. It just doesn't feel like Tina Fey. But it's a fashion magazine, so she's in a dress. Inside, Fey admits that she's not really much for dressing up and that Liz Lemon, the character she based on her early years as a writer in NYC, "has little to no style." She also admits that Lemon's character could use a little...

DG Q&A: Plastic Surgeon Haideh Hirmand, M.D.

2009-10-28T00:03:00-07:00

I met Haideh Hirmand at a dinner party given by the amazing Joan Kron (interviewed here) and was immediately impressed with her elegance and insight. A board-certified plastic surgeon in Manhattan, she is an active researcher as well as a practitioner and has a particular interest some of her field’s most precise and delicate procedures: those surrounding the eyes. (Typical research article titles: “Beyond The Tear Trough: An Anatomic Basis for Aesthetic Rejuvenation of the Peri-orbital Area,” and “Patient Safety in Eyelid Rejuvenation.”) Surgery or injections around the eyes are both medically demanding—there’s little margin for error—and aesthetically challenging, since tiny alterations can change the entire look of a person’s face. Patients come to her for her knowledge and skills, of course, but, observed Julia Reed in a 2006 Vogue profile, “it is Hirmand’s matter-of-factness that her patients prize.” We’re delighted she took the time to answer our questions. DG:...

Junky Styling: Recyling Glamour

2009-10-26T00:02:00-07:00

The striking garment shown at left was created by deconstructing a rain mackintosh, recutting the material, and then recombining the resulting pieces with extraordinary imagination. It is typical of the work produced by a London-based company called Junky Styling. The company’s name is an ironic reference to their use of second-hand clothing as their raw material. The transformed final garments are stylish, well-constructed, and finished in great detail. Vogue called their clothing “high fashion street couture.” As teenagers Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager began taking men’s suits (bought from second hand shops) and turning them into experimental garments to wear to clubs. “We began because we wanted to dress differently. Initially, it was all about unique design, and we were able to achieve this through cutting up clothes that were second hand.” While traveling they noticed that textile recycling was already happening in cities like San Francisco and Tokyo, and...

Ralph Lauren's Timeless—and Endangered—Glamour

2009-10-25T21:21:57-07:00

Ralph Lauren, who turned 70 last week, is the most successful purveyor of glamour since the golden age of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Like studio-era movies, Lauren sells dreams of transformation and escape—all those green lawns and polo fields, safari tents and Rocky Mountain ranches. His designs transport the audience out of everyday experience and make the ideal life seem palpable. Critics may mock him as a faux WASP parvenu and dismiss his customers as “yuppie arrivistes” (as a New York Times letter writer put it in 1992), but Lauren’s work has authentic emotional power. It expresses his own “yearning for something beautiful and timeless that conjures up a world and takes you there.” His genius as a designer and businessman was to find a huge audience that shared his yearnings. If fashion is of the moment, Lauren is an anti-fashion designer. “I’ve never designed for obsolescence,” he wrote. “I’ve designed for longevity.”...

The “Myth” of French Glamour

2009-10-22T00:05:00-07:00

In honor of glamorous Frenchwoman Catherine Deneuve’s 66th birthday (which is today), I have a question: What is it about French women that is just so glamorous? And how can I get some of it? I ask myself that question more frequently than I should probably admit – every time I painstakingly wrap a scarf around my neck or throw on a striped, boatneck shirt in an effort to grab a little of the nonchalant chic that French women seem to be born with. I’m hardly the first frustrated American woman to ask that question. Last January in the New York Post, writer Maureen Callahan posed the question, albeit in a snarkier tone, in her article, “French Women Can Suck It.” In an effort to uncover the roots of the myth that “French women are better than we are,” Callahan interviewed a couple of legitimately glamorous French women, both of...

Cosplay Visions

2009-10-16T00:40:00-07:00

This Japanese vision in pink and white is engaged in cosplay (costume play) in Tokyo near Harajuku station. Virginia wrote about cosplay and the glamour of dressing up in July. In Tokyo many girls and young women engage in cosplay on Sundays, and are happy to pose for photographs. This Little Bo Peep costume has some interesting details: she is wearing a crown necklace and a giant costume jewelry ring. This has historical implications because Western royalty also used to masquerade. She is referencing not just a nursery rhyme, but also the history of costume play. One of the most famous costume players was Marie Antoinette, whose husband Louis XVI gave her a fake hamlet called Hameau de la Reine within the park of Versailles. There Marie gained a fantasy setting for her costume play, complete with docile, well-cleaned livestock, and porcelain milk pails. Here the Queen and her attendants...

