http://www.nxtbookmedia.com/products/magazines/index.php
I thought of this earlier. and i found this link. magazines will become digital in the future. it would be cool if we can show it in that manner!
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Clinique Asks Women What They Think Beauty Will Look Like in the Year 2000
NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- With the 21st Century quickly
approaching one of the world's largest cosmetic companies, Clinique, turned to
American women for their definition of "beauty" for the new millennium. Women
were asked to e-mail Clinique's Web site with their thoughts.
Surprisingly, most women regardless of age, shared the common ideal that a
"sense of confidence" will make women beautiful in the year 2000. Ironically,
apart from this commonality, the results revealed dramatic generational
differences among women.
Women in their teens said "inner beauty" and a person's "values" will make
her beautiful, while women in their twenties said beauty will be seen through
"ethnic diversity." Women in their 30's defined future beauty as a sense of
"agelessness" and women in their 40's said "uniqueness" will make women
beautiful. For women in their 50's, beauty will come from "self-acceptance"
and women in their 60's said having "energy and vitality" will be the key to
being beautiful.
Virtually none of the hundreds of submissions mentioned physical
attributes of beauty. The answers across the board were powerfully emotional
and proof that the long-leg, flat-stomach, tiny-nose, full-lip, long-eyelash
beauty of the past will not be at the top of the list of requirements for
beauty in the future. And that by the year 2000, beauty will appear as it
never has before.
The winning submission for each decade will be listed on Clinique's Web
site at http://www.clinique.com during the month of March.
approaching one of the world's largest cosmetic companies, Clinique, turned to
American women for their definition of "beauty" for the new millennium. Women
were asked to e-mail Clinique's Web site with their thoughts.
Surprisingly, most women regardless of age, shared the common ideal that a
"sense of confidence" will make women beautiful in the year 2000. Ironically,
apart from this commonality, the results revealed dramatic generational
differences among women.
Women in their teens said "inner beauty" and a person's "values" will make
her beautiful, while women in their twenties said beauty will be seen through
"ethnic diversity." Women in their 30's defined future beauty as a sense of
"agelessness" and women in their 40's said "uniqueness" will make women
beautiful. For women in their 50's, beauty will come from "self-acceptance"
and women in their 60's said having "energy and vitality" will be the key to
being beautiful.
Virtually none of the hundreds of submissions mentioned physical
attributes of beauty. The answers across the board were powerfully emotional
and proof that the long-leg, flat-stomach, tiny-nose, full-lip, long-eyelash
beauty of the past will not be at the top of the list of requirements for
beauty in the future. And that by the year 2000, beauty will appear as it
never has before.
The winning submission for each decade will be listed on Clinique's Web
site at http://www.clinique.com during the month of March.
Human species 'may split in two'
Human species 'may split in two'
Humanity may split into an elite and an underclass, says Dr Curry
Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.
The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.
People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.
The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.
Race 'ironed out'
But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims.
Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility, will improve, he says, while men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises.
Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features, he adds. Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.
However, Dr Curry warns, in 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology.
Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.
Receding chins
Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.
Physically, they would start to appear more juvenile. Chins would recede, as a result of having to chew less on processed food.
There could also be health problems caused by reliance on medicine, resulting in weak immune systems. Preventing deaths would also help to preserve the genetic defects that cause cancer.
Further into the future, sexual selection - being choosy about one's partner - was likely to create more and more genetic inequality, said Dr Curry.
The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.
"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other, said Dr Curry.
He carried out the report for men's satellite TV channel Bravo
Humanity may split into an elite and an underclass, says Dr Curry
Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.
The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.
People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.
The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.
Race 'ironed out'
But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims.
Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility, will improve, he says, while men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises.
Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features, he adds. Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.
However, Dr Curry warns, in 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology.
Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.
Receding chins
Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.
Physically, they would start to appear more juvenile. Chins would recede, as a result of having to chew less on processed food.
There could also be health problems caused by reliance on medicine, resulting in weak immune systems. Preventing deaths would also help to preserve the genetic defects that cause cancer.
Further into the future, sexual selection - being choosy about one's partner - was likely to create more and more genetic inequality, said Dr Curry.
The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.
"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other, said Dr Curry.
He carried out the report for men's satellite TV channel Bravo
Monday, 17 March 2008
phtoshop and what it can do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnEvudXqP-w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcFlxSlOKNI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcFlxSlOKNI
Saturday, 8 March 2008
Dress, Fashion, and Social Change
Dress, Fashion, and Social Change
Dress has been defined as the total arrangement of all outwardly detectable modifications of the body itself and all material objects added to it. In other words, dress includes not only clothing, but all accessories, hairstyles, and any other alterations made to the body, temporary or otherwise. We will look at:
Functions of Clothing
Clothing Construction
The Evolution of Dress
Functions of Clothing
Dress is an important feature of all human societies.. In addition to the obvious function of providing protection and warmth, dress serves many other purposes, most of them having to do with communicating our identity to others. Indeed protection and warmth may not have been the earliest purpose of dress. Many people have always lived in warm climates where clothing is not needed for protection from the elements, yet they have developed forms of dress.
