How Symbolic Association Affects the Perception of Two Fetish Fashion Items
Elyse Sedore-Mallin
Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice
About this Item
- Title
- How Symbolic Association Affects the Perception of Two Fetish Fashion Items
- Contributor Names
-
Sedore-Mallin, Elyse (Author)
-
Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice (Degree granting institution)
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Abrego, Sonya (Thesis advisor)
- Date
- 2025
- Degree Information
- M.A. Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York 2025
- Department: Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice
- Advisors: Sonya Abrego
- Committee members: Hilary Davidson; Brooke Carlson
- Abstract
- This paper examines how symbolic association shapes the cultural reception of two fetish-derived garments: the kinky boot and the gimp suit, as they move through fetish subcultures, print media, and mainstream fashion from 1946 to 2016. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, semiotics, and visual culture analysis, the study traces how the kinky boot gradually shed its deviant connotations and became a widely accepted fashion object, while the gimp suit, defined by full-body enclosure and facial concealment, remained a culturally taboo signifier of fetishistic anonymity and submission. Through comparative analysis of imagery from underground fetish magazines such as Bizarre, AtomAge, Shiny Rubberist, and Marquis, alongside mainstream fashion publications including Vogue and other editorial photo shoots, this research demonstrates how each garment's semiotic structure determined its capacity for reinterpretation. The kinky boot's erotic associations proved flexible enough to be reframed through narratives of empowerment, glamour, and spectacle, allowing designers and editors to integrate it into broader fashion systems. In contrast, the gimp suit's symbolic foundations of erased identity and depersonalization remained too rigid to assimilate into mainstream dress, even when referenced in avant-garde fashion. By tracing these divergent trajectories, the paper argues that the mainstreaming of fetish objects depends less on their material form than on the cultural meanings they encode. This reveals how fashion negotiates the boundaries between sexual transgression, aesthetic innovation, and social acceptability.
- Rights
- In Copyright
- The copyright for this work is held by its author/creator(s). Usage of this material beyond what is permitted by copyright law must first be cleared with the rights-holder(s). This work has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for this work and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].
- This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
- Identifier
- FIT Repository ID: etd_001072
- URN: ISBN:9798252432274
- Related Materials
- Also available from ProQuest
- Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 87-12
- Masters Abstracts International
- Language
- English
- Publisher
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
Citation
Sedore-Mallin, E. (2025). How Symbolic Association Affects the Perception of Two Fetish Fashion Items [Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York]. FIT Institutional Repository. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/676715
Sedore-Mallin, Elyse. How Symbolic Association Affects the Perception of Two Fetish Fashion Items. 2025. Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, Master's thesis. FIT Institutional Repository, https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/676715
Sedore-Mallin, Elyse. "How Symbolic Association Affects the Perception of Two Fetish Fashion Items." Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, 2025. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/676715