Well-Constructed Glamour and the Wedding Dress

2009-10-15T00:18:00-07:00

Glamour is hard. Wedding glamour, thanks to all the tension and emotions tied up in the big event, is harder. And the wedding dress often bears the brunt of the responsibility for communicating that glamour – to the bride, at least. About a year ago, Deep Glamour ran a series called, “Diary of a Groomzilla,” about the trials and tribulations of a DG contributor planning a gay wedding in San Francisco in the weeks just before the election. There were floral arguments and Vera Wang invitation discussions, and dramatic moments involving Safeway wedding balloons – all the little things that are mostly funny in the rearview of wedding planning (it takes a special groom to laugh at them during). There were sartorial issues, too, since Groomzilla’s fiance was “cheap” (Groomzilla’s words, not mine), though he eventually came around, purchasing a really nice suit for the occasion. The Groomzilla was just...

Different Dreams

2009-10-15T00:02:00-07:00

Sitting in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport I observed a young husband and wife who were each engrossed in their own reading material. He was big, country-looking, and was studying JP Magazine, an off-road vehicle magazine. The vehicle on its cover had tires so large it looked as if it could drive over any car that happened to park in its way. I found it more monstrous than glamorous, but I had no doubt that it was a dream vehicle for him. At one point he tried to explain to his wife why the differential axle on one particular vehicle was so desirable. She glanced up from her novel and feigned enough interest to keep him happy.She was petite, dressed in more urban clothes, and was reading Nicholas Sparks’ novel The Lucky One . I’ve never read a Nicholas Sparks novel, nor JP Magazine. But judging from the novel’s on-line description...

New Books in the Mail

2009-10-14T13:46:07-07:00

Shopping in the Renaissance: Consumer Cultures in Italy, 1400-1600 by Evelyn Welch (read a review here) Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays by Joel Waldfogel (read chapter one in PDF form)

The Glamour of Glass

2009-10-13T22:48:57-07:00

“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...

Improved DG Contest: Orient Japan Automatic Watches

2009-10-12T01:03:00-07:00

Last Monday, we announced our best-ever DG contest prize, one of Orient Japan’s automatic watches. The one we featured last week was a ladies watch. But when the folks at Orient Japan found out that about half DG’s readers are, in fact, men, they added this model as an additional choice. The winner will get to pick his or her favorite of the two watches. To enter, just leave a comment below and be sure to give us your email address (not for publication) and website, if any. Entries from this post will be combined with last week's, and the winner will be selected on November 1, using Random.org, and announced on November 2. And take a look at the Orient Japan site, where you'll find nice looking, but not-so-snappily named, models like the CEX0R001W. Contest open to U.S. residents only.

DG Top Ten: The Wisdom of Coco Chanel

2009-10-09T00:45:07-07:00

Coco Chanel was a woman famous for her aphorisms. To cap off our week of Chanelore, Karen Karbo, author of The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World’s Most Elegant Woman , compiled a Top 10 list of those she considers the most interesting, including one from someone Karen calls Chanel’s “compatriot in upsetting the apple cart.” Can you spot the ringer? (Answer below the fold.) 1. “To be irreplaceable one must always be different.” 2. “Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.” 3. “Fashion fades, only style remains.” Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, French, 1883-1971. Evening Dress and Slip, 1928, metal sequins on silk tulle. Dress, 1925, crystal beads on lace, silk ribbon. Dress, 1925, crystal beads on silk chiffon. Phoenix Art Museum Fashion Collection. Gifts of Mrs. Wesson Seyburn. 4. “Elegance is refusal.” 5. “It’s always...

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: On Fearlessness (Part III)

2009-10-08T00:05:00-07:00

In yesterday's installment from The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World’s Most Elegant Woman , Mademoiselle Chanel turned jersey, formerly the stuff of men’s underwear, into the basis for modern fashion. With no margin of error, she invented sportswear. In our final excerpt, author Karen Karbo considers the value of being a bit of a bitch. Perhaps it’s not that unusual to exhibit courage in the course of finding our métier. In becoming an attorney, a professor, a web designer, a hair stylist, there are challenges that must be met, doors through which you must step to get to the next level. There are crossroads, required leaps of faith, and moments when you need a new idea (jersey!), and thin air is the place you’re forced to look for it. But Chanel was fearless on another front. For the length of her long life, she said...

