Glüme’s Guide to Cheap Glamour
Musician, actress and self confessed Walmart Marilyn, Glüme is as glam as they come. She has the allure of Old Hollywood with an added Twin Peaks spookiness, with a look reminiscent of the iconic blonde bombshells of pop culture past, who were notably a lot smarter than they let on. Glüme is a master at being glam on a budget, so she’s penned this guide for us with her musings on makeup, money, Marilyn Monroe and the hierarchies of bad taste. Read on for tips and tricks on giving yourself over to absolute glamour.
Know Your History
It’s all well and good cherry picking your highlights from pop culture and crafting an iconic look from the gorge girlies that paved the way before you. A Dolly Parton-esque red lacquered acrylic nail, a thick black lined eye accented with neon pink shadow from Angelyne, a gleaming bottle blonde peroxide bob from Marilyn, a fur draped across the shoulder ala Elizabeth Taylor and a penchant for bad boys inspired by Lana Turner, but it’s important to know the backstories and complex lives behind your glamorous muses.
When she watched the TV show about Los Angeles billboard legend, Angelyene, the titular character had a shrine dedicated to Marilyn Monroe, Glüme was in shock. “I gasped when I saw it because I have an altar in my bedroom dedicated to Marilyn. I was very careful when choosing the picture to frame for the centrepiece.” She explains. “There's so many photos of her where people are trying to portray her as the Sad Girl. But really she was quite a joyful person. I wanted to use a picture where she’s happy, and you can feel her glowing.
Marilyn Monroe’s image has been hashed and rehashed over again and warped to fit many stories made by many men, most recently in the horrendous “biopic” Blonde (2022), “directed by a man who said he hadn’t even watched any Marilyn films'' Glüme notes. She stresses the importance of not sensationalising your icons and looking into what kind of person they were.
“Marilyn’s personality has been misconstrued a lot in the wrong way.” Glüme continues, “She was so caring, loving and generous, she did so much for so many people and was so ahead of her time. She got Ella Fitzgerald a job working somewhere that was for white people only by saying to the owners of the club ‘I will come and sit in the front row every night if you let her sing.’ And she did!” She implores, “If you're gonna be a Walmart Marilyn, a Target Jane Mansfield or a budget version of anyone, you should make a space in your life to honour them, know the good things they did in life and not just take from them without thinking deeper about it.”
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Take Pride in Your Roots
Class and glamour are closely linked and they walk hand in hand in discussions of good and bad taste, nepotism and money. As Dolly Parton famously said “I modelled my look after what they called the ‘town tramp’ in my hometown. This woman that used to walk the streets had all this makeup and hair, high heel shoes. I thought she was so beautiful. And everybody used to say, ‘Oh, she ain’t nothin’ but trash.’ And I used to say, ‘Well that’s what I’m gonna be when I grow up—trash!’”
Glüme notes that when you have little money, you naturally want to present as overly glam: “I grew up as a child actor having to work to pay my parents' mortgage. People say I’m over the top now but I think it’s got roots in that. When you don’t come from money you want to show off as soon as you get a little money. Hollywood used to be obsessed with that kind of rags to riches story but now it’s all about stealth wealth.” She adds that nowadays, “The girls with money in LA now generally don’t show it off. They're walking around in expensive athleisure and they're pretty low key apart from their shiny G wagon. I have this very absurdist, decorated place with kitsch waterfall murals on the walls and a Catherine D'lish dusky pink feather robe that I wander around in. People with money don’t behave in that way!”
“If you're gonna be a Walmart Marilyn, a Target Jane Mansfield or a budget version of anyone, you should make a space in your life to honour them”
True glamour, and inspiration for said glamour, is much more likely to be found in those of your own class, who actually appreciate lavishness and extravagance. Embracing the ‘town tramp’ aesthetic over a Lululemon carbon copy will always be infinitely more interesting, even if you don’t have as much money as the latter.
Rely On Prowess over Resources
Being glam doesn’t have to be expensive. But unfortunately aesthetics are a little important when you want to be a bombshell, so you’re gonna have to spend a little cash if you want to move up the ranks of being utterly ravishing, darling! Glüme notes that: “It doesn't really matter what brand of makeup you wear, but you should own a red lipstick. That’s the one thing that is a must. Marilyn also wore a lot of Vaseline on her face to look dewy and glowing under the studio lights but I wouldn’t suggest Vaseline in 2023…hello, petroleum! Still, a little shimmer is neccesary!”
Another of Marilyn’s tips that Glüme recommends is less about product, but more about technique: Eyeliner along the top lids extending out, accompanied by a soft line of brown eye pencil under the bottom lashes. She adds “You want to elongate the eyes as that’s the best way to make your eyelashes look super heavy without false lashes.” All the lazy girlies owe Marilyn a debt for making sleepiness a seductive quality.
Get Grifting
Speaking of doing it on a budget, Glüme is a big fan of a favour and trying to get things done on the cheap. In the money obsessed world of Los Angeles she has some tips on how to navigate those pavements paved with gold.
Her first tip for maintaining that Marilyn platinum blonde look is to befriend someone in the hairdressing world: “You gotta make the right hair friends! Thank god I’m friends with my hairstylist. I think the reason platinum is considered glamorous is because it’s so expensive to maintain if you want to get it dyed in a salon. My bestie is my hair stylist and my guitar player. We work out deals and trades, I help her with production and music and she keeps me platinum!”
“Glamour allows you to imagine something better for yourself and says it's okay to do that. And I think there's nothing wrong with that”
If you’re wanting to channel that Old Hollywood glamour in your wardrobe, Glüme recommends thrifting and raiding charity shops rather than heading to the internet for a 1940s ostrich feather lined robe to lounge about in. “I found a gown that looked exactly like something Ginger Rogers wears in Top Hat in a thrift shop in Orange County. It cost 50 bucks, which might seem steep, but it would’ve cost me so much more if I’d found it on Etsy.” She advocates, “Instead of heading straight to a curated collection of vintage online from someone that knows the difference between a Lauren Bacall 1940s blazer to a Tammy Faye 1980s blazer, start rummaging through the racks of the dustiest thrift store you can find.”
Another good thing to remember is: shy kids don’t get any sweeties. Glüme also recommends being bold and just asking for a freebie. She laughs - “I’m open about getting my lips done, if it’s good enough for Chloe Cherry it’s good enough for me! The last time I went to get them done I offered to post about the procedure on my Instagram in exchange for a cheeky 1ml. And it worked! My friend who I was with was shocked but if you’re going to live a very glamorous life and you don't have much money you have to get good at negotiating.” Ethically of course! No scamming here. Unless, of course, they deserve it.
Glüme is a firm believer in the power of glamour as a force to uplift and as a form of escapism; you can see it shine through her artistry, her music and her lifestyle. She ends our conversation with a bittersweet point about escaping dull and drab life through glitz and glam; “People think it’s odd that during the Great Depression people would go see these films where there were castles in the sky that mermaids were diving out of and landing into a sea of glitter and jewels. But people wanted to see that because their everyday life was grim. You can step away for two hours and escape and that’s weirdly uplifting in a way.” She surmises, “Glamour allows you to imagine something better for yourself and says it's okay to do that. And I think there's nothing wrong with that.”
Glüme’s upcoming album Main Character, is out 17th February. She’s playing at Servant Jazz Quarters in London on the 14th February, tickets here.
Words: Eden Young | Photography: Ellen von Unwerth
