ITHACA, N.Y. -- Kinky boots, corsets, underwear as outerwear, second-skin garments in leather and latex, uniforms -- everything from a fetishist's dreams appears today on fashion runways. Is it chic or cruel? Exploitative or empowering? Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, will explore these questions in a lecture about fetish, fashion, sex and power on Monday, April 18, at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall. The lecture is sponsored by Cornell University Library.

The iconography of sexual fetishism has become increasingly assimilated into popular culture, including film and advertising. Steele has done groundbreaking research on fashion and fetishism at the Cornell Library's human sexuality collection.

For more information, contact Brenda Marston, curator, human sexuality collection, Cornell University Library, 255-3530 or e-mail .