Daniel Harris

Daniel Harris, a scholar of consumption and style, has observed that until photography finally supplanted illustration as the "primary means of advertising clothing" in the 1950s, glamour inhered less in the face of the drawing, which was by necessity schematic and generalized, than in the sketch's attitude, posture, and gestures, especially in the strangely dainty positions of the hands. Glamour once resided so emphatically in the stance of the model that the faces in the illustrations cannot really be said to have expressions at all, but angles or tilts. Illustrations cannot really be said to have expressions at all, but angles or tilts. The chin raised upwards in a haughty look; the eyes lowered in an attitude of introspection; the head cocked at an inquisitive or coquettish angle; or the profile presented in sharp outline, emanating power the severity like an emperor's bust embossed on a Roman coin.