Research: 8 Great Lingerie Books

Contemplating the contextual side of intimate apparel research

I have a great love for the aesthetics and materiality of intimate apparel, but their contextual narrative is just as interesting. Between the often delicate layers of fabrics and contouring seams they collect unique, fun, sweet and sometime outrageous anecdotes that other garments do not replicate in the same way. They can reflect culture, economics, social status, occupation and age. For obvious hygiene reasons there are some garments that unless new, samples or worn away from intimate areas cannot be preserved physically. But construction patterns, fabric samples, photographs, illustration and video preserve some elements of their history. Additional garment twinning technology allow us to replicate and as a part of conservation and collection within museums, special collections and archives, there are a multitude of ways in which their legacy and development is being preserved.

I often find myself disappointed by the lack of inclusion of interesting narratives connected to intimate apparel when on display in museums, or the simplified terminology that does not truly take into account the breath of the range intimate apparel and in some instances it is not included at all as part of permanent collection but only in special exhibitions. Now, I thoroughly enjoy a detailed intimate apparel exhibition but feel that they are treated as so separate to fashion that it in a way the conservation of them treats them like fetish objects as appose to sociocultural revealing…