Freak to chic : 'gay' men in and out of fashion after Oscar Wilde

Summary: "In this unique intervention in the study of queer culture, Dominic Janes highlights that, under the gaze of social conservatism, 'gay' life was hiding in plain sight. Indeed, he argues that the worlds of glamour, fashion, art and countercultural style provided rich opportunities for the construction of queer spectacle in London. Inspired by the legacies of Oscar Wilde, interwar and later 20th-century men such as Cecil Beaton expressed transgressive desires in forms inspired by those labelled 'freaks' and, thereby, made major contributions to the histories of art, design, fashion, sexuality, and celebrity. Janes reinterprets the origins of gay and queer cultures by charting the interactions between marginalized freaks and chic fashionistas. He establishes a new framework for future analyses of other cities and media, and of the roles of women and diverse identities"--

Record details

ISBN: 9781350172630
ISBN: 9781350172623
ISBN: 9781350172616
ISBN: 9781350248083
ISBN: 9781350172609
Physical Description: 1 online resource (xiv, 298 pages) : illustrations
remote
electronic
reformatted digital
Publisher: London. England : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-281) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	1. Introduction: In Search of Lost Times -- 2. Freak Shows -- Decline and Fall -- 3. Freaks in Vogue -- George, Georgie, Georgino Mio -- 4. Bright Young Things -- Freak Parties -- The Uprise of Cecil Beaton -- 5. Divas -- Mariegold in Society.
Source of Description Note:	Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.