This Year's Model

Elizabeth Wissinger's 'This Year's Model' explores the intersections of fashion, media, and cultural production to explain how notions of glamour are manufactured and mediated.

Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, the book analyzes the roles of models, editors, and media technologies in shaping aesthetic norms.

Wissinger interrogates how bodies and appearances become sites of cultural value, demonstrating how fashion circulates meanings about sex, class, and identity.

The author situates fashion within broader media systems to reveal the mechanisms through which certain looks become desirable and widely emulated.

The book is a significant contribution to fashion studies and cultural sociology, offering critical insight into the making of contemporary beauty standards.