Valerie Steele, author of her excellent book on the corset’s history
Sep 192008
Jul 012008
The Rubber Betty blog frequently runs complete scans of vintage fetish magazines like AtomAge, along with other classic stuff.
Thanks Betty, for keeping our history alive!
Jul 222006
After a very long time, I’ve finally finished David Kunzle’s Fashion and Fetishism. I’d say it’s pretty much the last word on corset history, though Valerie Steele’s work is a lot shorter.
There’s really only one area of Kunzle’s book I question. In the 19th century, there clearly was a subculture of corset tight-lacers, often lower-class, upwardly-mobile women, and their admirers. But were there families and schools in which women were customarily introduced to tight-lacing in their early teens, as described in the fetishist letters in magazines like Englishwomen’s Domestic Magazine and The Family Doctor? It seems clear to me that most of them were exaggerations or outright fabrications, but were all of them?
