Introduction 1. The Origins of Glamour: Demi-Monde, Modernity, 'It' 2. Hollywood Glamour 3. Dreams, Desires and Spending 4. Princesses, Tarts and Cheesecake 5. Revolutions 6. Glamazons, Grunge and Bling 7. Perspectives and Reflections: Glamour for All? Notes Bibliography Acknowledgements, Picture Credits Index
This book explores the changing meanings of glamour, its relationship to femininity and fashion, and its place in twentieth century social history. It also examines with wit and insight the history and meaning of costume, cosmetics, perfume and fur.
Carol Dyhouse is a social historian. Her research has focused on gender, education and the pattern of women's lives in nineteenth and twentieth century Britain. Her books include Girls Growing Up in late Victorian and Edwardian England (1981); Feminism and the Family in England, 1890-1939, (1989); No Distinction of Sex? Women in British Universities (1995); and Students: A Gendered History (2006). An interest in clothing and material culture, and the ways in which these relate to changing ideas about femininity, led to work on the subject of glamour, its controversial status within feminism, and its meanings to women in history. Carol Dyhouse is currently a Research Professor in History at the University of Sussex.
'In 'Glamour: Women, History, Feminism', Carol Dyhouse has written a study of the history of the conception of glamour in the twentieth century that is sprightly, provocative, and penetrating. She adds greatly to our understanding of a phenomenon that has been central to women's attitudes toward themselves, as they use the products of the beauty industry to both standardize their looks and to express cultural rebellion. This work will be interesting to both scholars and general readers alike.' - Lois Banner, Professor , History and Gender Studies, University of Southern California, Author of 'American Beauty' 'In her survey of changing ideas about 'Glamour' throughout the twentieth century and beyond, Carol Dyhouse has succeeded in fashioning scholarly empirical research into a clear, engaging and enthusiastic account. Rejecting the idea that women are victims of the imperative to glamour, she makes a strong argument for the aspirational aspect of the perennial desire for physical beauty, glamour as a right rather than a prison.' - Elizabeth Wilson, Author of 'Adorned in Dreams' In her relish for brassy blondes, gutsy flamboyance and tinsel vulgarity, Dyhouse writes like a woman who knows her way around the lipstick counter and the flea market. She shows how a parade in the trappings of glamour expressed aspiration and assertion at odds with mousy, unobtrusive conformity. Glamour was a cynical business, but also a shriek of camp defiance. All fur coat and no knickers. Dyhouse has whipped the stopper from a vintage bottle of 'Evening in Paris' and conjured a vanished world - cheap, a little tarty, but impossible to forget.' - Amanda Vickery, Professor in History, Royal Holloway, University of London, Author of Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England (Yale, 2009) 'Rigorously researched and persuasively argued, GLAMOUR represents an important contribution to the social history of fashion and of fabulousness.' - Caroline Weber, Author of 'Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution' 'Riveting - from perfume to sexual politics and the precise definition of "It", Dyhouse gives us an entertaining and innovative analysis of a topic that, while hitherto underexplored, has a huge impact on all our lives.' - Sarah Gristwood, author of 'Fabulous Frocks', (Pavilion, 2008)
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