The title of Mears’ book, Pricing Beauty, refers to her scholarly efforts to understand who or what determines a given model’s chances of success in a field glutted with gorgeous people. How does this winner-take-all market produce winners? Why does one tall, underweight, astonishingly beautiful young woman become the face of Chanel No. 5, while another languishes, doing minor magazine shoots that pay little and never catapult her to fame? Those in the industry like to imagine that there is something inevitable about the outcome. When Mears asked how they knew what made a winner, industry tastemakers explained that such models had an ineffable quality, a je ne sais quoi, that elevated them above the rest. “You know, you just know!” a stylist told Mears.
It’s a rough world when a girl chooses to pursue a career as a fashion model. Although the author points out that commercial models make more money, the lure is the glamor…
I’ll have another post on this book – a must read for anyone pondering such a career or pushing their daughters in that direction.