Modesty is another commonly cited purpose for dress. Yet the definition of modesty varies greatly from place to place, and even in the same locality, over the course of time. In Muslim cultures, for example, both men and women cover most of the body in public, as do people in many other times and places. However, in other times and places exposure of various parts of the body may not be a concern.
Beauty/ seduction are also important purposes of dress. Most people want to look attractive, at least under certain circumstances. But what is considered beautiful is also subject to variation. Ideals of beauty also change over time within the same culture, as we will see.
Status or Identification with one's social group is clearly a very important purpose of dress. Through our dress we all signal our affiliation with a social group: this is true whether your group is a Mayan village in Guatemala, or undergraduate students at Cornell (of which, of course, there are many subgroups, including those who profess no interest in prevailing fashions).
Ceremony or ritual may be the purpose of certain specialized forms of dress reserved for certain occasions or people; such as wedding attire, or liturgical dress.
Fashion or style is another purpose that drives dress in some cultures. Fashion is a process by which the accepted form of dress is transformed. Mass fashion as it is has been termed in industrialized societies is transformed for reasons that are basically economic. Mass fashion is driven by a manufacturing and distribution system that is motivated to promote frequent changes in styles- that is, frequent changes in the definition of what kinds of dress are beautiful, or confer the desired status or group identity. Since many of the new ideas for mass fashion these days are drawn from the street, even those who profess to be "anti-fashion" are subjected to the pressure to innovate, if they wish to wear styles that remain distinguishable from the main stream.
Clothing Construction
Historically the basic forms of clothing construction can be divided into four categories.
Draped garments are simply a length of fabric wrapped or tied about the body; no sewing is done. The Roman toga, the Indian sari, and the Indonesian sarong are all garments of this type.
Semifitted garments are assembled from simple shapes, usually rectangles, and seamed. There is no real attempt to shape the garment to the contours of a specific body; seams and edges are mostly straight. However, the garment may be belted or laced to the body to achieve a close fit. Semifitted garments have been worn since prehistory, particularly in cooler climates where draped garments could not supply needed protection from cold. The kimono is a well known example of a semifitted garment; but semifitted garments are certainly also part of the repertoire of modern fashion.
Garments tailored to fit first appeared in Europe in the 14th century. The earliest examples were probably designed to be worn under heavy plate armor introduced at that time. A garment tailored to fit the individual body was needed because semifitted garments would wrinkle, bunch and chafe under the armor. Tailored garments have curved seams, round armsceyes, and darts that shape the garment to the exact contours of the body. Tailoring has been a major feature of Euro-American dress since the 15th century.
Garments tailored to exaggerate first appeared in the 15th and 16th century. Padding and/or constriction of the body were combined with the techniques of tailoring to restructure the body silhouette. This portrait of Queen Elizabeth I shows dress that narrows and elongates the waist through corseting, exaggerates shoulders through the use of padded sleeves and stiffened collar, and distorts the lower body form and proportions by the use of a hooped petticoat (known as the farthingale) and a relatively short hemline. Corseting, shoulder pads, and even hip pads have all been used in this century to accentuate body features deemed beautiful according to current fashion.
This web site Copyright © 1995 by Charlotte Jirousek
Questions or comments? Let us know at caj7@cornell.edu.
Dress has been defined as the total arrangement of all outwardly detectable modifications of the body itself and all material objects added to it. In other words, dress includes not only clothing, but all accessories, hairstyles, and any other alterations made to the body, temporary or otherwise. We will look at:
Functions of Clothing
Clothing Construction
The Evolution of Dress
Functions of Clothing
Dress is an important feature of all human societies.. In addition to the obvious function of providing protection and warmth, dress serves many other purposes, most of them having to do with communicating our identity to others. Indeed protection and warmth may not have been the earliest purpose of dress. Many people have always lived in warm climates where clothing is not needed for protection from the elements, yet they have developed forms of dress.
Modesty is another commonly cited purpose for dress. Yet the definition of modesty varies greatly from place to place, and even in the same locality, over the course of time. In Muslim cultures, for example, both men and women cover most of the body in public, as do people in many other times and places. However, in other times and places exposure of various parts of the body may not be a concern.
