This site explores the brick-and-mortar stores of the iconic lingerie retailer, Frederick's of Hollywood, from the heyday to the mass closures of the 2010s.
Before I chose Frederick's as my site of study, I had questions that came from my own work experiences. From working at a dry cleaner as a teenager, to vintage shops in college, to a punk fashion boutique now, for years I have witnessed and wondered how gender and sexuality takes shape in clothing shops. In the essay that follows this exhibit, I call this process brick-and-mortar erotics, which I define as the ways that the workers, consumers, and other visitors of an in-store retail environment can find their genders and sexuality affected as they interact with each other and the products for sale.
The following questions guide my research: How does a piece of clothing transform when it is placed on display in a storefront window, hung on a shop's rack, or tried on in a fitting room? What are the erotic qualities of retail consumption? For customers? For workers? How is gender constructed in a clothing store?
I look to Frederick's of Hollywood to help me answer these questions for two reasons: 1.) because if brick-and-mortar erotics is present in clothing stores in general, then it is heightened in lingerie shops, where sex is front and center, and 2.) because the brand experienced a major shift when it closed all in-person stores, and to me, an exploration of what was lost (or in other words, what happened in these stores before they closed, that is no longer happening) is worth conducting.
The purpose of this site is to share images and videos of various Frederick's locations, from the first storefront on Hollywood Boulevard to malls across America.
The first page, Hollywood Boulevard, uses the first Frederick's store as a starting point to describe the early history of Frederick Mellinger and his brand. The second page, Filming Frederick's, shares YouTube videos of both television news segments and promotional videos that show what it was like to work and shop at Frederick's stores over the years. The third page, Customers with Cameras, takes pictures from customers' Yelp reviews of several Frederick's locations nationwide. Following these pages, I share my essay that theorizes gender, sexuality, and in-store shopping.
Credits
Nicolette Bull