Glamour has been joyfully sprinkled on fashion and beauty photoshoots, throughout articles and in posts for, like, forever. In its adjective form, it defines the apex of celebrity lifestyle (“Oh, how glamourous to live in the Hollywood Hills!”). It’s so easily confused with being sexy– really, it’s not.
But what is glamour, exactly? What is that mysterious quality some of us absolutely want to embody? Can you buy it? I’ll take a caseload. To go, please!
Glamour is often misinterpreted, and its concept, blatantly misunderstood. If you ask most people, to be glamorous is usually associated with being flashy, extravagant and flamboyant. However, it’s much less over the top. But it does require a certain level of sophistication to be truly enticing. And it’s certainly not a collection of logos or bling that can achieve that. In fact, you can be perfectly glamourous with a simple white cotton T-shirt and jeans. It’s what the wearer instills in the clothing. The aura that makes it different. The personality that comes with the clothing, and the meaning you are conveying with them, along with your self-image.
It’s clear the wearer’s sensibility and innate sense of style must permeate the clothing or the accessories for the end result to be really, truly glam. Does everything need to be ultra-expensive? Never. In fact, I would go as far as to say that real, true glamour is always one hundred percent authentic. It’s about how you present and project yourself to the outside world. Which means with unquestionable clarity that it has absolutely nothing to do with money.
When you look up the etymology of the word ‘glamour’, the mystifying characteristics that we are all drawn to start to make sense. In the Middle Ages, the Latin “grammatica”, which is the origin of the word glamour, was not restricted to the study and structure of language but meant scholarship, learning, including the more occult practices such as magic and astrology. Because a high percentage of the population was uneducated, scholars and literate people were often perceived with a combination of suspicion and awe.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “this connection between grammar and magic was evident in a number of languages, and in Scotland by the 18th century some meaning of the word grammar evolved into glamer or glamour, meaning ‘a magic spell or enchantment.’ As glamour passed into more extended English usage, it came to mean ‘an elusive, mysteriously exciting attractiveness.’”
So, if we agree with the notion of enchantment, fascination and otherworldliness, an inherent quality of glam, it’s pretty obvious that being glam goes much further than what clothing and accessories simply provide the wearer with at the most basic level: We dress up to face others and to embody the mental image we have of ourselves. Looking glamorous also has nothing to do with the accumulation of symbolic codes we usually equate with success or the currently perceived notion of luxury: “More Louis Vuitton logos!” “Look at my kitten Gucci cashmere sweater!”
It’s not because you just bought a pair of square-heel Amina Muaddi transparent mules adorned with rhinestones that it instantly makes you achingly attractive.
Essentially, glam is who you naturally are. But with a twist! Like the effervescence in champagne – OK, Pellegrino if you don’t like alcohol. Or the kick in a salted caramel dessert.
For me, glam means adding something that makes your look more majestic or beautiful. It has to be deliberate. You’re adding a layer of something to look more interesting, without it having anything to do with being fake. Or, like Daft Punk says about their ultra-chic, futuristic outfits: “[wearing helmets is] more like an advanced version of glam, where it’s definitely not you”.
So maybe glamour does have something to do with magic, after all!