In the Mail (With Apologies to InstaPundit)

2009-10-07T21:11:34-07:00

Spurred by the FTC’s concern with blogger freebies, I’ve decided to regularly feature interesting looking books that I’ve received as review copies but haven’t necessarily read. You can buy them (or just get more information) by clicking the links. Here are the first two. Why Architecture Matters , by Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker Andy Warhol , by Arthur C. Danto, art critic for The Nation

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: On Fearlessness (Part II)

2009-10-07T00:06:00-07:00

When we left young Coco Chanel, she had established herself first as a successful hat designer and then opened a trendy little shop in the resort town of Deauville, selling her little skirts and cardigans. But she had not yet become the great Mademoiselle Chanel, independent of her boyfriends’ support. She needed a Great Idea. Here, in our second excerpt from Karen Karbo’s new book, The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World’s Most Elegant Woman , she finds it. (The photos are stills from the new movie Coco Before Chanel.) Most of us, when we land upon a great idea, a lifesaving idea, immediately turn it into our baby. And like our real-life babies, we only want the best for it. We love it. We coddle it. It’s our great idea, and who knows when we might have another one! We want to implement it at...

Editor's Note: We Get Paid (a Little)

2009-10-06T15:32:06-07:00

DeepGlamour is an Amazon affiliate. Virginia Postrel receives a percentage of the purchase price on anything you buy through one of our Amazon links, including purchases you make while on Amazon that we did not link directly to. The Federal Trade Commission demands that we tell you this—they think you're idiots and are violating the First Amendment with their regulation of what bloggers publish—but it's also a friendly reminder to Support DeepGlamour by starting all your Amazon shopping here. We also get money or in-kind compensation from places that have ads on the site, our contest prizes are donated, and Virginia receives review copies of lots of books (most of which never get mentioned on the site and end up donated to the Westwood branch of the L.A. Public Library). But you could probably figure that out on your own. Now that we've complied with federal regulations, how about a...

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: On Fearlessness (Part I)

2009-10-06T01:22:18-07:00

In The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World’s Most Elegant Woman , Karen Karbo (interviewed here) tells the story of one of the 20th century’s great innovators: the woman who, among other things, popularized the little black dress, made costume jewelry respectable, developed the first deliberately abstract and artificial perfume, and turned jersey and cardigans into women's wardrobe staples. Coco Chanel's greatest invention, the one that made the others possible, was herself. Here, illustrated with video from the newly released movie Coco Before Chanel (the date is British; the film is just now opening in the U.S.), is the first of three excerpts from the chapter titled “On Fearlessness.” From the perspective of someone who is able to overcome her fears only sporadically through a combination of deep yogic breathing and self-talk, the strong, unrelenting heartbeat of Chanel’s courage alone is enough to qualify her for...

DG Q&A: Karen Karbo on Coco Chanel

2009-10-05T01:43:32-07:00

When Karen Karbo was a kid, she wanted to be a large-animal veterinarian and a movie director. Instead, she became a remarkably prolific author. Her well-received oeuvre includes three novels for adults, the Minerva Clark series of juvenile mysteries, and a book on Katharine Hepburn. Her newest title, The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman , is a witty biography-cum-advice-book starring one of the 20th century's most influential innovators. DG will feature excerpts from the book tomorrow through Thursday, followed by a special Top 10 from Karen (and Coco) on Friday. DeepGlamour: You previously wrote a book called How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great , about Katharine Hepburn. What drew you to Hepburn and Chanel? How much do they have in common? Karen Karbo: My connections with Hepburn were largely personal. Katharine Hepburn was a household saint; my mother...

DG Contest: Orient Japan Automatic Watch

2009-10-05T00:03:14-07:00

Back in May, Randall contributed a series of posts about watches, including one that delved into why the history of mechnical watches makes them emblems of status even when quartz technology would seem to have surpassed them. “Because of their tradition, high price, and mystique, mechanical watches still retain top status as collectibles,” he wrote. Orient Watch Co., which calls itself “the largest watch company you never knew existed,” is one of the specialized companies still advancing mechanical-watch technology. Yet—unlike, say, Patek Philippe—Orient sells its products for less than luxury prices. (Browse Orient automatic watches on Amazon , where they generally draw highly positive reviews.) Now one lucky DG reader can win this stainless-steel ladies' watch, which retails for $90, courtesy of Orient. (You can see a two-tone version of the watch on Amazon .) Since they operate without batteries, the company argues that its automatic watches represent green technology:...