Historical Study of Glamour Style

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the transition of glamour style expressed in modern fashion throughout the history. The glamour style in modern fashion was categorized into five periods which are Hollywood glamour(H), Feminine glamour(F), Rich glamour(R), Decadent glamour(D), and Trash glamour(T). These categories were analyzed and compared in the viewpoint of aesthetic values deduced on the previous study. As a method of analysis, literature study and case study through the publications in aesthetics, history and preceding theses were used. The results of analysis are: Ostentatious luxury was suggested by extravagance of the movie star in H, the splendid American lifestyle in F, conspicuous consumption in R, fin de siecle bad taste in D and self-assured exposure in T. Mysterious idolatry was studied as exaggerated goddesshood of the movie star in H. It was expanded to celebrities including fashion models, television actresses, pop singers and young couture designers in the other periods. Artificial sensuality was originated from the femme fatale image of the courtesan as well as the traditional femininity of Victorian era in H. It was developed through exaggerated hourglass silhouette of the wife dressing in F. But an aggressiveness in R, a hyper-sexual femme fatale in D, an independent and defiant image of the showgirl in T were observed. Playful queerness stood out clearly by the fin de siecle phenomena. Though it was embodied in sexual perversive subculture, it emerged as hi fashion by young designers in the late R and became a crucial aesthetic value throughout D and T. It is more connected with the origins of glamour which arouses sexual ambiguity, crudity, aggressiveness and death. The continuity and discontinuity of the glamour style based on the theory of 'linked solution' were also analyzed.