Freak to Chic

In this unique intervention in the study of queer culture Dominic Janes highlights that under the gaze of social conservatism 'gay' life was hiding in plain sight. Indeed he argues that the worlds of glamour fashion art and countercultural style provided rich opportunities for the construction of queer spectacle in London. Inspired by the legacies of Oscar Wilde interwar and later 20th-century men such as Cecil Beaton expressed transgressive desires in forms inspired by those labelled 'freaks' and thereby made major contributions to the histories of art design fashion sexuality and celebrity.<br/><br/>Janes reinterprets the origins of gay and queer cultures by charting the interactions between marginalized freaks and chic fashionistas. He establishes a new framework for future analyses of other cities and media and of the roles of women and diverse identities.