Fashion and Eroticism: Ideals of Feminine Beauty from the Victorian Era to the Jazz Age

Steele, Valerie

New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Hardcover. Mauve boards, mauve cloth spine with gilt lettering, mauve illustrated DJ. xviii, 327 pp. Numerous bw illustrations. VG/VG (ex-library with labels and stamps on spine, block, inside front and rear covers and title page verso. Pages are otherwise clean and clear with light shelfwear to boards and block.). Item #27687
ISBN: 9780195035308

Looks at the evolution of fashion, argues that Victorian clothing for women was erotic rather than prudish, and discusses the psychological aspects of fashion. Contents include: Why of fashion -- Fig leaf: explanations of clothing and fashion -- Fashion and eroticism: the psychoanalytic approach -- New thory of fashion: sexual beauty and the ideal self -- Fashion and erotic beauty in the Victorian period -- Victorian fashion -- Victorian sexuality -- Victorian ideal of feminine beauty -- Artificial beauty, or the morality of dress and adornment -- Revolt against fashion: dress reform and aesthetic costume -- Foundations of fashion -- Corset controversy -- Attractions of underclothes -- Into the twentieth century -- Changing ideal of feminine beauty.