[1] And so the 'random books' accumulation is going very nicely as I'm constantly raiding my local Black Gull Books for treasures and this one is no exception.  A Taschen reprint [2] of 'Exotique' [3] magazine, the magazine of 'femmes, fiction and future fashion'...aka a fetish mag that popped up in the years 1955-1959.  Ok, so people in the 50s' were into kinky things as well but the book WELL and TRULY dispelled the myth that fetishistic wear, PVC, impossible shoes and dominatrix looks were born a lot later.  The composition and the structure imposed by the garments in the photographs in Exotique could stand side by side perfectly with the editorials in 10, i-D, Dazed & Confused etc which have used a fetishist slant.  It's so bizarret hat I have to keep flicking back to the front just to check this was in fact published in 1958.

In particular the shoes, or rather the extremity of the shoes are particularly engrossing and seem to play a major focus in the outfits... (yes, the shoes are doing more for me than the boobage...)... cut-out ankle booties with mega platforms, spiky heels, complex add-ons... definitely a far cry from the neat silk pumps of the 1950s'...

[4]