Freak to Chic: "Gay" Men in and out of Fashion after Oscar Wilde

Dominic Janes explores how queer identity flourished within London's fashion, art, and design spheres despite social conservatism's scrutiny. Tracing Oscar Wilde's influence through figures like Cecil Beaton, this study examines how marginalized individuals channeled transgressive desires into cultural innovation.

By analyzing the dynamic relationship between avant-garde aesthetics and queer expression, Janes constructs a compelling framework for understanding gay and queer cultural emergence.

The work extends beyond fashion history to encompass sexuality, celebrity, and artistic contribution, while establishing methodologies applicable to other cities, media forms, and underrepresented identities within queer studies.

Author Biography

Dominic Janes is Professor of Modern History at Keele University, UK. He is a cultural historian whose specialism is the study of texts and visual images relating to Britain in its local and international contexts since the eighteenth century. He also teaches and researches on the wider histories of gender, sexuality and religion and is Professorial Fellow in the School of Fine Art and Photography, University for the Creative Arts, UK.