Other Publishers

Fads and Fancies, Volume 1, Number 5
Utopian Press
London, UK
ca. 1949

digital replica

and

optimized pictures-only ebook

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, London-based Utopian Press published Fads and Fancies, a fetish magazine with abundant illustrations by an artist who called herself Janine. In theme and style, Fads and Fancies was a descendant of London Life, which was bombed out of existence in 1941.

Nearly all text takes the form of letters from readers. Each letter is numbered, facilitating reference in subsequent issues.

Correspondents are women and men, disclosing their preferences in hair or lingerie color, female proportions and Janine's art. Writers discuss maids, wrestling, knickers, step-ins, panties, nylons, high heels, corsets, petticoats, anklets, jewelry, cosmetics, hobble skirts, lace, garters, and horses.

Episode 7 of The Adventures of Delia by Aubrey Lamonte, whose ink technique looks a lot like Janine's, appears on one page. Narration summarizes the scenario with these words: “Delia finds life in Mme. Larroue's establishment interesting and varied. She has given up all ideas of attempting to escape.” One night, Mme. Larroue invites Delia to her private theater. The program consists of women posing onstage in their underwear and Delia is persuaded to join them.

Many letters from men praise their wives and girlfriends for wearing knickers or garters or other element of intimate apparel that they like. Some letters describe domestic evenings of display or performance in which a shapely miss poses in lovely undies for the man of the house. In the post-war period during which Fads and Fancies was produced, men worked and women stayed home. A few letters make reference to wartime experiences.

In addition to corsets and high heels, preferred attire often includes knickers, garters and stockings. Many letters admire the tightness of hosiery accomplished by suspender belts (i.e., garter belts) and garters. A detail of importance to some is called “the gap,” the space between the elasticized legs of knickers and the tops of hosiery. For some, a few inches is desirable. For others, clothing should be paired to accomplish as small a gap as possible.

Humorous Moments — Letter No. 321

My husband and I always read F & F with delight and he has already written to you about me — and I was most surprised when I read the letter! Marie's letter No. 153 has, however persuaded me to tell of a few of my embarrassing moments and I hope we shall hear more of hers.

My first wasn't really embarrassing. It was soon after I first met Mal and we worked in the same office. We used to sit opposite each other and I thought he was most attractive. One warm afternoon I noticed that he had dropped his pencil. Being a clever girl I quickly reached down and flicked my dress a good 3" above my knees. I was wearing a lovely pair of pure silk stockings and a very cute suspender belt with white frills, and above that a pair of very short, wide-legged knickers in pale blue chiffon. I had to take a chance that the wide legs were hanging in reasonably concealing folds. He took ages to find his pencil but at last came up looking very flushed while I gazed innocently out of the window!

Your readers may be interested in an intriguing half hour I spent shopping. I wanted some shoes and found a nice little shop in one of London's side-streets. There was a very pretty girl of about 18 dressed in a smart black silk dress which although high necked was very tight fitting over her full bosom and also extremely short barely covering her dimpled knees.

There was also a rather nice looking man in the shop who came forward to serve me and when I made known my wants he asked the young assistant to get suitable shoes for me to try. This necessitated her getting a shop ladder and reaching down certain boxes from high shelves, and she certainly gave a very intriguing performance.

She was directly in front of the young man and myself and as she progressed up the ladder we saw more of her very shapely legs. She wore black silk stockings which, as we soon saw, were secured by tight fitting garters that bit into her thighs, and above the dark stockings tops could be seen the pale sheen of a 'gap'. As though this wasn't enough, she had to lean and stretch to obtain the right box and as she raised her lissom leg almost horizontal there came into view as cute of pair of white knickers as one could wish to wear.

The 32-page magazine offers more than 20 illustrations by Janine. Her conscientious ink work delineates curvy figures in various stages of undress. Using short lines to show the shadowed edges of contours, her beauties dress in panties, bloomers, knickers, petticoats, seamed stockings, and high heels. She details the paraphernalia of hosiery — frilly garters and suspenders — on tapering limbs, with feet and footwear that are disproportionately small.

The volume also contains photographs on a few pages. They lack proper contrast and have specks.

The ebook contains all content of the magazine in the original page sequence. A few page layouts were revised. The volume contains no advertising.

Brightness, contrast and levels were adjusted and shadows reduced to disclose detail. Illustrations and text transposed to ebook format with clarity.

A second ebook contains optimized illustrations and photographs on 50+ pages. In this iteration, the sequence of images was revised.

All new scans of the 70-year-old paper.

The publishers call themselves Utopian Press. For a certain kind of male fetishist, the milieu described in text and imagery would indeed produce a visual utopia with unique gender balance.

also available —
Fads and Fancies, No. 4
Fads and Fancies, No. 6

Two ebooks, one optimized, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.