Fetish: Fashion, Sex, and Power (Oxford University Press Inc)

Kinky boots, corsets, underwear as outerwear, second-skin garments of rubber and leather, uniforms, body piercing. Today everything from a fetishist's dream appears on the fashion runways. Although some people regard fetish fashion as exploitative and misogynistic, others interpret it as a positive Amazonian statement - "couture Catwoman". But the connection between fashion and fetishism goes far beyond a few couture collections. For over 30 years, the iconography of sexual fetishism has been increasingly assimilated into popular culture. Before Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman, there was Mrs. Peel, heroine of the 1960s television show "The Avengers," who wore a black leather catsuit modelled on a real fetish costume. Street styles like punk and the gay "leatherman" look also testify to the influence of fetishism. This book explains how a paradigm shift in attitudes toward sex and gender has given rise to the phenomenon of fetish fashion.