Reviews
"This is an excellent overview of the history of fetish clothing from the perspective of fashion culture. Steele is often witty and entertaining, and she manages to integrate a diverse set of discourses: 'the postmodern, the politicized, the psychiatric, the popular and the, pornographic,'into a thoughtful and balanced book."Archives of Sexual Behaviour, "Fashion historian Valerie Steele charts an enlightened, occasionally startling, course through the significant subjects of fetishism, sexuality, and apparel.... Her approach is never judgmental or aloof: she realizes that clothing is an intimate identity and self-expression.... As conversantwith mainstream fashion as with the extreme behaviors of fetish devotion, Steele contributes an anthropological integrity to fashion and a logical consequence to our culturally variable body identities. She makes a compelling case for fashion's importance to culture and for fashion's ability toincorporate the needs of minority populations and individuals' interests. Steele has, once again, written a--no pun intended--masterful study, affiliating fashion with the supreme power of the body."--Richard Martin, Curator, The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Steele's greatest strengths here are her flexible perspective and her deft negotiation of various theoretical perspectives.... A thought-provoking overview of the relationship between sex and clothing."--Publishers Weekly"Valerie Steele is to kinky dressing what Anne Rice is to vampires: an interpreter of desires beyond our ken. She deals in riveting stuff: the way the culture talks dirty--most of the time without even noticing--through clothes."--Christa Worthington, Elle"In elegant prose Valerie Steele explores the ambiguous region of fetish dressing, where perverse sex meets high fashion. Her analysis of the gendered meanings of fetish garments is both witty and profound, as she explores the sexual fantasies played out in dress, and the ambivalence with which we regard them today as the boundary between the 'normal' and the 'perverse' seems, she suggests, to be disappearing."--Elizabeth Wilson, Professor of Social Sciences,Polytechnic of North London and author of Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity"Fashion historian Valerie Steele charts an enlightened, occasionally startling, course through the significant subjects of fetishism, sexuality, and apparel....Her approach is never judgmental or aloof: she realizes that clothing is an intimate identity and self-expression.... Steele has, once again, written a--no pun intended--masterful study, affiliating fashion with the supreme power of the body."--Richard Martin, Curator, The Costume Institute, TheMetropolitan Museum of Art, "Valerie Steele is to kinky dressing what Anne Rice is to vampires: an interpreter of desires beyond our ken. She deals in riveting stuff: the way the culture talks dirty--most of the time without even noticing--through clothes."--Christa Worthington, Elle, "Steele's greatest strengths here are her flexible perspective and her deft negotiation of various theoretical perspectives.... A thought-provoking overview of the relationship between sex and clothing."--Publishers Weekly, "In elegant prose Valerie Steele explores the ambiguous region of fetish dressing, where perverse sex meets high fashion. Her analysis of the gendered meanings of fetish garments is both witty and profound, as she explores the sexual fantasies played out in dress, and the ambivalence withwhich we regard them today as the boundary between the 'normal' and the 'perverse' seems, she suggests, to be disappearing."--Professor Elizabeth Wilson, "Fashion historian Valerie Steele charts an enlightened, occasionally startling, course through the significant subjects of fetishism, sexuality, and apparel....Her approach is never judgmental or aloof: she realizes that clothing is an intimate identity and self-expression.... Steele has,once again, written a--no pun intended--masterful study, affiliating fashion with the supreme power of the body."--Richard Martin, Curator, The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "In elegant prose Valerie Steele explores the ambiguous region of fetish dressing, where perverse sex meets high fashion. Her analysis of the gendered meanings of fetish garments is both witty and profound, as she explores the sexual fantasies played out in dress, and the ambivalence withwhich we regard them today as the boundary between the 'normal' and the 'perverse' seems, she suggests, to be disappearing."--Elizabeth Wilson, Professor of Social Sciences, Polytechnic of North London and author of Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity, "Steele's greatest strengths here are her flexible perspective and her deft negotiation of various theoretical perspectives....A thought-provoking overview of the relationship between sex and clothing."--Publishers Weekly
