"Straight" sex has let its practitioners down. Not only is there often a gap between erotic expectations and sexual realities (as the popularity of "agony aunts" and sex therapists indicates), but now, with the advent of AIDS, what used to be termed normal, healthy sex is fast be g positively dangerous, if not deadly. For many people sexual activity has a much broader definition than it used to: it could be dressing up, bondage, S/M, piercing, any kind of exhibitionism or fetishism. This illustrated book (80 black and white duotone photographs) is an exploration of "the Scene": the social forum in which all these pursuits and many others flourish. Each of Ted Polhemus's chapters examines a different aspect of "the Scene": The New Sexuality (or Beyond Promiscuity), Kinky Gear (Fetishism and Fashion), Sex and Power (sub/dom), Pleasure and Pain (S & M), Gender (cross-dressing and transexuality) and Sexual Healing (sexual addiction and the positive, "spiritual" possibilities of erotic ritual). Each chapter is interleaved with case histories: the stories, and photographs, of couples whose sexuality illustrates and elucidates the themes under discussion. Housk Randall's photographs of these couples: gay and straight, young and old, black and white, are powerful, explicit and intimate portraits of sex with love, sex with imagination, and sex with a sense of humour.

Rituals of Love

Polhemus, Ted

Randall, Housk

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Picador

Diesel is a fashion phenomenon. Exuding the kind of knowing, eclectic 90s cool that everyone seeks, the Diesel label turns its back on style dictators and eschews slavish trend-following. The result is a global success story with outlets in over 80 countries. The clothes themselves, however, are only half the story. The Diesel ad campaigns have been massively influential, their ironic images, evoking a 1950s consumer paradise, reflecting the quirky, slightly retro nature of the clothing. This book is the result of close collaboration with Diesel founder Renzo Rosso, whose unconventional approach ensures that his label is kept at the forefront of hipness.

Diesel: World Wide Wear (Cutting Edge)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Crafts & Hobbies

Thames&Hudson

Fashion & anti-fashion: Anthropology of clothing and adornment

Procter, Lynn

Thames and Hudson

This is an up-beat look at street fashion from 1940 to today, celebrating some 40 different styletribes, which will accompany a major exhibition on Streetstyle at the Victoria and Albert Museum in November 1994. We see how the styletribes interweave and evolve - the American Modernists of the early 1950s living on in the English Mods of the early 1960s, who became the Hard Mods, then the Skinheads, then the Ois!; while the 1950s Folkies became first the 1970s Hippies and then the New Age Travellers of the 1980s and 1990s. But for today's fashion-conscious young people, this is not all ancient history: Streetstyle offers the 1990s fashion world a supermarket of styles from which to pick and mix. Anyone is free to be part Beatnik, part Raver, or part Punk, part Grunge; Goths one day and Indie Kids the next. More than 200 illustrations, including 100 in colour, document the styles and their wearers - on the street, but also on the high-fashion catwalk, to which streetstyle has made an enormous, if perhaps unwilling, contribution. Ted Polhemus's many books include "Fashion and Anti Fashion", "Popstyles", "Social Aspects of the Human Body", "Bodystyles" and "Rituals of Love". He is the external curator of the Streetstyle exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk

History

A look at postmodern British fashion shows how various ethnic, period, and street styles are being combined and transformed

Style Surfing: What to Wear in the 3rd Millennium

Arts & Photography

Decorative Arts & Design

Diesel: World Wide Wear: is based on in-depth interviews with Diesel's designers and chairman, Renzo Rosso; examines the unique Diesel design process and philosophy; features unpublished design artwork and over 150 color photographs; presents a chronology of company history; and includes catalogs, ads, and commercials alongside clothing and accessories.

History & Criticism

Watson-Guptill Pubns

Exploring adornment and dress from an anthropological perspective - a classic text from 1978 revised with a new introduction and postscript for the 21 century.

Fashion & Anti-fashion

Graphic Design

lulu.com

Throughout history, mankind has adorned and customized the body. Over 100 photographs by "Erotic Oscar" winner Housk Randall touch all the bases--body shaping and painting, tattooing, scarification, piercing, and masks--in graphic and dramatic style, while the text by social antropologist Ted Polhemus explores the origins and development of these phenomena. 104 photos.

The Customized Body

Photography & Video

Serpent's Tail

Weirdest book of the month must be The Customized Body crammed with photographs of people whose bodies have been variously tattooed, pierced and otherwise decoratively mutilated. Keep it on your coffee table for when there’s an awkward lull in the conversation.—Cosmopolitan "This comprehensive book is a grand tour of the world of body adornment, from the ephemera of hairstyles and clothing to the more permanent statements made by cosmetic surgery and tattooing."—Skin Two Ted Polhemus is an American social anthropologist who lives in London. His books include Style Surfing: What to Wear in the Third Millennium and Fashion and Anti-Fashion.

Body Styles

Children's Books

Seven Hills Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Polhemus, Ted. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Polhemus, Ted

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Polhemus, Ted. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Rituals of Love

Diesel: World Wide Wear (Cutting Edge)

Fashion & anti-fashion: Anthropology of clothing and adornment

Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk

Style Surfing: What to Wear in the 3rd Millennium

Diesel: World Wide Wear (Cutting Edge)

Fashion & Anti-fashion

The Customized Body

The Customized Body

Body Styles