Stays and Gloves: Figure-Training and Deportment by Means of the Discipline of Tight Corsets, Narrow High-Heeled Boots, Clinging Kid Gloves, Combinations, etc., etc.

Stays and Gloves is an intriguing early twentieth-century novel focusing on petticoat discipline and flagellation. Following the death of his father and his mother’s imminent remarriage, a boy is sent to an elite English boarding school. Lady Flayskin, the head-mistress, compels both boys and girls to dress as girls. As the subtitle suggests, figure training and deportment are cultivated through tight corsets, high-heeled boots, and kid gloves. Discipline is enforced through the vigorous application of birch and whip. Whilst cross-dressing is a feature of this novel, the central chapters focus on the subjection of a haughty young aristocrat, Miss Virginia Malville. Stays and Gloves was first published in 1909 by Roberts et Dardaillon in Paris. It was printed on hand-made paper in a limited edition of 330 copies with ten copperplate engravings by Del Giglio. The author is not known. Stays and Gloves was reprinted c. 1926 (with the original imprint date MCMIX on the title page) by the Librairie Artistique, 66, Boulevard Magenta, Paris, in a limited edition of 330 copies with ten copperplate engravings by G. Smit. This Birchgrove Press edition is based on the c. 1926 reprint and reproduces its beautiful chapter head and tail pieces.