Makeover Magic

by Mary Jo

Barring a visit to a Nordstrom's cosmetic counter, I've never had a makeover personally, but I enjoy reading about them, and I love writing them!  Which is why so many of my books have such scenes--not because they're good business, but because they're fun.  

I very seldom write stunningly beautiful heroines, and when I do, they have invariably suffered because of that beauty.  Think of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, who became the trigger for a war.  Not a good place to be!  Having the sort of beauty that brings men to their knees can bring power, but also danger.  It's too easy to become an object, and what happens when beauty fades?  

It's safer if a woman is pleasantly attractive, or perhaps striking, rather than classically beautiful.  Most of my heroines are hard-working women who don't have a lot of time or money for prettifying, and they think of themselves as average looking, if they think of the subject at all.  This is why giving them a makeover at the salon of a really talented modiste is such fun.  Instant Cinderella!  

This fantasy is effective because most of us clean up pretty well, so we can relate to a heroine who discovers a new self-image--and new personal power--when she has a chance to look her best.  

In real life and fiction both, the ideal is a man who thinks you're beautiful always, even when your hair needs washing and you aren't quite the sylph you once were.  That's very romantic!  But even though the hero is already drawn to her, it's fun when he sees the results of the makeover, and he's stunned almost speechless.  

Of course the details of the scene will provide insights into the characters.  My favorite among the ones I've written is from Thunder and Roses.  The heroine of the story, Clare, is a Welsh Methodist minister's daughter, a hardworking village schoolteacher.  She goes to Nicolas, the local lord, to ask his help in improving the economy of their valley.  Hung-over and wanting her to go away, Nicolas says he'll help if she'll ruin her reputation by allowing her friends and neighbors to think she's his mistress.

Instead of fleeing in shock, Clare takes up his challenge, and they're off!  This includes Nicholas taking her to London and acquiring the sort of wardrobe a mistress should have:  

Before allowing Clare to look at herself in the wall mirror, Marie produced a sprig of creamy silk roses and tucked them into Clare’s dark hair. “Tres bien. Accessories and a different hairstyle are needed, but this will please Monsieur le compte.’’
    When Clare was finally permitted to see herself, she blinked in surprise at her image. The rose challis made her skin glow and her eyes look enormous. She looked like a lady—an attractive lady. Even, heaven help her, rather dashing. She studied the neckline of the gown uneasily. Not only was it cut alarmingly low, but the stays pushed her up in front. Though Clare knew herself to be modestly endowed, in this fashionable gown she looked quite… bountiful.
    Suppressing the desire to cover her bare chest with her hands, she shyly emerged from behind the screen. Nicholas and Denise broke off their discussion to stare. While the dressmaker nodded with satisfaction, Nicholas circled around Clare, his eyes glowing with approval. “I knew this gown would become you, but even so, I’m impressed. Only one alteration is needed.”
    He used the edge of his hand to draw a line across the front of her bodice. “Cut the décolletage to here.”
    She gasped, as much because he was touching her breasts—in public!—as because of the shockingly low neckline he wanted. “I refuse to wear anything indecent!”
    “What I’m suggesting is rather moderate.” He drew another line across her breasts, this one barely clearing her nipples. “This would be indecent.”
    Appalled, Clare glanced at Denise. “Surely he’s jesting?”
    “Not at all,” the dressmaker said briskly. “I have customers who won’t buy a gown unless they’re in danger of popping out. Keeps the gentlemen interested, they say.”
    “I should certainly think it would,” Clare muttered, unmollified. “But it’s not for me.”
    “You smolder better than any woman I ever met.” Nicholas gave her his devil’s smile. “The décolletage I am suggesting is more daring than you want, and more conservative than I would like. Isn’t that fair enough?”

The makeover scene in The Marriage Spell serves a different purpose. The healer heroine, Abby, is tall and well rounded and thinks of herself as a plain country woman.  Then she marries Jack Langdon after saving his life, and it's off to London and a better wardrobe, among other things.

One of the points I wanted to make in this scene is about stays and corsets.  Modern women tend to look back on them in horror, but a well made set of stays would be comfortable, and good underpinnings definitely makes a woman look her best.  (And honestly, are stays any less comfortable than stiletto heels???)

That's still true, I might add.  A really good bra that has been fitted by someone who knows what she is doing will feel good and make a woman look younger and fitter, and who doesn't want that?  So here is Abby's encounter with a first class corsetiere:

