To put Mallarmé’s work in context; the mid-nineteenth century was a time when fashion, and images of fashion became a distinctly commercial and desirable commodity. Industrialisation and progress meant that fashion evolved into something multi-faceted, adapting to the Modern era. Dressing for a new contemporary culture became the main prerogative in the production of clothing, and with it came a new set of standards, idiosyncrasies and potential failures. All in all, fashion became a more observable and accessible phenomenon, and as such, a point of fascination for writers and artists alike. Theorists like Mallarmé, Charles Baudelaire and Théophile Gautier were, among others, reflective of a burgeoning interest in value of fashion in contemporary culture.

Mallarmé himself was an important figure as a writer and poet in Parisian literature circles of the time, know for his salons which invited readings and performances with fellow poets, writers and intellectuals, setting a context for his own work. His writing and work is largely associated with his involvement with Symbolism, as well as having an important influence on later art styles and movements such as Dadaism, Cubism and Surrealism.

Translated as ‘the latest fashion’, La Dernière Mode first came about on the suggestion from Mallarmé’s friend and neighbour, publisher Charles Wendelen, although the magazine was designed, compiled and executed almost entirely by Mallarmé. The first print run of 3,000, funded entirely by the poet, was largely a labour of love. Working with the illustrator Edmond Morin, the aesthetic of the magazine reflected the mode of the time, largely illustrative and gothic in style and design. The content of the project was a strange mix of fantasy and commercial authenticity, with Mallarmé writing most of the texts under a variety of pseudonyms; including ‘Marguerite de Ponty’ (for fashion, and the theory of fashion); ‘Miss Satin’ (giving news of the fashion houses of Paris); ‘Ix’, a male critic (for theatre and books); ‘Le Chef de bouche chez Brébant (for food), etc.¹ Under these pretenses, he made himself at once both a journalist and fashion designer, simultaneously able to promote the culture of fashion, as well as reflect upon its short-comings, thus creating a sort of myth through which he explored the boundaries of fashion. Behind the façade of the fashion magazine were thinly veiled witticisms and critiques of the culture of dressing. In a passage from the first issue, Mallarmé’s surreal prose is playfully critical:

‘That instinct of beauty, and of relation to climate, which, under each different sky, governs the production of roses, of tulips and carnations: has it nothing to say as regards ear-drops, finger-rings and bracelets? Flowers and jewels: has not each of them, as one might say, its native soil? This sunshine befits that flower, this type of woman that jewel?’

Stéphane Mallarmé, La Dernière Mode

Although La Dernière Mode has come to be regarded as a seminal work in the context of fashion academia, it still remains little known outside of this discourse, but remains an important and unique example of the power of myth-making in literature on commerce and contemporary culture.

1. Furbank, P. N. and Alex Cain. Mallarmé on Fashion. Oxford: Berg, 2004 ↩

The next big break for the word came around the 1920s when it was adopted in advertising with strong effect, a link that was later solidified when Condé Nast introduced its new publication: Glamour magazine in 1939.

It might be difficult to find a word that embodies the aspirational potential and power as does ‘glamour’; it has become a touchstone in the fashion and advertising industries, used like embellishment to create a myth, an ideal or a concept which can be sold. Glamour and other provocative words, are so bound to an image or ideal that is conjured up in our heads, which offers enough allure to be commercially effective in fashion and advertising systems. To ask someone what glamour is – or what it looks like – might provoke images of evening dresses, diamond-cut jewellery or Hollywood actresses on a red carpet, something that is likely to be ultimately unattainable, at least for the many. Etymological adornment such as this will raise the status of an desired object or scenario and has real power in the fashion industry. Perhaps we don’t appreciate the extent to which words interact with the fashion framework, as both a basis for selling but also maintaining the premise that fashion is often unattainable, a process for which ‘glamour’ could very well be held accountable for.

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Further Reading:

You may bethink you of the spell

Of that sly urchin page

This to his lord did impart

And made him seem, by glamour art

A knight from Hermitage

Excerpt from Walter Scott’s, ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’, 1805.

From its origins glamour has been associated with dreaming. The yearning for a better, richer, more exciting, and materially lavish life accompanied by the development of modern consumerism and fuelled innumerable fantasies and fictions. Glamour took shape as an enticing image of the fabulous life that was lived before the eyes of everyone. Glamour provided the illusion that individual lives could be enhanced and improved by ostensibly magical means. The image was sustained and perpetuated by cultural products and commercial entertainments. It could also be approached through the practices of consumption, since the goods carried ideas and suggestions that were as important as their practical uses. The power of transformation lay with anyone or anything that could persuade an audience that they or it possessed it.

Glamour: A History by Stephen Gundle, 2008.