Richard Hpa
CCDN 231
300226122
Tutor: Philippa
Shipley
Glamour. It is defined on
thefreedictionary.com as ‘an air of compelling charm, romance, and excitement, especially when
delusively alluring’. But glamour is not something that can be strictly
defined. It all depends on the viewer. In an extract from the book ‘Glamour:
Women, History, Feminism’ written by Carol Dyhouse (2011) she states ‘glamour
(like beauty) can be judged to exist in the eye of the beholder rather that
which is beholden’ (pg1). She is ultimately saying that something that might be
glamorous to one person might not be to another. But I believe that there is
one thing, which is always glamorous to everyone, themselves. Everybody in his
or her own way finds himself or herself glamorous. And I wanted to create an
experience which focus’s on the aspect of self-glamour.
The idea of self-glamour is
something that can be involved with everybody. There are times in everyone’s
life where (no matter what they look like) they find themselves glamorous’ In a
Journal Article written by Carol S. Gould (2005) titled ‘Glamour as an
Aesthetic Property of Person’. She states that ‘Glamour, I argue here, is this
sort of personal quality’ (pg. 237). What
Gould is saying is that glamour all depends on the person. That glamour is
personal and no one person can define what is glamorous and what is not. When
reading that quote it gave me the sense that everyone is glamorous in his or
her own way. So if everyone were to think of him or herself as ‘glamorous’,
then this experience would emphasize that idea. Another quote which I found
that that strengthens the last one was in ‘The Times UK’ Newspaper, this
article written by Joan Collins (2006) states ‘Glamour has a lot to do with attitude and
poise -the internal virtues’ (pg57).
Quotes
like what was written by Dyhouse, Gould and Collins are the reason why I did
this experience. In all three quotes they do not mention anything about looks
but more of a ‘personal’ or ‘internal’ feel to glamour. All these quotes
support each other which states that there are a lot of people believe that
glamour isn’t just all about beauty. Making an experience that makes everyone feel
glamorous has to not involve things that are gold and glittery, or are which I
myself consider glamorous, but things, which I believe that everyone finds
glamorous.
The Inspirations for my experience
came from the 1937 Disney film Snow White directed by David Hand. The main
thing that inspired me to do this experience is the magic mirror where it will
tell you who the fairest person of them all is. I am planning on taking that
part of the film and twisting it a bit to suit my experience of making someone
feel glamorous. Like all of the Disney Princess’s, Snow White was shown to be
extremely beautiful and glamorous. Snow White is a film that a lot of people
have watched during their childhood. Many girls in their childhood have often
dreamt about being like Snow White and being ‘the most fairest of them all’. So
especially for girls I hope that my experience would bring back a sort of nostalgia
from when they were a child, where they would dress up as princesses and make
themselves as glamorous as they could be.
My
experience was designed to make the user feel glamorous by projecting a live
video feed to them onto a mirror. At first the mirror had just written on it,
‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most glamorous of them all’. When the
user presses the spacebar on the computer, then the words rippled like it were
a pool of water and then fade to the live feed of them. I believe that my
experiment was a success and all the users enjoyed the experience, and they
were all quite mesmerized by it. This links in very well with a quote in
Elizabeth Wilson’s (2007) entry titled ‘A Note on Glamour’ written in the
Journal ‘Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture’, She stated
that in the eighteenth century glamour was described as ‘when devils, wizards
or jugglers deceive the sight, they are said to cast a glamour over the eyes of
the spectator’ (pg96). The experience was not designed to focus on just one
person but for anyone to participate in.
While
the users were participating in my experience I was recording them from a camera,
which was placed next to the mirror, so I could record their reactions to what
they saw on the mirror. I recorded 4 different people and in all four cases
they were all surprised by the outcome of my experience. When spoken to after
the camera finished recording the users stated that it was quite beautiful and
quite memorizing. And according to ‘Glamour:
Making it Modern’ by Michael Lassell (2009), ‘One could, at one time, speak of
being ‘under a glamour’, as being under a spell or enraptured’ (pg8). Two of
the testers said that they could not keep their eyes off the screen because
they were surprised at what was happening.
In
the end I believe my experience was a success and that it did create a
glamorous feeling to the user. The response to my experience was positive and
was linked real close to some of the quotes which I got, especially Lassell’s
quote from Glamour: Making it Modern, which pretty much linked perfectly with
the responses. This experience worked exactly as I had planned it to and I am
really happy with the outcome
References:
Gould C S (2005). ‘Glamour as an Aesthetic Property of Person’. The
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 63(3), 237-247.
Collins,
J. (2006, April 22). Glamour: [final edition]. The Times. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.helicon.vuw.ac.nz/docview/319504665
Extract from Dyhouse, C.
(2011) Glamour: Women, History, Feminism.
London: Zed Books.
Wilson,
E. (2007). A Note on Glamour. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body
& Culture. 11 (1), p95-108.
Lassell,
M (2009). Glamour: Making it Modern. New York: Filipacchi Publishing.
Hand, D. (Director).
(1937). Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs .
[Motion Picture], United States: Walt Disney Productions
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count: 930
