Models

Models are on the frontline of selling glamour to the public. There are several reasons. Fashion modelling is accessible to more people as it seems to require little more than a pretty face, unlike singing and acting, which require a discernible talent. A global corporate culture uses models to produce engaging images in the various media from print to television. And popstars and other public figures engage in glamour on occasion, fashion models do as a fundamental requirement for their work.

Modelling
The model’s look is not just part of her work, but is expected to be her lifestyle look as well; it is very much part of her everyday experience. So much so that many agencies scout for the ‘model’ look on high streets in major cities.
For the professional model, the body is simply a marketable entity. The model learns formal gestures and poses that come from a recognisable fashion lexicon. The body of the model is shaped by signification, given a meaning, to create an experience in the viewer.
The look challenges given ideas of bodily features. The open ‘magic’ and inevitability of the look more, or in excess, of the photo; a quality that mixes the changeability and force of the model’s physical presence to make up what is best described as the models affectivity.
These can be expressed in various ways, and if done well, will effect an emotional or affective response in the viewer.

Affective Work
Modelling is work that produces affects in the “form of attention, excitement, or interest so that they may be bought and sold in a circulation of affects that plays an important role in post-industrial economies” (Wissinger, 2016:251).

By referring to modelling as affective work, Wissinger identifies two points at which affect, or “the embodied and sensorial dimensions of experience, is modulated and made productive”. First, the model as embodied agent executes various appearances, expressions and emotions. These are captured on specific media and circulated, and the images then “act on and elicit affective responses from their viewers”.

Models are links in a system through which energies flow. Their work imbues objects and circumstances with power to attract and organise action. The model’s role is to create relationships and a social network that includes both work and play.
By selling a lifestyle, models invite others into a way of living, a web of possibilities that suggest attention, vitality, attractiveness.

Real People as Models
Historically, it has been the beautiful, the wealthy or the famous who are featured in fashion magazines. But since the 40s, the central figure of the fashion photograph - the model - has come from various backgrounds.

Photographers use ‘real’ people found through personal relationships, on the street or elsewhere, to lend their ‘ordinary’ looks to fashion photographs. They are now a significant part of fashion photography.

These new models form a unique marketing strategy designed to appeal to a sophisticated, image savvy public. By doing so, fashion photographers introduced the “everyday and the imperfect into their images”.

The ability to project oneself online with ease and no cost, has encouraged affective labour to be part of people’s lives. Fashion models have made this world visible.

Glamour

The aesthetic experience is varied and captures a range of moods and emotions. It may be the subtle response to an object such as the quiet appreciation of its beauty, or a strong desire for the object because it attracts and fascinates; we want to own it, emulate it, or be absorbed by it. The value of such an object may be beyond our reach yet we are still captivated by it. This adds a quality of the unobtainable and enhances its appeal, and so it becomes glamorous.

The prevalence of glamour in society has increased in the past few years due to the rapid growth of social media. Various platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter provide a daily source of fashion news and promotion from thousands of individuals and brands across the world. Many of these brands also sell online from the small one-person business to the global luxury brand.

Fashion and Glamour

Glamour usually elevates the wearing of fashion to an unrealised possibility for most people. It does this through its elements, such as exclusivity, beautiful locations and models, styling and photography. To appeal to most people, it still operates on a “human scale, in the everyday, inviting just enough familiarity to engage the imagination, a glimpse of another life, utopia as a tactile presence”.

In the business of high fashion, the aim is to create a world of glamorous objects and spaces. Designer labels create environments that exude glamour because each detail is designed without compromise in order to associate the brand with quality and luxury.

Glamour is also seen in personalities such as actors, models and other famous people. Since the first haute couture houses opened in Paris in the late 19th century, the glamorous person has been associated with high fashion. They bring a combination of looks, sex appeal and charisma.