April 25, 2022

"We are seeing lots of non-BDSM people coming in for all kinds of fetishwear and collars for dance parties,' says Lolita Wolf, manager of Purple Passion, a BDSM, fetish clothing, and adult-toy store...."

"She says they’ve also seen an increase in sales for chest harnesses and leg/hip harnesses in particular, including a popular vegan leather harness.... 'You become a little bit less human, because you’re more like a mannequin,' says Mistress Iris, [a] professional dominatrix.... 'You might be objectified more, and a lot of people may not enjoy that feeling, but some people might find a little freedom in that anonymity.'.... In general, both Mistress Iris and Mistress Marley are encouraging when it comes to the 'vanilla world' embracing their aesthetic. 'I’m definitely not a gatekeeper. I think it’s great that it has become popular,' says Mistress Iris.... 'I think it is important to highlight, for those who are not aware, that the people they are inspired by are being silenced,' says Mistress Iris of other doms like herself.... 'The sad reality is that people who inspired this get erased from the public, while people who kind of appropriated it get to keep existing,' she notes. 'It’s like, Okay, you want to utilize what we do and what we wear. But at the same time, you’re not donating to our community; you’re not donating to sex workers; you’re not standing up for our rights. So sometimes we do feel like we’re just being used as an aesthetic and no one’s taking us seriously,' says Mistress Marley...."

From "Dominatrices Weigh In on ‘Fetish-Core’/There has been a spike in interest in recent months" (NY Magazine).

The top-rated comment over there: "I’m still doing WFH and wearing sweatpants. The thought of wearing hard pants exhausts me. But you do you! Have fun and tell me all about it later!" ("WFH" is "work from home." "Hard pants" is hilarious.)

ADDED: "Hard pants" might sound sexual — for 2 different reasons — but it's just any kind of pants that aren't comfortably stretchy. Here's a Seattle Times article from a year ago: "How COVID-19 has changed what we wear and how we feel about clothing":

Where once you might have any number of pants categories to choose from — pleated, fitted, distressed, skinny, high-waisted, tapered, boyfriend, Mom, classic 501s — we now have only two: soft pants and hard pants. 
Maybe you don’t call them “hard pants” — “real pants,” “coarse pants,” “outside pants” and “human pants” also work, and I heard variations on all of these while reporting this story. When I put out a call for thoughts on COVID-19 clothing on Twitter, a newfound disdain for pants (jeans especially) was one of the most frequent responses — almost as ubiquitous as newfound bra ambivalence. Both speak to a desire for less structured clothing that feels physically better than the binding garments of the before time... 

“I only put on hard pants when I really need to get stuff done,” said Sunny Eckerle, a freelance illustrator based in Portland. “Jeans now signal to my brain that a deadline is approaching.”

Remember when jeans were considered comfortable? Not anymore! 

Meanwhile, some people are getting into extra-tight and restrictive clothing — this "fetish-core." It's one extreme or the other nowadays.

36 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...

Nothing sexier than hot chicks wearing chokers. Everything else seems like trying too hard.

Howard said...

Vanilla is not plain at all. It is the Queen of flavor.

Enigma said...

Pants? Please spell it? P.a.n.t.s.? Oh, I remember those from the long ago time.

Go Depends. They make hygiene much easier.

Talk a walk to the litterbox.

Rollo said...

We are all trapped in an episode of the David Susskind Show from 50 years ago.

gilbar said...

including a popular vegan leather harness....

Vegan leather? That IS kinky

AlbertAnonymous said...

Instead of appreciating the uptick in business as the market for these products expands, let’s complain about those bad new customers buying our stuff for the wrong reasons. Oh no. The horror! Appropriation!

hombre said...

NY media normalizing depravity. Dog bites man.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

'I think it is important to highlight, for those who are not aware, that the people they are inspired by are being silenced,' says Mistress Iris of other doms like herself....

And that's a real problem for the BDSM crowd, at least the few I'm acquainted with who spend a whole lot more time talking about it than actually doing it.

Here's a Seattle Times article from a year ago: "How COVID-19 has changed what we wear and how we feel about clothing":...

Tell me about it! I start a new job soon and decided to spruce up the work wardrobe. It's nearly impossible to find men's casual/dress clothes.

tim maguire said...

So sometimes we do feel like we’re just being used as an aesthetic and no one’s taking us seriously,'

Despite the seemingly reasonable opening words, you just knew cultural appropriation would come up at some point. Sorry Doms, you don't own BDSM fashion. Nobody does and nobody owes you anything in exchange for wearing clothes that are similar to the clothes you wear.

hawkeyedjb said...

"...the people they are inspired by are being silenced..." If only.

"The sad reality is that people who inspired this get erased from the public..." Not sure what is sad about that.

Sebastian said...