Beauty/ seduction are also important purposes of dress. Most people want to look attractive, at least under certain circumstances. But what is considered beautiful is also subject to variation. Ideals of beauty also change over time within the same culture, as we will see.
Status or Identification with one's social group is clearly a very important purpose of dress. Through our dress we all signal our affiliation with a social group: this is true whether your group is a Mayan village in Guatemala, or undergraduate students at Cornell (of which, of course, there are many subgroups, including those who profess no interest in prevailing fashions).
Ceremony or ritual may be the purpose of certain specialized forms of dress reserved for certain occasions or people; such as wedding attire, or liturgical dress.
Fashion or style is another purpose that drives dress in some cultures. Fashion is a process by which the accepted form of dress is transformed. Mass fashion as it is has been termed in industrialized societies is transformed for reasons that are basically economic. Mass fashion is driven by a manufacturing and distribution system that is motivated to promote frequent changes in styles- that is, frequent changes in the definition of what kinds of dress are beautiful, or confer the desired status or group identity. Since many of the new ideas for mass fashion these days are drawn from the street, even those who profess to be "anti-fashion" are subjected to the pressure to innovate, if they wish to wear styles that remain distinguishable from the main stream.
Clothing Construction
Historically the basic forms of clothing construction can be divided into four categories.
Draped garments are simply a length of fabric wrapped or tied about the body; no sewing is done. The Roman toga, the Indian sari, and the Indonesian sarong are all garments of this type.
Semifitted garments are assembled from simple shapes, usually rectangles, and seamed. There is no real attempt to shape the garment to the contours of a specific body; seams and edges are mostly straight. However, the garment may be belted or laced to the body to achieve a close fit. Semifitted garments have been worn since prehistory, particularly in cooler climates where draped garments could not supply needed protection from cold. The kimono is a well known example of a semifitted garment; but semifitted garments are certainly also part of the repertoire of modern fashion.
Garments tailored to fit first appeared in Europe in the 14th century. The earliest examples were probably designed to be worn under heavy plate armor introduced at that time. A garment tailored to fit the individual body was needed because semifitted garments would wrinkle, bunch and chafe under the armor. Tailored garments have curved seams, round armsceyes, and darts that shape the garment to the exact contours of the body. Tailoring has been a major feature of Euro-American dress since the 15th century.
Garments tailored to exaggerate first appeared in the 15th and 16th century. Padding and/or constriction of the body were combined with the techniques of tailoring to restructure the body silhouette. This portrait of Queen Elizabeth I shows dress that narrows and elongates the waist through corseting, exaggerates shoulders through the use of padded sleeves and stiffened collar, and distorts the lower body form and proportions by the use of a hooped petticoat (known as the farthingale) and a relatively short hemline. Corseting, shoulder pads, and even hip pads have all been used in this century to accentuate body features deemed beautiful according to current fashion.
This web site Copyright © 1995 by Charlotte Jirousek
Questions or comments? Let us know at caj7@cornell.edu.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Fashion as a Barometer of Cultural Changes
The Need for Tribal Belonging
Our reluctance to give ourselves a regular makeover through diet, exercise, and consistently conscious use of specific dress styles infers that we have the personality flaws of a weak willed human. We become in the eyes of fashion aficionados somewhat inadequate and imperfect in the fashion stakes. Thus we strive to keep a culturally satisfying appearance so that we feel better, whereas in fact we are striving to stay in the tribe, whatever type of tribe that may be.
Group affiliation is our prime concern with regard to fashion. As long as some group similarity is identified within the group, our personal fashion whether current or dated can belong to any tribe. It is the sense of belonging marked by how we fashion ourselves that gives us the tribal connection.
Rôles
An innate characteristic of human beings is the desire to strive for differentiation. The removal of Sumptuary Laws and rigid dress codes has enabled the individual to use fashion as a means to identify clearly the many different rôles that a person plays in any one day.
Sociologists borrowed the word 'rôle' from the theatre because, like actors individuals play many parts and each part has to be learnt. Rôles are continually learned and rehearsed and relearned. They are also shared, because like the actors on a stage, fluid interaction only occurs if all the performers know the behaviour expected.
~
Class Stratification
The Edwardians were experts in the art of rôle play. They had had sufficient time to readjust to the new patterns of behaviour established by the Victorians.
The Edwardians were socially stratified into those who wore tailor made clothing down to those who wore other people's cast offs. The poor simply looked poor, because their raiment betrayed them. Whilst the rich and nouveau riche displayed their wealth through an iconography of signs and symbols that enhanced their body image in the eyes of those that saw themselves as socially inferior.
Rôle Set
Rôles and activities are closely linked to what people wear. People are affected by their rôle-set, which includes boyfriends, girlfriends, sisters, brothers, friends, husbands, lovers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, relatives, employers, customers, clients, work mates, business colleagues, peer and age groups.
