Summertime is coming and summertine is Vanity Time

May 19, 2014 - PRLog -- Subject:  summertime is vanity time

This year, May could be the cruelest month, having launched in many places without much spring softening, and culminating this early Memorial Day weekend while many of us are still sheathed in swimsuit-defying winter fat.

One cheering note is the simultaneous e-publication of Vanity: The Art of Looking Good by Linda Abrams, a former ABC network producer and  Washington Post Fashion Editor, whose amusing survey of cosmetic and clothing history gleefully reminds us that vanity is the human condition, and never more so than where or when the weather is warm.  And not for women alone!

The hunk Narcissus may have been admiringa reflection of only his face when he plunged headfirst into a clear pool and drowned, but the sculptors and painters who have imagined the moment before the fatal moment invariably think it was a pretty hot day because the man who gave vain its other name is often envisioned wearing next to nothing.

Or consider the most universal personal decorative art: tattooing---whose leading exhibitors from  South Seas isles to your nearest beach have always been and still are male.

Sultry weather and nearby water have long signaled to women that it's time to look their very best, even when discarding layers of clothing hasn't been the style of the moment.   Although there are plenty of instances of elaborate female tattoos and other permanent beautifying techniques from lip stretching around saucers to uncomfortable techniques of elongation, usually the ladies prefer cosmetic drama and variety.   There is something heroic and grand in Cleopatra's diva-dom  and martyrdom altogether missing from the Narcissus legend.  Her look was a triumph of ancient make-up, but she was real.

Long before there were high-heeled bathing beauties on magazine covers and wannabes at every pool, Ottoman Empire women dangerously wore kabbabs ( high stilted sandals) in the imperial marble women's baths.  The French "wet look" of two centuries ago did not involve T-shirts, according to Ms. Abrams, but muslin Empire gowns that women dampened and let dry on their bodies for perfect cling.  This particular style  was approximated and captured in a Bill Cunningham photograph currently  on exhibit in the New York Historical Society.

More information and images available on request.

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Richard