MAKEOVER

noun Also written make-over (Business World) (Lifestyle and Leisure) A complete transformation or remodelling; specifically, the remodelling of a person's appearance (or some aspect of it, such as hairstyle), especially when this is carried out by a professional. Etymology: Formed by turning the verbal phrase to make over ('to refashion') into a compound noun. History and Usage: The noun makeover was first used in the late sixties and by the seventies was not unusual in professional hairstylists' and beauticians' publications. It remained in relatively limited use until the end of the seventies, when it started to appear in magazines aimed at a wider audience; by the mid eighties it had become a part of the stock vocabulary of women's magazines, especially those which featured an opportunity for an ordinary reader to have her whole appearance and image rethought by experts, with markedly different 'before' and 'after' photographs. This was extended to all kinds of remodelling (for example, of interior decoration, houses, etc.) from the early eighties. The word was also taken up in the business world in a figurative sense from about the mid eighties: when a company is restructured by a new management, this is described as a makeover or corporate makeover, especially if the results seem only cosmetic. Mr Segal insists that hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts and forced restructurings--which he bundles together under the...label 'corporate makeovers'--are 'symptoms, not the disease'. New York Times Book Review 29 Oct. 1989, p. 32 The make-over of California Cosmetics has worked. Although sales slipped...last year,...the company is now more profitable than ever. Financial Review (Sydney) 23 Feb. 1990, p. 48 We did this make-over for six ladies in the region. You know the sort of thing--you get an expert in to show them what they should wear. She Oct. 1990, p. 9