1000 Dessous: A History of Lingerie = Eine Geschichte der Reizwasche = Histoire de la lingerie

by Gilles Néret

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.

Genres: Fashion, History, Erotica, Photography, Art, Nonfiction, Fashion History

767 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Gilles Néret (1933 - August 3, 2005) was a French art critic and historian, journalist and curator. He wrote extensively on the history of erotica.

He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L’Oeil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Elie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. Since 1992, Néret was an editor for Taschen, for which he has written catalogues raisonnés of the works of Klimt and others, as well as the author of Erotica Universalis.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stay for the glorious and comprehensive photos tracing a retrospective of lingerie in Europe/the US, though it says nothing of what the everywoman wore - this is about lingerie trends, not undergarments.

Do not attempt to read the gross introduction and commentary by the author, who insists on generalizations about women (thanks, but we aren’t all wearing lingerie to compete with other women for the interest of men), imposing his own tastes in lingerie (he really really really hates tights and pin up girls, and is on team suspender belt and less “aggressive” sexuality), and ignoring any possibility of class/race/feminism/queer women/trans and gender non-binary expressions of lingerie use.

[João Moura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reza a história que foi Vénus quem inventou o primeiro espartilho para que Juno captivasse e impedisse o marido de a trair. Também terá sido no ano 2000 a.C. que surgiram em Creta os primeiros espartilhos.
Este livro tem algumas curiosidades sobre lingerie e muitas fotografias ao longo dos séculos, desde o Antigo Egipto até aos anos 90, com as vestes arrojadas de Madonna. Encontram-se mulheres históricas do cinema, fotos a preto e branco dos clássicos anos 20, postais pornográficos do século XX, dançarinas can can do moulin rouge, pin ups americanas, publicidades dos anos 60 a lingerie que permite à mulher conduzir e fazer desporto confortavelmente, etc.
Contudo, para esta poderosa "arma erótica" - que mostra mais ao homem ao tapar, permitindo a fantasia correr larga - e para o tema mais interessante do mundo, a mulher, esperava-se mais qualidade...

[Kevin Braswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see London, I see France.

[Á · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lingerie!