Fashion and Glamourto the presentation of the new Versace collection on such occasions is
testimony to that design company’s mastery of the language of allure.^4
Glamour’s appeal is by no means limited to top-of-the-range publications.
It is equally used by teenage magazines like 17 and 19 and by the in-house
magazines of stores like Debenhams and Fenwicks. In these sorts of publica-
tions, it is rare to see top fashion models and designer garments. Rather the
emphasis is on explaining to ordinary people on average incomes, and teenage
girls of limited means, how they can acquire a touch of glamour for a special
occasion or a night out. For example, the Winter 1997 issue of the Debenhams
magazine featured on the cover the model Caprice. Inside, she modelled three
versions of a ‘dressed-up’ look, each featuring clothes available in the store.
Caprice’s function in this context is clear. She is neither an aloof catwalk
model nor a homely Page Three Girl, but the sort of woman whose polished
California-style beauty functions as a vehicle of general aspiration.^5 Although
young and apparently flawless, she has enough personality and sophistication
(she first came to public attention in Britain as a friend of socialite Tara
Palmer-Tomkinson in the 1996 ITV documentary ‘Filthy Rich: The It Girls’)
to be able credibly to impart fashion and beauty advice in her own right.
Her image is that of the high-maintenance, groomed woman whose immacu-
late look is achieved by judicious choice of clothes, cosmetics and beauty
treatment.^6
As an American, Caprice stands outside the British class system. Her
Californian origins give her what Jason Cowley describes as ‘a certain exotic
appeal, a glamorous difference’.^7 But her glamour also derives, in addition
to her beauty, from the flash-bulb narrative of her life. Thanks to the able
management of public relations expert Ghislain Pascal, Caprice was con-
stantly in the public eye following her launch in the 1996 documentary. She
featured on the front pages when she appeared at the 1997 National
Television Awards wearing a transparent black lace Versace gown. Her
calendar enjoyed enormous sales. She advertised pizzas, California prunes,
Wonderbra, hair products and even the cricket world cup. She presented her
own travel show and posed for men’s magazines GQ and Playboy. In addition,
- See Réka C.V. Buckley and Stephen Gundle, ‘Flash Trash: Gianni Versace and the Theory
and Practice of Glamour’ in Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson (eds), Fashion Culture
London: Routledge, 2000. - For a selection of men’s views of Caprice, see ‘Nice One?’,Front, April 2000, pp. 44–53.
- Not by chance perhaps, Caprice resembles nothing so much as an Escada advertisement
come to life. These advertisements, in Vogue and elsewhere, set the contemporary benchmark
for highly polished sophistication. - Jason Cowley, ‘Caprice’,New Statesman, 6 March 2000, p. 18.