Pricing Beauty The Making of a Fashion Model [Paperback]

Sociologist Ashley Mears takes us behind the brightly lit runways and glossy advertisements of the fashion industry in this insiders study of the world of modeling. Mears, who worked as a model in New York and London, draws on observations as well as extensive interviews with male and female models, agents, clients, photographers, stylists, and others, to explore the economics and politicsand the arbitrariness behind the business of glamour. Exploring a largely hidden arena of cultural production, she shows how the right look is discovered, developed, and packaged to become a prized commodity. She examines how models sell themselves, how agents promote them, and how clients decide to hire them. An original contribution to the sociology of work in the new cultural economy,Pricing Beautyoffers rich, accessible analysis of the invisible ways in which gender, race, and class shape worth in the marketplace.

Ashley Mearsis Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston University

Ashley Mears is a talented ethnographer, a first-rate sociological thinker and an artful writer.Pricing Beautyoffers a dazzling, engaging, utterly original contribution to public and scholarly understanding of embodiment, gender, race, culture, and markets. A riveting work of priceless beauty! Judith Stacey, authorUnhitched: Love, Marriage and Family Values from West Hollywood to Western China

Mearss winning formula: combine deep inside knowledge of the fashion business, based on intensive observation, with useful sociological ideas, and present the result in readable, witty and incisive prose. I learned a lot and you will too. Howard S. Becker, author ofArt Worlds

Ashley Mears shows us beauty is not in the eyes of the beholder but in the complex ensemble of organizational imperatives, social networking, and critical timing. She reverses stereotypes of gender pay, sexuality, and the making of markets. It islÓ.