Libertine fashion: sexual freedom, rebellion, and style

Abstract

"Libertine practices have long been associated with transgression and social deviance. This innovative book is the first to focus fully on the relationship between libertinism as a social phenomenon and as a form of fashion. Taking the reader from early modernity to the present day, Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas reveal how the connection between clothing and the taboo, the erotic, and the forbidden is at the heart of 'libertine fashion'. Moving from the decadent courts of Charles II and Louis XV to the catwalks of the 21st century, Libertine Fashion examines literary and sartorial figures ranging from the Marquis de Sade and Lord Byron to Oscar Wilde, Josephine Baker, Colette, and Madonna. Focusing on libertinism as a sartorial practice and identity, this book traces the genealogy of the concept through the protofeminists of the English Reformation, the hedonistic decadents of the fin de siècle, and the flappers of the Roaring 20s. The historical arc traverses the 1970s era of punk and glam, the shapeshifting personae of David Bowie, and the 'disciplinary regimes' of Jean-Paul Gaultier. Looking at libertine practices and appearances with fresh eyes, this bracing and original book affords many new insights into transgressive style, and of the relationship between sexuality and clothing. Accessible and thoroughly researched, Libertine Fashion uses a multidisciplinary approach that draws on historical literature, film, fashion, philosophy, and popular culture. Offering a historical and philosophical grounding in contemporary forms of identity and dress, it is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion, gender, sexuality, and cultural studies."--Publisher's description.

Contents

Introduction: Nuancing the libertine -- The merry and scandalous court of King Charles II. The fashion choices of the libertine king ; Libertine women of the court ; "Gentleman of the bedchamber": John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester -- The divine marquis and the golden age of libertinism. The age of dainty and déshabille ; The eighteenth-century France of Louis XV: the Belle Époque of Fêtes Galantes ; The Marquis de Sade and the banishment of beauty ; Crébillon and the play of appearances ; Casanova and his clones ; Liberty on display: the directory period -- The Byronic hero. The fastidious and fake: the image of Byron and the Byronic image ; Brooding, gloomy, itinerant, malevolent ; The queer libertine hero ; Later years ; Byronic legacies: men and women -- Decadent androgynes and masculine impersonators: Sand, Rachilde, and Colette. A woman called George ; Rachilde, "Queen of the Decadents" ; Colette: "Fin de siècle, fin de sex" -- Bizarre dandyism and decadence: Oscar Wilde. Bizarre dandyism ; The philosophy of dress -- From Harlem to Pigalle: Josephine Baker -- Diva worship and transvestism ; Cross-dressing ; The Harlem Renaissance and all that jazz ; The flapper ; Negrophilia and primitivism ; Harlem on the Seine -- Postmodern libertinism: David Bowie's glam rock. The decadence and travesty of glam rock ; The making of David Bowie ; Mixing genders ; The alien who fell to Earth: Bowie's otherworldiness -- Disciplinary regimes: the profanity of Jean Paul Gaultier. Disciplinary acts ; Children of the damned: Gaultier and Madonna ; Uniforms -- Conclusion: "We are all libertines now."