The people with whom a purchaser interacts affects the final purchase and this applies to any fashion dominated item from interior furnishings to choice of cars. Likewise the purchase of fashionable clothes, fabrics, or accessories becomes a visual currency and speaks volumes silently. The tools of fashion provide the signs and symbolism that function as an information service for the rôle-set.
People are so aware that others make judgements about them through their clothes and accessories that many run up huge debts to appear to belong to a particular lifestyle. Frequently the rest of their rôle-set are doing likewise. Members of the rôle-set often encourage them. Only individuals with a strong sense of self identity stick their necks out and admit to wearing items that others might consider dubious or passé.
Occupation, Status and Purpose of Clothing
Those with high status occupations will wear the clothes they think others expect them to wear. They will not wish to experience rôle conflict by wearing the incorrect clothing. It is from the clothes a person wears that we get our first impression of personality. They provide mental clues to a person's status and occupational rôle, as well as being a means of conforming to peer group expectations.
Clothes also have the utilitarian function of providing both protection from the extremes of the elements, keeping us warm or cool or safe. They also act as an aid to modesty or immodesty as the wearer so desires.
The state of a person's clothes is synonymous with self respect and is a sign of respectability. It also adds another sign that the person has sufficient status in society to maintain at the cost of time and money, laundering, dry cleaning and repair. To be respectable some expense has to be incurred in the maintenance of cleanliness and neatness.
Our reluctance to give ourselves a regular makeover through diet, exercise, and consistently conscious use of specific dress styles infers that we have the personality flaws of a weak willed human. We become in the eyes of fashion aficionados somewhat inadequate and imperfect in the fashion stakes. Thus we strive to keep a culturally satisfying appearance so that we feel better, whereas in fact we are striving to stay in the tribe, whatever type of tribe that may be.
Group affiliation is our prime concern with regard to fashion. As long as some group similarity is identified within the group, our personal fashion whether current or dated can belong to any tribe. It is the sense of belonging marked by how we fashion ourselves that gives us the tribal connection.
Rôles
An innate characteristic of human beings is the desire to strive for differentiation. The removal of Sumptuary Laws and rigid dress codes has enabled the individual to use fashion as a means to identify clearly the many different rôles that a person plays in any one day.
Sociologists borrowed the word 'rôle' from the theatre because, like actors individuals play many parts and each part has to be learnt. Rôles are continually learned and rehearsed and relearned. They are also shared, because like the actors on a stage, fluid interaction only occurs if all the performers know the behaviour expected.
~
Class Stratification
The Edwardians were experts in the art of rôle play. They had had sufficient time to readjust to the new patterns of behaviour established by the Victorians.
The Edwardians were socially stratified into those who wore tailor made clothing down to those who wore other people's cast offs. The poor simply looked poor, because their raiment betrayed them. Whilst the rich and nouveau riche displayed their wealth through an iconography of signs and symbols that enhanced their body image in the eyes of those that saw themselves as socially inferior.
Rôle Set
Rôles and activities are closely linked to what people wear. People are affected by their rôle-set, which includes boyfriends, girlfriends, sisters, brothers, friends, husbands, lovers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, relatives, employers, customers, clients, work mates, business colleagues, peer and age groups.
The people with whom a purchaser interacts affects the final purchase and this applies to any fashion dominated item from interior furnishings to choice of cars. Likewise the purchase of fashionable clothes, fabrics, or accessories becomes a visual currency and speaks volumes silently. The tools of fashion provide the signs and symbolism that function as an information service for the rôle-set.
People are so aware that others make judgements about them through their clothes and accessories that many run up huge debts to appear to belong to a particular lifestyle. Frequently the rest of their rôle-set are doing likewise. Members of the rôle-set often encourage them. Only individuals with a strong sense of self identity stick their necks out and admit to wearing items that others might consider dubious or passé.
Occupation, Status and Purpose of Clothing
Those with high status occupations will wear the clothes they think others expect them to wear. They will not wish to experience rôle conflict by wearing the incorrect clothing. It is from the clothes a person wears that we get our first impression of personality. They provide mental clues to a person's status and occupational rôle, as well as being a means of conforming to peer group expectations.
Clothes also have the utilitarian function of providing both protection from the extremes of the elements, keeping us warm or cool or safe. They also act as an aid to modesty or immodesty as the wearer so desires.
The state of a person's clothes is synonymous with self respect and is a sign of respectability. It also adds another sign that the person has sufficient status in society to maintain at the cost of time and money, laundering, dry cleaning and repair. To be respectable some expense has to be incurred in the maintenance of cleanliness and neatness.
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