This year's model : fashion, media, and the making of glamour / Elizabeth A. Wissinger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wissinger, Elizabeth, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Models (Persons).

Physical Description:

xviii, 353 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2015]

Summary:

In recent years, 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, television, and social media. Why exactly are models so appealing? And how do these women succeed in so soundly holding our attention? In This Year's Model, Elizabeth A. 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 in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Once an ad hoc occupation, modeling now involves a great deal of physical and virtual management of the body, or what Wissinger terms "glam-our 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 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 form of embodied labor. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction : glamour labor

Supermodels of the world : living the life

The runway : step into the room like it's a catwalk

The photo shoot : strike a pose

there's nothing to it

Cover girl : managing the model body

The fashionable ideal : looking like a model

The job : nice work if you can get it

Scouting : the hunger for new faces

Black-black-black : how race is read

Touch-ups : making the model better

Conclusion : the affective turn.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780814794180

0814794181

9781479864775

1479864773

OCLC:

906010885