Now loading... "Where's the Glamour? Summer"
I'm sorry girlies, no more dissociative summer fun. It's time to use musing-weather™ to ask the important questions!
I hate this hyper sped up trend cycle branding opportunity timeline we live in.
(what did I say in the last post? Gripe journals, IN)
The other night, I was explaining what I mean by “I am a clown” to a man (gasp!) on a sidewalk outside of a bar.
But then, he was like “Oh, wait like ‘clown-core’ is that the right term? My friend says she’s into ‘clown-core’ stuff.”
Clown-CORE?
Norm-core, cottage-core, ballet-core… core-core 💀
I have always been vocally anti-norm-core but I find myself growing more fundamentally anti “[insert anything]-core.”
It’s a cheat code word that bulldozes anything that it attaches itself to — be it an art form, lifestyle, culture — into temporary aesthetics. It whittles (often) complex ideas into codified components that allow superficial engagement, almost encouraging transience as the norm.
Clowning is not just wearing colorful clothes and wacky makeup, as I am sure I will continue to reiterate for the rest of my life.
But the ubiquity of “core” feels more sinister than simply being a new youth culture cycle of which I am no longer the demographic.
So I raise, “Where is the glamour? Summer” in response.
This isn’t about spiritually bypassing the horrifying realities of this moment in history we’re living through. I am not confused by how “glamour” seems like a ridiculous thing to be demanding in this economy.
But that’s my point exactly. The lack of glamour in every aspect of the day to day feels like a concession. That we have been so quick to let go of opulence and lusciousness for streamlined/functional/algorithm friendly… is directly correlated with AI worship, late-stage capitalism (or, Corporatism, as Naomi Klein aptly describes today’s economy in The Shock Doctrine), and the rise of fundamentalist power. I don’t think it’s even possible to have a sound debate about AI or anything related to the “death” of culture without first acknowledging that we have devalued Art into art-core. And the lack of hunger for glamorousness is a byproduct of our willingness to be tucked into the comfy bed of being a good little consumer. To be truly glamorous is to maintain a flame of curiosity that turns into a fixation with beauty and excellence that is beyond aesthetics or something that can be bought.
I think that we live in a world where there is so much information, access to resources, and evidence of centuries of exploration into “beauty” that there is actually no reason for anything to be ugly anymore. There are stunning numbers of talented designers and artists who are foaming at the mouth for work. And yet I find myself surrounded by ugly clothes, ugly buildings, ugly cars (!!) every damn day, and I LIVE IN NEW YORK! I sometimes use the bathroom inside the Union Square Nordstrom Rack when I’m in a pinch and I always get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of poorly designed and poorly executed stuff that will inevitably go to landfill.
WHY are we forcing people to work TO DEATH in sweatshops for this GARBAGE.
Because there are people who think people are gonna buy it. Because some people DO. And I just don’t think it’s me being judgemental or elitist about taste. It’s gotta be related to the devaluing of all things through sheer confusion caused by excess. We have been robbed of the opportunity to even develop our personal tastes because we are being drowned by products.
And then of course, this round of extreme inequality (again, acknowledging that history is cyclical and all kinds of forms of oppression have existed) is marked by the ruling class being multi-billionaires (which I do actually think is a newer invention) who specifically have zero or decidedly bad taste. When the wealth hoarders are dudes who would be skewered by this monologue culture makers starve. At least the Medicis funded the Renaissance and Queen Elizabeth I was a huge patron of the arts (Shakespeare!). The Edo period of Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate was an explosive moment for arts and culture (Kabuki! Ukiyo-e!).
Even into the 1970s and 1980s, appreciation for the arts was a given, even a status symbol for the wealthy. Dior, Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent — all had socialite muses who were icons in their own right. Re: Paloma Picasso, Anna Piaggi, Mounia, etc. Haute couture were works of art, rather than name tags that can spike up the price. The wearers were glamorous not because they could afford said works of art, but because they carried themselves as collaborator and inspiration to their talented friends.
WE HAD MUSES. Now we have… Influencers? “That Girl”s?
Dialogue about femme bodies being relegated to ‘being’ the art rather than ‘doing’ the art aside — partially because we clearly haven’t moved past it, period — the demotion from muse to influencer captures a literal, semantic, shift. A muse, in their full glamorous presence, had the power to shape culture, not simply influence consumer habits. Their wealth and status actually made them bold and experimental because why the hell would anybody tell Paloma Picasso what she could or could not wear. Quiet luxury is a boring as hell waste of oppression. It is rich people telling on themselves that they know that they are TOO rich. That since the aforementioned muse-era, Globalization, aka the systemic destruction of non-Westernized economies and all shapes of ‘the middle class,’ has further siphoned wealth into the hands of very few. Glamour is impossible when millionaires don’t feel rich enough to be opulent, billionaires know (even if it’s subconsciously) that they’d be guillotined if they truly flaunted their blood addled wealth, and everybody else is too busy trying to afford their next meal.
It actively creates space for slop. Dissociation for everyone in the form of bland, streamlined concept stores. Where aspiration gets limited to where we can shop, and synthesis of data seems more magical than the mysteries of what our brains and bodies can do.
The rising romanticization of tradwives and the return to skinny-as-king after the blip of body positivity all feel like a part of this snowball into smooth brain. When passivity gets rebranded as intelligence and beauty standards that have been used to control women’s bodies are rebranded as empowerment, we have to think — who wins when we internalize these stories?
There is so much beyond our control but I think we can at least move past aesthesized summers and reclaim something by carving out time to wonder.
What gets lost when we don’t interrogate the beigeness that surrounds us?
This summer I’m gonna be sipping frosés on rooftops and laying in parks, asking everyone, “Where do YOU think glamour went?”
Glamorous first president of japan news!
Well, BIGGEST NEWS of this newsletter is that WE WON PURGATORY’S PRIDE MONTH BATTLE OF THE BANDS! Our first WIN!
All of the bands we played with were so so fantastic re: gushing IG post - that it was just really moving and humbling to winnnnnn. AH.
So! We will be playing Purgatory’s BIG QUEER STREET FEST this Saturday (6/28) at 2pm! This bill is once again STACKED. So if you’re looking for a rockin and joyful way to celebrate Pride this weekend, see you on Central Ave!
6/26 we are making our BABY’S ALL RIGHT debut!!! As part of Willis Willis’s Weird Scene NYC Compilation with our great friend Headfooter. This show, as advertised will probably be weird! We are on at 7:25 so get there early!
Finally, on 6/30 we’ll be playing a WHOPPING FORTY MINUTE SET (our last 3 sets were tight little twenties) - so if you’ve been hankering for a full first president of japan experience, you better come find us at Hart Bar. We are on at 10pm.
We are on SUMMER BREAK for July. Mark and I will be playing a “Less Plugged” set in Kingston NY for another Weird Scene show on 7/18. But that’s about it!
We’ll be back in August with two very cool shows but for now, I won’t overwhelm you with information.
See you looking sexy and hydrated this weekend *mwah*
Thank you as always for reading!!!
BIG LOVE,
Non
