Fashion & fetishism : corsets, tight-lacing & other forms of body-sculpture / David Kunzle.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kunzle, David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Corsets--Social aspects.

Corsets.

Foundation garments--History.

Foundation garments.

History.

Social aspects.

Physical Description:

xvi, 384 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Edition:

New edition.

Other Title:

Fashion and fetishism

Place of Publication:

Stroud : Sutton, 2004.

Summary:

What do great military historian Sir Basil Liddell Hart, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, Sir Thomas Moore MP and the Victorian shop-girl have in common? In a word, tight-lacing. In this controversial book, David Kunzle gives a radical reappraisal of the role of the corset in terms of oppression, liberation, fashion and sex. The typical image of the corset is as a symbol of Victorian female repression and the corset has been blamed for all kinds of maladies and unhappiness. In Fashion and Fetishism David Kunzle presents a much more ambivalent view. Drawing on sources as diverse as medical literature, novels and popular magazine articles, and ranging from ancient Crete to modern times, he reveals how corsetry and body-sculpture are bound up with sexual and social self-expression. In Victorian times 'tight-lacers' - women who conspicuously compressed their waist - were virtually regarded as witches.

Their extreme use of the corset rejected the role of woman as passive and maternal and they were thus deemed a threat to the established social order, the future of the race, and even civilization itself. Today, the corset has had a triumphant return into fashion. Designers clearly recognize its subversive powers - as a symbol of eroticism, decadence and control. Corsets, with high-heeled footwear, are central to a centuries-old tradition of body-sculpture, where extreme self-denial has become a form of self-assertion. Fashion and Fetishism rewrites a significant chapter of prejudices in the social history of fashion and sex, turning a symbol of repression into one of sexual freedom and class revolt. This often racy journey into the enigma of those who sculpt the shape of their desires onto their bodies will appeal to anyone fascinated by sex, fashion, politics or morality.

Contents:

Introduction: The Special Historic and Psychological Role of Tight-lacing 1

1 From Ancient Crete to Neoclassicism 42

2 Revival of Tight-lacing 80

3 The Campaign of the Humorists 1846-1900 98

4 The Final Phase 1860-1900 119

5 The Corset as Erotic Alchemy 141

6 The Victorian Fetishist Experience 159

7 Fetishism Deepening 176

8 Unfashionable Fetishism: London Life 1923-40 208

9 Postwar Fashion and Media Exploitation of Fetishism 219

10 Expanding Universe 234

11 The Corset Revival of the 1980s-90s 242

12 The Tyranny of Slenderness 253

13 Dreaming in Film 265

Conclusion: Civilised and Primitive Body-sculpture 287

I Rituals 292

II Statistics 296

III Mythology 305

IV Case Histories 309

V People 323

VI Manufacturers 331

VII From Susanna Kubelka 335

VIII Envoi 337.

ISBN:

0750938080

OCLC:

56539459