The brainchild of Max Pecoraro (aka Max Deviant), the shop at 87-E Stables Market has the distinction of being, as far as we know, the first dedicated latex clothing store to open in the Camden Market area for a very long time.

That may seem surprising given the market’s long association with fashions from a multitude of alternative cultures. But Max is gambling that it will turn out to be a gap long overdue for filling.

The Italian ex-pat has a long history with the London and international fetish scenes. He started out in 1989 as an alternative and fetish scene model and production/stage manager.

He still does live management work, not least with performer Marnie Scarlet, his longtime partner (they’ve been together for almost 20 years). And since 2004 he has also been retail venture project manager for Marnie’s own label, Scarlet Diva.

But in recent times he has probably been best known for his work at Libidex (where Marnie is also a designer) and its sheet latex business Radical Rubber.

In our earlier piece about the imminent arrival of Fetish Alternative Boutique, we posed the question: why open a bricks-and-mortar fetish shop in the capital now, when (as recent events have shown), even long-established names like House of Harlot have been unable to sustain one?

Max is well aware how difficult it has become to run a viable fetish retailing operation from a physical shop – especially a shop based in London

You can be sure that Max is well aware how difficult it has become to run a viable fetish retailing operation from a physical shop — especially a shop based in London.

He decided to open his own fetish store because, within months of moving its London HQ to Islington last August, Libidex found it necessary to shelve its plans for the shop that Max, recently promoted to retail manager, would have run at the new premises.

(To be clear: this would have been a second Libidex shop and not a replacement for its well-established Liberation store in Covent Garden.)

The postponement of plans for the new shop, combined with a drop in demand for the walk-in sales the old Radical Rubber trade counter had catered for, meant there was no longer a job for Max at Libidex.

But anyone who knows Mr Pecoraro will know that, however much of a blow that news might have been for him, it wouldn’t have taken him too long to bounce back with a new project.

And sure enough, he had soon made up his mind. “I decided to open a shop the way they were in the old days — to go back to my roots,” he explains.

“I asked myself: what would I want to see? And the answer was lots of brands under one roof.

“Plus there’s a lot more fetish art around these days, but still very few opportunities to showcase it. So I wanted to include art, plus accessories, headpieces and the like.”

WORD UP: Fetish Alternative Boutique’s logo

After finally parting company with Libidex in February this year, Max spent almost three months getting potential suppliers onboard while he was looking for premises.

What was the reaction among the labels he approached? “Some designers were very happy to let me have stock,” he says, before adding candidly, “and some said ‘we’re only doing it because it’s you’.”

Given that a lot of smaller fetish labels are not well set-up to supply retailers, comments of the latter kind can surely be taken as an indication of Pecoraro’s good standing in the fetish community.

He’s known as a straight-talker and fair-dealer whom people on the scene have a lot of time for.

But you don’t have to take my word for that. Just take a look at the list below of Fetish Alternative Boutique suppliers confirmed at publication time.

Note, also, that Max has been very careful about which brands he will say are onboard for the official launch.

Those that have promised him stock but not yet delivered (even if they have signed a contract with him) will not get “a shout-out” from him until the promised items actually arrive.