Transcript
Male V.O.- Well, well, well. Will you look at those lovely creatures. Look at that one! As tasty and tempting and toothsome and trim and tiny a tidbit, mmmm. Now, let’s see, where was I? It’s too bad that she’s not the real McCoy.
Chapeau Model- Oh, but I am real.
Male V.O- *Whistle* Fancy that! Say beautiful, let me in on the secret. Who are you, anyway?
Chapeau Model - Why, I’m a professional model, of course.
BEGIN MONTAGE
Khole Yohannan- Why the model is important is that she is transmitting changes in women’s lives, not just changes in fashion.
END MONTAGE
Khole Yohannan- By the early 20th century, commercial photography had evolved. The selling of clothing had become a huge business and also the mass-marketing, the franchising, is beginning to happen.
Around 1913, 1918, [Baron] DeMeyer is shooting Dolores. He’s shooting Denarzod. It’s the power of persona that is being developed. Do you represent the look and value of the time? What’s fascinating about Vogue magazine is that early on they realized that everyone else was interested in what high society is doing. So, naturally, fashion aped high-society.
Performers and actresses were generally possessed of that “star-quality”, that je ne sais quois, that “x-factor”. They were what the camera loved. Society women had the aura of money and importance. That seems to draw a big crowd too.
Khole Yohannan- In 1923, the first modeling agency is formed in New York City. Models like Mary Anne Moorehouse and Lee Miller become known by name. Women are completely different than the previous generation. This is the modern, liberated woman. Women are driving, they’re drinking, they’re voting. It’s a cultural revolution.
Male V.O. 2- The 20’s, flaming youth, and the flappers. It was the era of close hats, bobbed hair, and boot-leggers. Oh, the 20’s had its trauma’s too. Daring bathing beauties were arrested for “indecent exposure.” Oh you kids.
Khole Yohannan- Baron DeMeyer’s dreamy, airy, fantastical, romantic images dissolve. In comes [Edward] Steichen with brutal clarity. You can see every detail in this woman’s face, you know who she is, she’s staring back at you.
Male V.O. 3- Fashion without fad’s or foolishness. No such thing you say? Well, you may be right.
Khole Yohannan- The 1930’s come along and the model recedes in importance, largely because of the society muse and the Hollywood glamour machine.
Male V.O. 4- Let’s go to beauty headquarters, yes, Hollywood.
John Casablancas- Modeling, I think was a part-time thing. It was an opportunity to acquire a bit of social status. It was a glamorous thing, but I don’t think it paid much.
Male V.O. 5- The stock market crashed, ushering in the greatest economic depression in our nation’s history.
Khole Yohannan- Most women couldn’t afford clothes. It really was a fantasy. However, the very rich, were still rich, so they were the focal point. Beauty salons pop up on almost every corner in America. And every secretary in town wants to look like Joan Crawford. As a result, movie stars become the fashion directors. Likewise, the society muse: Millicent Rogers, Daisy Fellows, Duchess of Winsor, they are being watched constantly. Everything they do is fashion. They are not only living the fashionable life, they are fashion directors by virtue of their patronage to the great couturiers.
Male V.O. 6- But somehow, the models didn’t seem happy about the whole idea. But who can blame them?
Khole Yohannan- By the late 1930’s American fashion really comes on the map with the shut-down of the French couture.
