Download Free Casting Off The Corsets Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Casting Off The Corsets and write the review.

The act of undressing has a multitude of meanings, which vary dramatically when this commonly private gesture is presented for public consumption. This ground-breaking book explores the significance of undressing in various cultural and social contexts. As we are increasingly obsessed with dress choices as signifiers of who we are and how we feel, an investigation into what happens as we remove our clothes has never been more pertinent. Exploring three main issues - politics, tease, and clothes without bodies - Acts of Undressing discusses these key themes through an in-depth and eclectic mix of case studies including flashing at Mardi Gras, the World Burlesque Games, and 'shoefiti' used by gangs to mark territories. Building on leading theories of dress and the body, from academics including Roland Barthes and Mario Perniolato, Ruth Barcan and Erving Goffman, Acts of Undressing is essential reading for students of fashion, sociology, anthropology, visual culture, and related subjects.
Asphodel Quick fights her wicked great-uncle for possession of her grandmother's legacy—the Black Hart Hotel on the remote North York moors. Her uncle demands she marry him or be tossed into the dread Harrowlick Lunatic Asylum. Then a dashing highwayman aids her, firing more than her business desires. Returned from the lawless Australian goldfields to defy the family curse, Farlan Blackitter is the fourth Baron Blackitter—if only he can find the papers to prove it. Acting as a highwayman, he steals the engagement ring of a feisty flame-haired, pub-owning wench—and yields his own blackened heart in exchange. Together Farlan and Asphodel battle all the forces arrayed against them, in an exhilarating race across the wild moors.
San Francisco vintage clothing store owner Lily Ivory must put her more magical abilities to good use in this mystery in the New York Times bestselling Witchcraft series. When some students get spooked at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, Lily Ivory is called in to search for possible paranormal activity. In exchange for her help, she’s been promised a trunk full of Victorian era clothes recently discovered in a school storage closet. What she finds at the foot of the stairs leading to the bell tower is a body—a wealthy patron of the school who has been murdered. She uses her sleuthing skills in between running the store and seeing her new boyfriend, Max, a “mythbuster” uncomfortable with her witchcraft. Soon Lily senses something from the school’s vintage clothes. But it’s not the smell of mothballs—it’s the unmistakable aura of evil intent...
Stays and Corsets: Historical Patterns Translated for the Modern Body goes a step beyond traditional historical costuming texts by not only providing you with historical pattern diagrams and information, but by showing you how to adapt these patterns to the contemporary body shape. Using her original pattern-drafting system, author Mandy Barrington will show you how to draft a historical pattern for a modern body shape, while still retaining an accurate historical silhouette. Each pattern has been generated from an original stay, corset, or pattern taken from a historical garment. The instructions to follow these new patterns are designed to accommodate any size of female figure, allowing you to avoid extremely difficult, time consuming, and inaccurate historical pattern re-sizing Requiring only basic prior knowledge of pattern drafting, all calculations have been worked out for the costume maker and are provided in simple tables accompanied by easy-to-read, step-by-step diagrams that clearly show how the historical pattern is plotted onto the female basic block, coupled with photographs of the constructed stays and corsets.
"Progressing through almost two centuries of corset-making, this collection showcases a range of period pieces, from the 1750 whale-boned corsets, through the invention of the sewing machine and mass-produced corsets of the 1850s to the makeshift corsets of World War I." "Reflecting the changing fashions and attitudes of women throughout the centuries, the collection includes corsets for pregnancy, riding corsets for sportswomen and hard-wearing corsets for housemaids. There are even corsets for small children and their dolls." "Each corset features an annotated pattern, a detailed drawing and close-up photography so any historical detail can be captured accurately by the maker. Each pattern is accompanied by a brief overview that places the corset within its historical context and explains any features or alterations that are necessary for making up the patterns." "A must-have guide for anyone with an interest in fashion history, Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques is a treasure trove of information for fashion students, costume makers for stage and screen, reenactors and historians alike."--BOOK JACKET.
Presenting the history of corsetry and body sculpture, this edition shows how the relationship between fashion and sex is closely bound up with sexual self-expression. It demonstrates how the use of the corset rejected the role of the passive, maternal woman, so that in Victorian times it was seen as a scandalous threat to the social order.
Why, at a time when women's liberation was gaining force and momentum, did the corset become more cinched and restricting than at any time during the entire preceding century? Why was bra burning a political statement for the feminists of the 1970s? How far is the harnessed and restricted female form an outward symbol of Victorian and middle-class ideas of discipline and self-control? In what ways are women forced to conform to a "feminine ideal"? In The Feminine Ideal, Marianne Thesander examines the significance of the female body, beauty and culture. She shows how the female body is constantly being changed, and by various sometimes punishing means made to fit in with current feminine physical ideals. The use of corsets, bras, make-up, cosmetics and body decoration either emphasizes or plays down specific aspects of the female form. Marianne Thesander considers: sin and virtue; the forbidden, the concealed, the alluring body; woman as object, fetish and erotic sign. With extensive use of illustrative material, she examines the fashion history of underwear from the eighteenth century to the present day, exploring the significance of changing 'models' of the feminine."
A young Victorian wife and mother seeks freedom and self-respect; a would-be gardener has fun and games trying to outwit his animal adversaries; a young girl's life seems to parody a variety of fairy tales; an elephant finally has the chance to choose her fate; a young boy's miraculous escape haunts his later life; the increasingly bizarre history of a quick ticket to Heaven unfolds; an elderly man tries to soften the harsh realities of death; a group of diverse characters in a Newfoundland outport find themselves on a collision course; an author and her subject engage in a surreal struggle for dominance; the flip of a coin keeps on and on spinning tales. These and other stories form an eclectic mix, drawn together by the concept of constraint – physical, psychological, social or emotional. The protagonists range from young to old, human, animal, and divine, in settings from England to outport Newfoundland, medieval Europe, a Scottish isle and the African savanna. Some are struggling to control themselves, their circumstances, or other characters, while others find themselves being manipulated, with or without their knowledge. Each story reveals the measure of success or failure achieved, but for many, death is the ultimate controller.
A history of the clothing, gadgets, and other products that were designed to promote female beauty is a tour of such innovations as hoop skirts, cosmetic surgery, face cream, and more, in a volume that also discusses the contributions of social trends and technological innovation. Original.