Beauty_Is_in_the_Eye_of_the_Beholder.

Contents Introduction and Psychology Page 1 Psychology and Christian Dior Page 2 Paul Poiret and Conclusion Page 3 Conclusion Page 4 Reference Pictures 1 Page 5 Reference Pictures 2 Page 6 Bibliography Page 7 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For this short essay I will be writing about how fashion influences what we perceive as beautiful. There are many things that contribute to this. The materials used, the colours that highlight skin tones or eye colour, the cut of the garment, the list could go on. I am going to focus on the body shape and how designers highlight this. There are many different body shapes, the classic hourglass shape, the most common, the pear shape, the slim figure which is know as a rectangle. I am going to focus on two, the hourglass and the rectangle. This is to show the vast difference between the two but also to show how similar they are. How designers take on board the shape and how clothes flatter the figure. We always want what we can’t have. This can lead to very serious and very dangerous health problems. Striving for a flat stomach or boney hips is not safe. The woman’s figure is designed to have some curves. After all we are meant to carry children. We also have to understand that beauty occurs in many different shapes and sizes. There is so much pressure nowadays to have the perfect body, so what makes the perfect body' According to scientists BMI is an important factor. The perfect BMI is 20.85. Viren Swami, the psychologist at University College London who led the study said “Our findings show that BMI is a better predictor of attractiveness than curves.” There are many things we can do to enhance and change the body from taking pills to lose weight or gain weight to more permanent procedures such as breast implants, liposuction or face lifts. These procedures aren’t always successful and cost thousands of pounds, yet it is becoming more and more common. There are some surgeries that you can have done in an hour or so, these have been named lunch time surgeries. “Your body is your canvas to be fixed, remade and enhanced.” – Susan Orbach, Bodies. Why is this' Is it for us or to attract a partner' John Berger states in Ways of Seeing, “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” The woman is turning herself into an object, an object of desire. By using clothes she can transform how people see her and even what they think. If the woman was to wear a dress which highlighted her wider hips or cinched in waist this would make her appear more fertile. This dates back to evolution when a man would pick a woman based on how many children she would be able to give him. Christian Dior’s New Look highlighted this perfectly (see picture 1.1). Most sources specify that the perfect woman’s body would consist of the measurements 36-24-36 (91-61-91cm). Barbie (see picture 1.2) is seen as an ideal body figure but if she was a real person her measurements would be 32-20-42 (inches) and make her seven feet tall. This of course is an unhealthy body image and has caused much controversy. There have been a few studies carried out that suggest the waist to hip ration is a big factor. According to a study by the University of Texas-Austin most men preferred a woman with the ratio of 0.7. The study was carried out by showing men picture of different women almost identical except for the waist to hip ratio. This is meant to be a small signal to men. It also helps show fertility. The lower the ratio the more fertile the woman tends to be. There is also the more recent fashion of women baring their midriff which is believed to show their ability to conceive. I am going to begin by researching Dior and why his New Look was so popular. Christian Dior was born in 1905, in Grenville, France. He later moved to Paris with his family and with the financial help of his father he opened a modern art gallery. In 1931 however, due to the depression Dior was forced to close and began to sell his fashion sketches to couturiers. During World War II he began to work for Lucien Lang as a design assistant before getting the financial backing from industrialist Marcel Boussac to open his own couture house after the war. In 1947 he revealed his first collection which was later named the “New Look”. This consisted of 90 outfits worn by six models. The outfits were feminine with soft shapes and flowing skirts. The shapes were reminiscent of the Belle Époque, which also created a cinched in waist and full hips with luxurious fabric. Dior used his own corsets which were only five or six inches deep and made from strong fabric with elastic inserts. They still had boning and back-lacing which cinched in the waist even further. This created the hourglass figure he favoured. “I wanted my dresses to be constructed, moulded upon the curves of the feminine body” –Christian Dior, autobiography. Dior was believed to have padded out the hips to make them look even bigger, and give them more shape. To do this he used bustles around the hips. These were often pieces of organza or taffeta sewn tightly together in layers. This was very popular during the 1950’s and is still being replicated today. John Galliano’s Fall/Winter 09 Couture Collection for Dior showed many items with a 1950’s feel (see picture 1.3). Soft shoulders, small waists and full hips. So why is it so appealing' Is it appealing to just men or just women or both' If we look at the basic psychology a man would be attracted to a woman wearing a Dior Bar Suit or full skirt simply because she would appear more fertile. On the other hand with stars such as Grace Kelly (see picture 1.4), Ava Gardener and Rita Hayworth wearing Dior’s designs women would take more notice. These iconic beauties would make the designs appear more feminine purely because that is what the media would want them to think. But there is also the fact that the designs are beautifully