# Glamour and fantasy- some thoughts



## Fredericsaint-loup (Apr 30, 2017)

My love of clothes began with the glamour of a classmate and the ever since I have been fascinated by the topic.
My thoughts recently have been inspired by literature; Marcel Proust and the Great Gatsby.
In Proust the narrator fantasizes over first Madame Swann and then the Duchesse de Guermantes. He describes their clothes in great detail and very romantically. Their elegance inspires fantasies in him of their secret lives he would so like to partake in. When he gets to know them they prove themselves to be shallow and banal typical society woman.
Gatsby creates a whole dream from his love and Nick fantasizes about this elusive, elegant phantom. He too is dissapointed.
I have another example in my own life from my teens. A sixteen year old who, precocious in his style and very ill managed to turn his emaciation to his advantage. He projected the air of a hedonistic gangster who had done it all. I never got to know him so the fantasy was preserved but from the little I heard he seemed no different from any of his peers. He just liked clothes.
What am I driving at? Well at first the narrator and myself might seem shallow building fantasies on mere appearances. Yet we all do it. Romantic artist types more than others. And the objects of our fantasy? Well isn't their an artistry in their dressing. In these examples it goes beyond mere fashion and the characters achieve grace and mastery in their dress leaving enduring poetic images that are inspiring. My childhood phantom inspired me with his clothes and elegance just as an artist might.
Elegance just as an artist might. So too Madame Swann and Gatsby were to some extent inspired by real people, then transposed into art by the respective authors.
I'm vexed by the contradiction of their beauty, good taste and shallowness- I feel instinctively that there is an important truth in the illusion and it is a simplification to see it just as a fantasists mad dream.
I'd love to bear other people's thoughts on the subject; other characters, literary or real.
What fantasy do you hope to create when you dress?
The role glamour has played in your life. I think its an essential facet of art and always has been...


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

This is dandyism taken to the metaphysical realm. I can assure you such thoughts have never crossed my mind when dressing nor is it likely that they ever will.


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## Fredericsaint-loup (Apr 30, 2017)

Few would consciously consider such matters while getting dressed in the morning! But more subconsciously the desire to project certain character traits might inform our decisions. 
Admirers of a romantic disposition are likely to swiftly transport your 'dandyism to the metaphysical realm' as you put it. I was terribly guilty of that with a girl in a polka dot dress


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

I learned pretty early on that nothing I do is going to come across as "glamorous". I'm sure I tried out a bit of dandyism in my youth, but I never had the patience to continue with it... so I cultivated a rumpled, professorial look which suited my "image" as an intellectual and scientist.

But I actually was a professor and a scientist, so it was less a "fantasy" than an adaptation.

That said, I certainly know folks who take style to another level, even sublimating their behavior and identity into it - cosplayers come to mind as a fairly serious example.

You might enjoy Roland Barthes' "The Fashion System", which is a formal exploration of the semiotics of dress (the messaging it projects and so on.)

DH


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## Mr. B. Scott Robinson (Jan 16, 2017)

Glamour does not play a significant role in my life, beyond my monthly read of Tatler magazine. 

I do keep up with high fashion in a peripheral way via mainstream media. However, what today's media tends to promote as glamorous, appears to me as vapid, sleazy, borderline pornographic and generally repulsive to anyone of cultivated taste. I am appalled by it, but I am a self confessed snob.

When I dress, I am aware of what I choose to wear and how it puts the "outward" me forward in the public realm. However, the world I create/curate around me reflects my identity and values, but for my enjoyment and not so much for validation from others. 

If comfort were the my primary sartorial pursuit, I would choose to wear a Saudi thobe and trainers.

Cheers, 

BSR


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## Fredericsaint-loup (Apr 30, 2017)

Dhaller thanks for the reccomendation I will have a look. Even so the rumpled, professorial look could be a fantasy. It could have its own'glamour'- anyone in love with a rumpled professor will swiftly discover that their life is not like Stephen Hawkings in a recent hollywood biopic scribbling frantically across a blackboard with foppish hair and dripping brow (cue romantic music.) Not to say they'd explicitly imagine that but similar idealised images could play a part in their attraction.
So perhaps you hoped for a certain romantic charm in this presentation of yourself rather than a banal reflection of your occupation!?

Scott- absolutely in agreement with you. Elegance is very seldom found in an increasingly coarse and vulgar mainstream media. I dont keep up with it but at a glance over a red carpet am fairly horrified!


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