Who Needs Happy When You Can Have Haughty?

There is nothing more disarming than someone with a beautiful smile, but in the world of high fashion, who needs happy when you can have haughty?

- Kirstie Clements

Unless you are Julia Roberts, there’s an understanding in the vast fashion circle — encompassing celebrities, models, designers, editors, stylists et al. — that smiling is gauche. You could be having the time of your life at a party, but should a camera appear, it’s decorous to stare at the lens with stone-faced disinterest, or if you’re feeling generous, a smirk. Toothy grins are reserved for infomercial hosts flogging steam mops. Smiling is anything but high-fashion — something for shopping centre parades, not Parisian runways.

It has long been thought that a fake smile could be distinguished by a lack of crinkling around the eyes. The most genuine of grins is called the Duchenne smile, which is when the orbicularis oculi muscles are activated, raising the cheeks and scrunching the eyes. But not everyone likes the way they look when they Duchenne smile (Victoria Beckham is the patron saint of this syndrome). There are millions of people all around the world, myself included, who feel a very real sense of dread when someone pulls out their phone camera and directs their subjects to “Smile!”