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"This book is just what I've been looking for all my life and will accompany me to my desert island." - Fetish Times, United Kingdom"
Product Description
This is an intimate exploration of the props of our theatre of desire.Since the beginning of civilization, women have worn underwear. Justified as protection, or a hygienic necessity, this "second skin" was devised to satisfy perverse erotic instincts. A "trap laid by Venus" to entertain and stimulate the fantasies of both the woman who wears them and the man who discovers them. Corsets, bras and panties are not utilitarian items - they are elements in a mystic ritual linking man and woman. They act as an obsessive focus for fantasy, for the sex they conceal is powerless without the decorations and seductions which separate us from it. Pleasure would perish without censorship.Women have always known how to stimulate the latent fetishism of the men around them. Under her dress, a Greek girl of the classical period would wear a belt around her hips which was of no practical use except to draw attention to her feminity. Likewise, the women of Rome already wore garters round their thighs, though the stocking had not yet been invented. In our own century, vamps, starlets, pin-ups and models have filled our cinema screens, our advertising hoardings, our office calendars and our imaginations with the erotic engineering of the garter belt and the surreptitious rustle of nylon stockings."Dessous" traces the evolution of this living mythology from its first steps in the dawn of civilization to its apotheosis in the films and advertising campaigns of the modern world. Lavishly illustrated, it demonstrates how the conflict between the need to conceal and the will to reveal has provided women with the means to explore their own sexuality and exercise an erotic ascendancy over men. The result is a richly aphrodisiacal meditation, an intimate exploration of the props of our theatre of desire.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have been making clothes for a while and learning from degree-level books in order to improve my skills as far as I can on my own. There aren't many fashion books dedicated to lingerie, so I eagerly ordered this book, thinking that I would be shown a broad variety of lingerie from different angles, perhaps with a little commentary to explain how various styles came to be fashionable. Contemporary catwalk photographs would have been great. Looking at the number of pages, I really thought this would be the only lingerie book I would ever need...
While the fat little tome does indeed contain lots of pictures of lingerie, it would be better to entitle it "Lingerie In 20th Century Cinema". Sorry, if I missed this somewhere and it is actually very obvious to you that this is what it is... The book is full of photographs of actresses in lingerie - actual film scenes or publicity shots. The author seems to prefer erotic poses over something more 'sweet', although a variety of moods are included. If you like to look at titillating pictures of women in lingerie, this book is probably going to be of interest to you. As a dressmaker, I found plenty of styles, but nothing really exciting. I wish someone would publish a book of lingerie catwalk photos...
I'm quite comfortable looking at art books but two things bothered me about this one that you might want to know about before you buy, in case you feel the same way:
1. One photo shows a scene from a film in which a murderer is raping a woman on a bed next to the bloody corpse of her husband. Does this need to be in a book about the history of lingerie? The lingerie shown isn't that special... There were other photos that could have done with stronger editing too. If you are buying this book as a gift, please have a good look through it first as I would think a lot of people would find it offensive. I was surprised by the content, rather than offended, since I thought I was buying a serious book on fashion history rather than the bits of videos that adolescents might wear out the 'pause' button on! Honestly, I think there is a reason why this book has been sized so it can be held in one hand...
2. I can put up with the above, but there are no pictures of older women. Apparently, us women might as well give it all up once we our past our thirties, because the author thinks you have to be young to look beautiful/sexy. Under a photo of Jane Fonda, the author tells us that she looks great "even at 40"!! No, I didn't read it wrong, as he also does it with a couple of other 40-year-old actresses he considers to be holding their wrinkles at bay. Ohforgoodnesssake. As someone who designs for people of all shapes and ages, I find this attitude more offensive than the crass photos.
I have young children so this book has been hidden in the top of my wardrobe and I never bother to look at it. It's not of any use to me as a fashion guide, but you might like it for its erotic content (is is indeed very sexy in places), or as a fan of lingerie-clad film sirens mainly from the 70s. Even so, there will probably be better books on those subjects, so I do not recommend it. Hope this helps.
While the fat little tome does indeed contain lots of pictures of lingerie, it would be better to entitle it "Lingerie In 20th Century Cinema". Sorry, if I missed this somewhere and it is actually very obvious to you that this is what it is... The book is full of photographs of actresses in lingerie - actual film scenes or publicity shots. The author seems to prefer erotic poses over something more 'sweet', although a variety of moods are included. If you like to look at titillating pictures of women in lingerie, this book is probably going to be of interest to you. As a dressmaker, I found plenty of styles, but nothing really exciting. I wish someone would publish a book of lingerie catwalk photos...
I'm quite comfortable looking at art books but two things bothered me about this one that you might want to know about before you buy, in case you feel the same way:
1. One photo shows a scene from a film in which a murderer is raping a woman on a bed next to the bloody corpse of her husband. Does this need to be in a book about the history of lingerie? The lingerie shown isn't that special... There were other photos that could have done with stronger editing too. If you are buying this book as a gift, please have a good look through it first as I would think a lot of people would find it offensive. I was surprised by the content, rather than offended, since I thought I was buying a serious book on fashion history rather than the bits of videos that adolescents might wear out the 'pause' button on! Honestly, I think there is a reason why this book has been sized so it can be held in one hand...
2. I can put up with the above, but there are no pictures of older women. Apparently, us women might as well give it all up once we our past our thirties, because the author thinks you have to be young to look beautiful/sexy. Under a photo of Jane Fonda, the author tells us that she looks great "even at 40"!! No, I didn't read it wrong, as he also does it with a couple of other 40-year-old actresses he considers to be holding their wrinkles at bay. Ohforgoodnesssake. As someone who designs for people of all shapes and ages, I find this attitude more offensive than the crass photos.
I have young children so this book has been hidden in the top of my wardrobe and I never bother to look at it. It's not of any use to me as a fashion guide, but you might like it for its erotic content (is is indeed very sexy in places), or as a fan of lingerie-clad film sirens mainly from the 70s. Even so, there will probably be better books on those subjects, so I do not recommend it. Hope this helps.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
this book is so great for imagery on corsets - both modern and period. it can be a bit sexually explicit. But it is just full of so many fantastic pictures, you just cant find them anywhere else!
3 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fantastic collrction of old photographs and illstrations showing the history of underwear good if you like fashion, history or just underwear good source for research imagery wise.
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