1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9911004792703321

Autore

Wissinger Elizabeth

Titolo

This Year's Model : Fashion, Media, and the Making of Glamour / / Elizabeth Wissinger

Pubbl/distr/stampa

2015

New York, NY : , : New York University Press, , [2015]

©2015

ISBN

9781479864454

1479864455

9780814794197

081479419X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (372 p.)

Classificazione

SOC022000SOC032000

Disciplina

338.4774692

Soggetti

Models (Persons)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Glamour Labor -- 1. Supermodels of the World -- 2. The Runway -- 3. The Photo Shoot -- 4. Cover Girl -- 5. The Fashionable Ideal -- 6. The Job -- 7. Scouting -- 8. Black-Black-Black -- 9. Touch-Ups -- Conclusion: The Affective Turn -- Appendix A: Chronology of Modeling in the Media, 1980–2010 -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author

Sommario/riassunto

Over the last four decades, the fashion modeling industry has become a lightning rod for debates about Western beauty ideals, the sexual objectification of women, and consumer desire. Yet, fashion models still captivate, embodying all that is cool, glam, hip, and desirable. They are a fixture in tabloids, magazines, fashion blogs, and television. Why exactly are models so appealing? And how do these women succeed in so soundly holding our attention?In This Year’s Model, Elizabeth Wissinger weaves together in-depth interviews and research at model castings, photo shoots, and runway shows to offer a glimpse into the life of the model throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Once an ad hoc occupation, the “model life” now involves a great deal of physical



and virtual management of the body, or what Wissinger terms “glamour labor.” Wissinger argues that glamour labor—the specialized modeling work of self-styling, crafting a ‘look,’ and building an image—has been amplified by the rise of digital media, as new technologies make tinkering with the body’s form and image easy. Models can now present self-fashioning, self-surveillance, and self-branding as essential behaviors for anyone who is truly in the know and ‘in fashion.’ Countless regular people make it their mission to achieve this ideal, not realizing that technology is key to creating the unattainable standard of beauty the model upholds—and as Wissinger argues, this has been the case for decades, before Photoshop even existed. Both a vividly illustrated historical survey and an incisive critique of fashion media, This Year’s Model demonstrates the lasting cultural influence of this unique form of embodied labor.