A Few New Useful Links & Resources: Women's Work Uniforms - And Something of A Manifesto

I am now staying with friends while I await my local 'phone company to 'pull their finger out' and...deep intake of breath... GET MY DAMN LINE FIXED!!!

Today I'm adding in a few new useful links and resources, these dealing with women's work-wear and uniforms. I'll also probably be adding in some more pics later.

There will be similar lists from time to time covering other subject matter that, while not exhaustive, will be updated as time passes. Anything you see in light blue can be clicked on to go straight to the resource concerned and I am gradually building up a network of such hyper-links throughout the blog.

The aim is to build a multi-fetish resource hub around the inspirations and influences behind the INSTITUTIONALISED series as it grows beyond the paltry single volume it at present consists of. The idea is that this blog will one day blossom into a full-blown website for discipline aficionados of every flavor. But more than that; my vision is of a network of resources and discussion points and of an interplay of ideas based around an ever growing-body of literature; sprouting from the INSTITUTIONALISED series as the core, but flourishing from the pens of others more talented than I and nurtured by mutual inspiration, to build an entire body of multi-fetish literature, imaginatively branching and evolving - challenging and extending even the most entrenched classics of the CP, bondage, D/S, S&M, Mind Control and other related genre.

In short: the aim is, in the context of these genre, to reach the same standards of character development, story telling and (dare I say it) literal quality, as one would expect from any decent novel taken from the library or purchased from a reputable book store, but also building in a new dimension of interaction between writer and reader - a more personal relationship.

• The Travel Trunk (Commercial site stocking Waitress, maid and nurse uniforms, many retro styles, as well as caps, aprons and other accessories. The sell all sorts of other stuff, often not at all related in any way that I can understand; such as swim hats and teapots - whatever! So, quite an oddly-eclectic mix and you have to poke around a bit, but its well worth checking out for the uniform pics etc.

• Yahoo Group: Grembiulie Bondage (In Italian: Maids uniforms and bondage, together no less!!!)

• Yahoo Group: Mujeres En Uniforme (Women in Uniform - Spanish. Maids uniforms and dresses.

• Yahoo Group: Maids Archive (Maid's uniforms, often erotic. All in all, pretty good but be aware there is some cross-dressing / sissy stuff posted from time to time. You have to register and then access the pics by email)

• Yahoo Group: English Working Women (This group is the hub for a whole series of groups - don't be put off by the rather dowdy pic on the front page. I have contributed many of my catalog scans to their various folders and it would take days to work through it all: everything from nurses and maid's uniforms to the nylon overalls and shop assistant dresses of the 1960s and just about everything in between - a great resource, particularly for doing manipulations.

• Nurses Uniforms Past & Present (The ultimate resource for nurse uniform images)
• Dycken's photosets on Flickr (Nurses' uniform albums from the owner of the above site)
  

Corner Standing, Sleep Deprivation, Interrogations, Beer and other Precious, Delicious Things

Hi folks

Another day spent pubing (oh the joys of alcoholism) and a wonderful (if expensive) experience it was too. And today I see yet again the sun shines brightly so we'll see...

This pic I found in my collection of magazine scans. I know it came from Janus so the artist will have been Hardcastle or Paula Meadows but I'm not sure which (perhaps someone could let me know). The point about it for me is how it manages to capture and encapsulate the type of institutionalised atmosphere I have been attempting to evoke within my scribblings - of course one could criticise one or two elements suggestive of a certain lackadaisical approach to discipline. For example there has been far to much latitude given away to individuality in terms of their hair styles and then there are those name tags: a nice enough detail at first sight, but shouldn't there be simply numbers engraved there?

I didn't actually get anything written as such yesterday but I did get into conversation with a couple of like-minded chaps who clearly had the right attitude in dealing with their women folk - one had apparently used his slipper in the past and the other, a Polish gentleman, admitted to keeping a cane at home (don't we all?).

Inspiration flowed from another direction too: I read through some old correspondence I have been having with a reader that had been particularly enamoured with the first volume. He particularly likes to see portrayed the corner-standing type of discipline of old but also is much interested in interrogation scenarios wherein the miscreant would have to stand strictly to attention before the questioner's desk and perhaps be sent back to stand in the corner if not responding in a satisfactorily detailed manner. Nice enough in itself but difficult to introduce into the story-arc in a plausible way; the trouble is, the assumption has to be that there is something that the young lady would rather not disclose, or at least would be loath to disclose in the required detail. And, of course, her reluctance would have to be great enough that she would have to suffer various and possibly repeated punishments before being slowly broken down to the required level of supplication.

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As readers of INSTITUTIONALISED will know; I am always willing to go beyond the usual ritualistic caning, tawsing, spanking form of punishment in such situations and such a scenario easily lends itself (quite excitingly, I think) to the more psychological approach: think one or two nights without sleep, confined to her hospital bed but continually attended by a nurse at the bedside, changed over in shifts, and strictly instructed to keep her eyes open, perhaps a sharp face-slap (not brutal, just sharp enough) delivered from time to time as a reminder of the required obedience. Then, come the morning, its back to that room, the psychologist's office, and the questioning and probing (and long hours of corner standing) restarts anew. Of course the cane will be waiting, but put to use only after they are satisfied with her responses to their queries and the psychologist is happy that she has extracted every tiny embarrassing little detail that the girl was so reluctant to divulge - she will be told the caning is by way of punishment for having wasted so much of every one's time!

Yes I love it! The trouble was always; what might they ask, what might she not want to give away? Then, yesterday in a booze-fueled re-reading of some stuff I wrote a couple of days ago it hit me - it was all there in the 'Behind the Stained Glass Window' chapter I have been serialising in this very blog.

So now I know, and you readers have a inkling at least, where this particular thread is leading...suffering, anguish and plenty of it!

Now, changing the subject; I have just added a couple of links to the blog list:

Chronicles of Correction (some nice nurses' uniforms even though I prefer to see my nurses in a more dominant light) and Cornertime for naughty girls a nicely kinky little take on all things CP and discipline.

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And lastly, before I forget, I thought I'd offer up another one of those inspirational images that have so informed my work (My God, that sounds so posy!). Anyway I just think this is so right for a governess. It is from a mid 1980s catalogue supplied by Garroulds of London, a company now sadly defunct that once had a delightful shop in the Edgware Road, London.

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This dress was once available in a long sleeved version with buttoned cuffs and in a variety of colour-ways (the navy-blue long sleeved version was a delightfully authoritative confection indeed, just envisage: a fine whippy cane in hand and a cultured cut-glass, no-nonsense voice..."bend over, girl, get those knickers down this instant!").

An alternative title: Dark Meanderings of a Darker Mind

INSTITUTIONALISED, volume 1 (see link in sidebar on right if you haven't already read it), was originally to have had an entirely different title and a far darker look, in more ways than one!

It's probably difficult to make out here but the nurse's uniform incorporates a three-tailed tawse hanging from the belt; painstakingly created by yours truly. Another lies meaningfully across the top of the school desk. The green object at the top left-hand corner, underneath the word, dark, is supposed to be a gymslip, minus its wearer of course; it's not really as I envisaged in the storylines but it was the best I could manage at the time.

To the right is an earlier rendition minus the cell bars; here there is also incorporated an American style 'jumper' and a traditional crook-handled school cane (lying across the jumper). In addition the nurse holds a cane hanging from her wrist where her hand rests on her hip. The web structure was supposed to represent the sprung trap (cheesy, I know). The basic group of figures got retained as the cameo style logo used on the back page and also the title page of the current version of volume 1 and will also be used throughout the series.