"'I think it is important to highlight, for those who are not aware, that the people they are inspired by are being silenced"

. . . in an article in NY Mag.

Randomizer said...

Hard pants is a term that I didn't know I needed, but I like it. Being recently retired, I wear athletic shorts around the house. I put on my hard pants if someone is visiting or I'm going out.

gspencer said...

As one of the bad guy characters in Eastwood's Dirty Harry series stated, "I gots to know."

Well, I gots to know when furries will be allowed to be free, really free, in the public schools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_fandom

Michael K said...

The normalization of perverts.

Tom T. said...

"while people who kind of appropriated it get to keep existing"

In other words, the people who can do this from time to time while still functioning in society are fine, while the people who let this conduct define them have a hard time. It's kind of like drugs in that respect.

Lurker21 said...

This would be a good time to remind everyone that BDSM and BDS are not the same thing.

Educate yourselves so that you don't turn up at the wrong meeting or on the wrong website.

Lurker21 said...

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Whatever. No need to be such a hard pants about everything.

Wilbur said...

Men in hard shorts.

SGT Ted said...

I find the notion that wearing sexy or sex kink clothing aren't sexualizing themselves, as opposed to "being sexualized by others" to display a remarkable lack of self-awareness.

YoungHegelian said...

We are seeing lots of non-BDSM people coming in for all kinds of fetishwear and collars

Well, say what you will, but it's one sure-fire conversation starter at your local Chamber of Commerce Meet-N-Greet breakfast.

wildswan said...

Fashion these days seems like a rumba machine, always running into walls and backing away. You have to be edgy but must not appropriate.

Mr Wibble said...

https://youtu.be/Umjr-SYS4kI

Trying this again...

William said...

Didn't there used to be a thing where people would wear expensive clothes just for the sake of wearing expensive clothes. As soon as people got a few extra bucks together, they put on some nice clothes. Look world, I look nice and I have some money....I guess now that clothes are so cheap, there's not much status in flaunting clothes. It's like bragging about indoor plumbing. No need for sumptuary laws in our era....Maybe BDSM outfits might fulfill that status need. You have the time and the leisure to indulge in an expensive perversion that requires expensive accessories. You have truly arrived when you can wear DeSade to the Met Gala. Make the waiters wear black leather masks and whip them if they disobey. There's a market for this.

Ted said...

I'd say the fetishwear genre has long been represented by the characters' outfits in superhero movies. (Although technically their costumes include "soft pants.")

William said...

Is it a Google quirk or is there some other reason why my comments keep disappearing?

Darkisland said...

I have a three tier fee structure in my consulting practice based on clothing:

If no pants are required, I charge the base rate.

If I have to wear pants, I charge base rate plus 50%.

If pants and a winter coat are required, I charge an additional 20% cold weather fee.

Nobody has asked me to wear any BDSM outfit yet. If they do, I will be happy to negotiate a fee. Depending on what they want me to do, I might even pay them.

John LGKTQ Henry

William said...

People used to want to dress nice to show the world that they were respectable and had some money. Now that clothes are so cheap, there's not much point to it. It's like bragging about having indoor plumbing....I guess it's more reflective of status to work from home and wear sweat clothes....Another good reason is that people are heavier. Jeans are comfortable but not if you're overweight. Your belly keeps pushing them down and you keep having to pull them up.

Tom T. said...

When I was little, I called leather shoes "hard shoes." Same little-kid energy re: hard pants.

Slightly off-topic, one time when I was giving blood, on of the techs referred to another donor as a "hard stick," meaning that it was difficult to find a vein. I asked her in a comical tone whether I was a hard stick, and she assured me that I was not. She couldn't understand why a man might find that disappointing. :-)

n.n said...

Social progress.

mikee said...

If my experience over 60+ years of sexy nurses, maids, and nuns at Halloween has taught me anything, it is that sex sells costumes. Why should leather goods be excluded from such marketing? It isn't a fetish, it is fashion. Filthy, dirty, nasty fashion.

Lucien said...

Worst appropriation of gay culture since Trump started playing “YMCA” at rallies!

(A “spike in interest” ??)

n.n said...

So, as third-world nations evolve to act white, America decides to... What, act black? Surely, that is the very model of a major bigot.

Mary Beth said...

Complaining about being erased, while being interviewed for NY Magazine, is ironic, but also comes across as kind of victim-y talk for a dominatrix.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"popular vegan leather harness"

Those words do not go together

cfkane1701 said...

Mistress Ivy and Mistress Marley are supposed to dommes, but when the patent leather hits the pavement, they sure turn sub in a hurry. "We're being reduced to an aesthetic. You're not contributing to our community."

My God, grow up. You become a domme because you get off ordering people around sexually. If that's what you like, own it and be it. Don't whine because people are using your kink for fashion.

Bunkypotatohead said...

When do we start getting the beastiality articles?