feminine with Dior himself even calling them “Flower Girl” skirts. Therefore they are attractive to both sexes, maybe for different reasons but still appealing to everyone. Against this there is the “boyish” look. Many stars today channel this including Katie Holmes (see picture 2.1) and Victoria Beckham. This work well on rectangular figures, flattering what is already there. There are many designers that have used this look, including John Galliano for Dior. The first designer to do so was Paul Poiret. Paul Poiret was born 1879, Paris, and may be noted as one of the most influential and revolutionary designers. He started his career making umbrellas. While he was doing this he, like Dior, started selling his drawings. Twelve of his drawings were bought by the couturier Madeleine Chéruit. After this he took an apprenticeship with Jacques Doucet during the 1890’s. This is where he learnt the basic techniques of dress making. In 1903 he opened his own house, founded by his mother. He began to break fashion rules, liberating women from fashions which he believed contained women. First he removed the petticoat then eradicating the corset. By doing this he created the chemise dress. Once he had freed women from the structured silhouette he started a revolution in dressmaking by draping fabrics rather than using more traditional methods like patterns. Although he was freeing women from the corsets he was also containing them with the hobble skirt which restricted leg movement. Poiret wasn’t the only one using this method and liberating women. Coco Chanel began to wear men’s clothing and tailoring simple suits for women. This was seen as the next step in fashion. (see picture 2.2) Madeline Vionnet also used a method similar to Poiret’s. She draped her materials over the body, yet still revealed a women’s figure. This may have been the appeal. She was still releasing women from the corset and the petticoat but still showing the womanly figure by making her dresses quite figure hugging. The appeal for this is quite different. It doesn’t necessarily highlight the figure, if anything it hides it slightly, yet it is still quite feminine. Many designers have made this point. Most models now are small sizes and most have very little shape yet designers still make them look feminine and beautiful. Long gowns like Elie Saab’s Spring/Summer 10 Couture Collection show this (see picture 2.3). The clothes may have a part to play in why women strive for this look. Why is it women want to be slim a have a “boyish” figure' With celebrities such as Twiggy sporting the “boyish” look it isn’t hard to understand. Twiggy was the first supermodel and icon to have the truly “boyish” look. She had short cropped hair, a slim and slender, straight figure but still looked feminine with her dresses and mini skirts and wide eyes. She made is famed for wearing Mary Quant’s designs such as the mini skirt and mini dress which had very little shape to them (see picture 2.4). This was considered something new and radical and is still seen as beautiful today. Ideas of beauty seem to be different from what was beautiful in the 1950s. However in the 1950s these were different from those in the 1920s. In the 1920s, when the flapper dress was the height of fashion I wonder if anyone thought they would go back to a look similar to that of the Belle Époque. It can be argued forever which is more appealing but I believe it is a personal choice. I personally favour the hourglass, the softer shapes of Dior’s New Look as I like the softness and the design of the garment. However I still adore Chanel’s suits and Vionnet’s draped dresses, anything that shows the feminine figure. I appreciate how revolutionary Paul Poiret was and how much further fashion has progressed because of him but I personally find his clothes hide the figure. I think the media also plays a big part in what we find beautiful. Showing us image after image of slim and straight figured celebrities. Although I do think that people like Twiggy and Audrey Hepburn will always be icons because of the “boyish” look and I think it does work for some people. On the other hand the curvaceous Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe will always be icons for the opposite reasons, again it depends on taste. I would have liked to have carried out a survey of my own on how men “rate” these celebrities. Do they prefer Audrey or Marilyn' The statistics and psychology suggest they should prefer voluptuous women, but do they or is that what society suggests they should prefer' I would like to revisit this at some point in the future to find out whether anything has changed and to go further into the study. Reference Pictures 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Bibliography. Books: Bodies – Susie Orbach,( Profile Books; First Thus edition) Ways of Seeing John Berger, (Penguin Modern Classics) Internet: http://www.fragrancewholesale.com/somhisandbac6.html 22nd January 2010 -17:24 http://www.designer-fashion-trends.com/christian-dior.htm 22nd January 2010 -17:34 http://designmuseum.org/design/christian-dior 22nd January 2010 -17:39 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Dior_S.A. 10th February 2010 – 13:15 http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/paris-couture-diors-many-icons/ 10th February 2010 – 13:21 http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-25-thin-models_x.htm 10th February 2010 – 13:40 http://designmuseum.org/design/john-galliano http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-179630701.html http://www.ideaofbeauty.com/main/our-ideas-of-beauty/ Accessed 1st April http://ezinearticles.com/'Barbie-Doll---The-Perfect-Figure'&id=359295 http://www.gasdetection.com/news2/health_news_digest185.html http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tm_objectid=15677489&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=men-love-the-perfect-figure---bmi-20-85-name_page.html