Unsuitable
A History of Lesbian Fashion
Eleanor Medhurst
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Unsuitable
A History of Lesbian Fashion
Eleanor Medhurst
About This Book
The way we dress can show or hide who we are; make us fit in, make us stand out, or make our own community. Yet 'lesbian fashion' has been strangely overlooked. What secrets can it reveal about the lives and status of queer women through the ages?
The lesbian past is slippery: often deliberately hidden, edited or left unrecorded. Unsuitable restores to history the dazzlingly varied clothes worn by women who love women, from top hats to violet tiaras. This story spans centuries and countries, from 'Gentleman Jack' in nineteenth-century Yorkshire and Queen Christina of seventeenth-century Sweden, to Paris modernism, genderqueer Berlin, butch/femme bar culture and gay rights activistsâvia drag kings, Vogue editors and the Harlem Renaissance.
This book is a kaleidoscope of the margins and the mainstream, celebrating trans lesbian style, Black lesbian style, and gender nonconformity. You don't have to be queer or fashionable to be enthralled by this hidden history. Unsuitable lights it up for the world to see, in all its finery.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Photos
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part One: We Were Always Here
- Part Two: Paris To Harlem: The Lesbian 1920s
- Part Three: A Butch/Femme Interlude
- Part Four: Miraculous Masculinity
- Part Five: Lesbian Politics, Political Lesbians
- Afterword
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Back cover