Alexandra Houston: Charmskool supremo

By the time we’d read and digested the detailed guidance for getting around this problem, we could have simply walked up the stairs.

The first floor revealed a nice little bar area adjoined by a long narrow corridor that led to other function rooms. Squeezed into an alcove by the lift was live portrait artist Inky Layla, engaged in creating a likeness of a gothic beauty who would surely have been in the running for Most Hardcore-Looking BDSMer of the Night.

Next along the corridor was Dexter Kay’s flash tattoo studio, which might or might not have been directly responsible for the strong smell of disinfectant in the air there.

After that, my memories of what attractions were located along which corridors on which of the two upper floors are a bit jumbled. I recall there were at least a couple of screening rooms, one of which was used for the evening’s spanking workshop, and there were two — or was it three? — rooms that housed the evening’s selection of Charmskool market sellers.

DADDY’S GURL: on Brat Summer trend with this upcycled handbag (photo: Tony Mitchell)

As the evening wore on, all these spaces became very busy, so it seemed evident that the various distractions on offer were well-matched to the tastes of the crowd that, in due course, filled the venue.

The sellers participating in the Charmskool House market spaces included Ada Zanditon, An Original Leroy, B_Dodi, Bound in Leather and submission, Broke Boutique, Daddy’s Gurl, Eyes Overload, Full Vulgar, Haus of Mammila, Kerris Spencer, Kraken Counter Couture, Maniacc, The Hidery and The Loussine.

Before things became too hectic, I was able to chat with a few of them, including accessories specialist Ada Zanditon (whom I’d not seen in the flesh since she became a mum) and Kerris Spencer, a new name to me who was displaying her impressive range of punky vegan leather pieces.

Both women, incidentally, will be among the UK designers heading to New York in mid-October to participate in the international debut of Charmskool market (of which more on page 3).

My friend, who is just beginning to explore the scene, was particularly keen to attend Sophie Cohen’s spanking workshop, and — to judge from how packed out this presentation became — so were a helluva lot of other people!

We managed to secure seats near the front, but unfortunately, this also placed us close to the large and very noisy fan that had been set-up to keep the room cool. For me, the fan noise drowned out much of dominatrix and educator Sophie’s presentation — a shame as she clearly knew what she was talking about. She should have been miked-up.

Photographing the presentation also proved challenging owing to the extra-bright graphic display emanating from the screen behind Sophie and her spanking model. But my friend still picked up some useful tips on spanking technique — so she at least got what she came for!

This, for me, was the only aspect of Charmskool House’s whole mixed-media event that didn’t work as well as it could have. But given the evening’s ambitious scope, it was a relatively minor hiccup, and one that would be easy enough to avoid in the future.