    The corsetiere, who wore gray, added, “Without a proper foundation, even the finest of gowns will not look its best.”   Her eyes gleamed as she studied Abby.  “And you, milady, are in dire need of my skills.”
    Apparently talented artisans were allowed such rudeness.  Fortunately Abby had little vanity, because the sisters and the duchess began to discuss her appearance with hair-curling bluntness.  Abby was stripped down to her shift, measured in amazing detail, draped in swathes of fabric, and analyzed as if she wasn’t present.  
    As Madame Ravelle turned to consult a copy of La Belle Assemblée, Abby asked her sister-in-law, “Am I allowed any opinions about what I am to wear?”
    “A few,” Celeste said cheerfully.  “But you will only be offered good choices, so whatever you wear will look stunning.”
    “Indeed, milady has a magnificent figure,” Madame Renault observed.  “With your height and natural form, it’s a crime the way you have concealed yourself with plain garments and inferior stays.”
    “If magnificent means overblown, you’re right,” Abby said tartly.  “Even when I was thirteen, I didn’t have the elegance of figure that the duchess possesses.”
    Madame Ravelle shook her head.  “There is more than one kind of beauty, Lady Frayne.  Her grace is the epitome of ethereal elegance.  Men and women gasp when they see her.  She is like a fairy queen who is briefly visiting earth to grant mere mortals a glimpse of timeless beauty.”
    Celeste laughed.  “That is ludicrously overblown flattery, Madame Ravelle.”
    “Overblown, perhaps, but essentially accurate,” Abby commented.  

   Madame Renault turned to her.  “Your beauty is of an earthier, more sensual kind, Milady Frayne.  When you enter a ballroom, women will see a well-dressed woman, and continue what they were doing.  Men will stare and yearn and consider challenging your lord husband to a duel to win your favor.”

Abby doesn't believe it, but needless to say, Jack is suitably stunned by the results. <G>  

My upcoming September book, Not Always a Saint, has a heroine who is of the beautiful- and-has-suffered-for-it sort.  Jessie doesn't get a real makeover scene, though when she goes to London, she does need to get a new wardrobe because she's in mourning but needs to find a new husband fast.  In her case, she needs widow's weeds that will make her look both modest and alluring. 

Clothing plays into our stories in numerous ways!  Jessie does get to wear a scarlet gown at one point, and that's what the Kensington art department went with for the fabulous cover.  

Do you enjoy reading (or writing) makeover scenes, or do they bore you?  Are there some you've read and particularly enjoyed?  If so, what books and why?  I'm sure I'm not alone in this particular pleasure!

Mary Jo, who is awfully casual about clothing in real life. <G>

Comments

[Anne Gracie]

Put me down as one who loves reading makeover scenes — writing them too, though I haven't done many. But it's that fantasy, isn't it, where the plain Jane becomes a swan (she says, mixing metaphors horribly) and of course the hero sees her in a new way -- but best of all, the heroine sees herself in a new way as well, and so we get double the fantasy - the actual change of appearance, and the metaphorical change as well.

[Sue W. McCormick]

When the make-over scene is well-written and essential to the story, I do enjoy them (but not enough that I have ever noticed them!) .I own and re-read both of the books you have quoted, and have never thought of either scene as being of a particular type. Now that you've called the type to my notice, I will probably enjoy them more fully.

Reading the techniques and points-of-view from all of the Word Wenches is always so inviting and so mind-expanding. Thanks always to all of you.

And today, especially, thanks to you, Mary Jo for calling this to the attention of another casual dresser.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Exactly, Anne! You put your finger on the heart of the fantasy. I suppose a subcatory of this is "every bride" is beautiful, because she's not only looking her best and happiest, but she is changing her status as well.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Sue, I'm glad you enjoy our Wenchly thoughts and insights, and that you're a fellow casual dresser. *G* Since I work at home, I'm cozy knits pretty much all the time. Except for conferences. I have a bunch of conference clothes, but they have to be comfortable!

[Janga]

I love makeover stories--both the Cinderella type and the Pygmalion style. Eloisa James is another writer who uses the trope with some frequency, usually with a bit of a twist. In Your Wicked Ways, it is the model-slender Helene, the Countess Godwin, who envies her friend's abundant curves who gets a gown that reveals she too has curves, although less generous than she might wish. In Pleasure for Pleasure, it is the rakish hero who directs Josie to get rid of a ridiculously restrictive corset and demonstrates (in Josie's pink dress, no less) how she is to walk in a manner that will make men slaver. In The Ugly Duchess, the heroine is her own makeover artist and becomes a style setter.

I also have a great fondness for male makeover tales. Heyer's Powder and Patch, Judith Ivory's The Proposition, and Miranda Neville's The Dangerous Viscount are all favorites.

I reread the Fallen Angels books not long ago, but the second excerpt really makes me want to reread The Marriage Spell.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Janga--

There really are a ton of wonderful variations, aren't there? And they're all fun. *G*

[Julie Fetter]

Yes, I definitely enjoy reading makeover scenes. There is something lovely about seeing a woman's self-image burst into bloom when she realizes there is beauty within her that has previously been hidden.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Julie--it's really fun to identify with characters in that situation. We, too, can be swans!

[Patricia Rice]

LOL, Mary Jo! I just did a makeover for my hero. The heroine's eyes nearly pop out when he finally uses a valet and cleans up. He'll not keep his coat buttoned or his neckcloth clean for long, but every once in a while, it's good to clean them up!

[prema]

Love Thunder and Roses and Clare's makeover. But Nicholas was already attracted to her dowdy appearance long before the makeover. That is what every woman desires to be loved as she is. I definitely enjoy the makeover scenes as it gives the heroine a new persona to help her get the hero. And descriptions of clothes and fabrics and colors are appealing in adding more color to the story.