You're right, we have prob become so used to the norm, esp at events like that, that seeing someone wearing anything less than a full beat really stands out. She's been showing up at various events make-up free (or as you say, perhaps very minimal) for a few months - first at Paris Fashion Week, then at events in Hollywood. In an interview she told a reporter it wasn't a premeditated decision but rather "It’s just like me to go against the grain." Love that. I think she looks so much more beautiful like this.
I agree and also find it slightly annoying how everyone is constantly SHOCKED by a woman who doesn't wear makeup... but I think it's the high contrast to what Pam USED to look like and wear; very heavy makeup and glammed up hair, verses a much more natural look now, where she is indeed, wearing makeup. She's beautiful with or without it, but the need for society to talk about how "brave" it is for a woman to go out of the house without wearing makeup, is astonishing to me, yet sadly, I understand. One could also say that she used to make herself up for the male gaze and now she makes herself up for herself (or the female gaze).
As for the value of nonchalance… maybe its hard to be unselfconscious in the online era . But it is possible . If you get a chance go through a phase where you dont look in mirrors . It can feel great .
Beth, great post, does "sprezzatura" apply here? Castiglione taught us what status signals must look like when practiced by those to whom they come most legitimately. It's only the striving middling people, who tend to be, and need to be, slaves of the note perfect performance. And yes, you capture this with this: "The psychology is clear: if you're finding this thing hard that I seem to find easy, it must be because you lack my innate, instinctive natural ability."
And yes, its a double burden: first the art (art1) and then the art (art2) concealing that art. On the other hand, art1 is probably less demanding (and expensive?) than OneArtOnly. ARt 1 and art2 probably don't cost tons. (What a fruitless quantitative pursuit!) What I like most about castiglione pose is that it suggests that the poser really is preoccupied with bigger things (staying current with Pattern Recognition, for instance). And things that are effortlessly chosen murmur in a way that earnest signals don't. Ok, put it this way. When wearers are working hard to sell the look, the look wears them. But for the sprezzatura gang the look isn't a look at all. It's what came to hand when they noticed what time it is. Thanks for Pattern Recognition!
Oh...of course! Thank you Grant...well I wish I'd thought of that!!
How nuts that sprezzatura is still so relevant after nearly 500 years?! It blows my mind that everyone before us must have been grappling with this stuff (consciously or perhaps not).
I love your "studied nonchalance"...the performance of non-performance...and am now obsessed with your art1 (mastering the aesthetic) + art2 (making the mastery appear like it's no biggie). Feigning indifference to the very hierarchy their indifference reinforces. Whaaaaaat.
I love humans.
Thank you Grant for (so literally effortlessly...) giving this a massive historical framework. :-)
It’s weird to me the reaction you describe to Pamela A. (Ive been off-line and didn't witness it myself)
For one thing, it looks like she is wearing make-up . Id say she has some foundation or tinted moisturizer , plus blush , lipstick , eyebrow pencil…
What she doesn't have are fake plastic eyelashes . Or “lash extensions“. And no heavy eye makeup or mascara.
That we are so used to women wearing fake eyelashes and heavy makeup that people are scandalized by a light make up job is truly weird.
You're right, we have prob become so used to the norm, esp at events like that, that seeing someone wearing anything less than a full beat really stands out. She's been showing up at various events make-up free (or as you say, perhaps very minimal) for a few months - first at Paris Fashion Week, then at events in Hollywood. In an interview she told a reporter it wasn't a premeditated decision but rather "It’s just like me to go against the grain." Love that. I think she looks so much more beautiful like this.
I agree and also find it slightly annoying how everyone is constantly SHOCKED by a woman who doesn't wear makeup... but I think it's the high contrast to what Pam USED to look like and wear; very heavy makeup and glammed up hair, verses a much more natural look now, where she is indeed, wearing makeup. She's beautiful with or without it, but the need for society to talk about how "brave" it is for a woman to go out of the house without wearing makeup, is astonishing to me, yet sadly, I understand. One could also say that she used to make herself up for the male gaze and now she makes herself up for herself (or the female gaze).
I agree she’s wearing a fair amount of makeup. She’s just not super done up. This feels like the emperor’s clothes.
As for the value of nonchalance… maybe its hard to be unselfconscious in the online era . But it is possible . If you get a chance go through a phase where you dont look in mirrors . It can feel great .
Million percent - that is a great point.
Beth, great post, does "sprezzatura" apply here? Castiglione taught us what status signals must look like when practiced by those to whom they come most legitimately. It's only the striving middling people, who tend to be, and need to be, slaves of the note perfect performance. And yes, you capture this with this: "The psychology is clear: if you're finding this thing hard that I seem to find easy, it must be because you lack my innate, instinctive natural ability."
And yes, its a double burden: first the art (art1) and then the art (art2) concealing that art. On the other hand, art1 is probably less demanding (and expensive?) than OneArtOnly. ARt 1 and art2 probably don't cost tons. (What a fruitless quantitative pursuit!) What I like most about castiglione pose is that it suggests that the poser really is preoccupied with bigger things (staying current with Pattern Recognition, for instance). And things that are effortlessly chosen murmur in a way that earnest signals don't. Ok, put it this way. When wearers are working hard to sell the look, the look wears them. But for the sprezzatura gang the look isn't a look at all. It's what came to hand when they noticed what time it is. Thanks for Pattern Recognition!
Oh...of course! Thank you Grant...well I wish I'd thought of that!!
How nuts that sprezzatura is still so relevant after nearly 500 years?! It blows my mind that everyone before us must have been grappling with this stuff (consciously or perhaps not).
I love your "studied nonchalance"...the performance of non-performance...and am now obsessed with your art1 (mastering the aesthetic) + art2 (making the mastery appear like it's no biggie). Feigning indifference to the very hierarchy their indifference reinforces. Whaaaaaat.
I love humans.
Thank you Grant for (so literally effortlessly...) giving this a massive historical framework. :-)
Beth, Oh, wow, I'm honored.