For decades, they have graced (or disgraced) the faces of pretty girls on catwalks everywhere. What makes masks and facial coverings so exotic is that they are an uncommon sight, especially in North America. I found these beauties in Flaunt magazine, and I feel they demonstrate well the allure of the haute couture mask.
If you were to take fashion as a form of outward persona and conealment, then the mask would epitomize the whole notion. By concealing or changing the face, you censor the wellspring of most of our instantaneously-drawn conclusions about a person. Therefore, the mask speaks not only of what you wish to conceal, but how you want others to view you (or what you wish others to see in you). As high-and-mightily intellectual as this passage purports to be, I think it’s a great way to look at clothing and the various accoutrements that accompany it.
A much more popular and subtle relative of the mask would be sunglasses. These are masks in their own right – some of them are even couture, or at least high end – And they conceal the most telling feature of a person’s face. Yes, we use sunglasses to block out the sun, but they have also found their way onto the faces of people for other reasons (think spies, bodyguards and poker players, to name a few). Some people just love wearing them for the anonymous look they give them.
Well, that went off on a complete tangent but the point is clear. People love to cover up their faces – this form of concealment using sunglasses is probably just because nobody’s got the guts to wear a bona fide haute couture mask in public. Over and out!
-FH.
