AFTERNOON DELIGHTS: Amsterdam fetish model Lotte LaVey, left, on her Lunar Larva stand at Sep 20’s Exxtravaganza with its host, House of Harlot’s Iris Trika, right (photo: Tony Mitchell)
Autumn afternoon delights: three London fet-fashion/social events
OCTOBER COVER STORY: Over eight days in mid-September, London was treated to a trio of afternoon delights: three fetish/fashion/social events of different character but all with daytime starts in common. Tony Mitchell braved the vagaries of weekend public transport to spend a few hours at each, and survived to share initial impressions and photos below – with more pix to come. BANNER by Tony M shows, L-R: EctoMorph’s Krystina Kitsis with Charmskool’s Alexandra Houston at Charmskool Showroom; Ama with House of Harlot’s Iris Trika at Exxtravaganza; and Loz Za with Spongy at The Sunday Slick
Autumn afternoon delights: Introduction
Between Sunday September 13 and Sunday September 20 this year, no less than three fashion/social events promised afternoon delights for fetish folk in London.
Was this evidence of a crystalising trend — are afternoon fetish events now officially ‘a thing’? Or was it just a happy coincidence?
The events in question were:
1) The second edition of Charmskool and Torture Garden’s new collab The Sunday Slick on Sunday 13 at FYEO;
2) A pop-up event at Charmskool Showroom on Saturday 19 promoting EctoMorph’s new men’s latex being added to the Charmskool website; and
3) Exxtravaganza, a social/fashion/ music event co-hosted by House of Harlot and Vicious Obsession at Fabwick on Sunday 20.
Anyone familiar with the machinations of the mainstream fashion industry might wonder if all three events were hoping to catch some of the glitter sprinkled by media coverage of September’s four big international Fashion Weeks: New York (Sept 10-15), London (17-20), Milan (22-28) and Paris (starting 28).
But only Harlot’s publicity included an actual reference to those big-ticket occasions, describing the launch of Exxtravaganza at the end of the London week as its ‘London Fashion Week Edition’.
Given all the work HoH mistress Iris Trika does for the big couture houses, we probably shouldn’t be too surprised by that.
But Fashion Week adjacency, although not overtly referenced, might still have been a consideration for the other two afternoon delights — given the involvement in both of Charmskool supremo Alexandra Houston, a woman known to have a keen eye for fashionability!
Another impetus, at least as far as these events’ shared retail ambitions were concerned, might well have been simply that September marks the start of the autumn/winter partying season.
This is when London fetish folk start to think seriously about partying in latex again, and, if they can afford it, acquiring a new look or three for the season’s major upcoming events.
Whatever the motivations, all three autumn afternoon delights inspired me to drop in to each for a chat and some photos.
Sep 13: The Sunday Slick featuring Prong’s 25th Anniversary show
NEVER TOO LATE: Claire aka Mrs Prong (left) and Debbie at Sep 13’s Sunday Slick, which celebrated Prong Jewellery’s 25th Anniversary by hosting its first ever fashion show (photo: Tony Mitchell)
First of the three events — The Sunday Slick on September 13 — was the second edition of the new event evolved earlier this year from Le Boutique Bazaar.
It has inherited aspects of LBB including its venue (the refurbished For Your Eyes Only), its inclusion of artisan vending (albeit now on a smaller scale), its generally friendly, cocktails-assisted social atmosphere, and the option it offers to do some daytime dressing-up.
The most ambitious and expansive of the
three events, Sunday Slick’s September outing offered fashion shows and performances on FYEO’s big new central stage, plus side attractions such as portrait painting/ photography and shibari demos.
The first of its stage shows I caught was Ada Zanditon and Figure of A’s Fashion x Shibari Performance, presenting garments and accessories on models who were decoratively roped to the poledancing poles by Figure of A’s Anna Kii, that talented creatrix of wearable bondage.
POLE POSITIONS! Left: Figure of A’s Anna Kii secures a model in The Sunday Slick’s Fashion x Shibari show jointly presented by Figure of A and Ada Zanditon Couture. Right: FYEO’s poles were also put to good use by performers in the Charmskool Designers’ fashion show (both photos: Tony Mitchell)
Next onstage came Prong Jewellery, doing its very first show, created to celebrate the brand’s 25th anniversary. Claire, aka Mrs Prong, had done a great job of getting fetish luminaries to walk for her wearing her sparkly designs, mostly with or over a well-known company’s latex fashions.
The performers who took the stage after Prong did so for the Charmskool Designer show. This featured pieces from 21 of its participating small brands — an impressive assemblage of looks and models and another first for The Sunday Slick.
Burlesque artiste Juliet Peaches, assigned the FYEO stage’s possibly-now-traditional solo finale slot, delivered what she described as a ‘Mugler-inspired cabaret’, finishing in somewhat less clothing than she’d started with (which I hadn’t realised was a Mugler trademark).
Look out for lots more pictures from The Sunday Slick soon. And also due shortly is a Fetishistas interview with Prong designer Claire in which we expect her to reveal what life has been like as a purveyor of pervy jewellery for the past quarter-century!
Sep 19: Charmskool Showroom launch for new EctoMorph latex
JUST LOOKING: EctoMorph designer Krystina Kitsis (right) watches as Cain, wearing one of her new men’s bomber jackets, rifles through the racks of latex at the Charmskool Showroom launch on Sep 19 of EctoMorph’s expanded Cool Britannia collection (photo: Tony Mitchell)
The Saturday of the following weekend (Sept 19) saw me heading up to Shadwell and the Charmskool Showroom, to cover its pop-up event celebrating the addition to the Charmkool Shop website of EctoMorph’s new men’s latex styles from its expanded Cool Britannia Collection.
I always enjoy my visits to the Showroom, which is just a few minutes walk from Shadwell Overground and DLR stations.
Although Shadwell, in London’s East End, is a bit off the beaten tourist track , it’s normally really easy to get to, both from central London and from south of the river where I live.
Note to self though: try not to go on a day when the Lewisham branch of the DLR is closed and half the Overground’s Windrush Line services aren’t running either. I’m sure they do it on purpose.
FLAGGED UP, Left: Cain and Krystina in matching biker jackets from EctoMorph’s new Cool Britannia collection inspired by Fetish Weekend London’s theme. Right: Charmskool marketing director Naedine rocks an EctoMorph skirt at the Showroom (both photos: Tony Mitchell)
Once I did get to the Showroom, everything was great.
There was time for a good gossip with designer Krystina Kitsis and the friendly Charmskool team. But from chatting with Krystina, I learnt that her hopes of her Cool Britannia model Cain dropping by to model some of the new garments had been dashed
by hearing that he’d just sustained a leg injury when a rock fell on him in Portugal.
But he turned up anyway, and gamely posed in some of the men’s styles despite limping. You can see more of the new clothes on the EctoMorph and Charmskool websites, and there’ll be more pictures from me soon, too.
Sep 20: House of Harlot’s Exxtravaganza fashion social at Fabwick
WICKED STYLE: Emrys, Ama and pal, shortly after arriving during the afternoon segment of the Exxtravaganza event at Fabwick in Hackney Wick on Sep 20 (photo: Tony Mitchell)
House of Harlot’s invitation to Sunday 20’s Exxtravaganza described it as ‘a new Sunday party celebrating fashion, self-expression, fetish culture and underground music’.
Its promise of several vendors — headed by HoH itself with its new ‘playful’ latex range — plus a mix of afternoon socialising, DJs, evening dancing until midnight, and opportunities to be photographed in your Sunday best — suggested it might be riffing somewhat on the Sunday Slick concept.
But when I finally found and entered Fabwick — after initially walking right past it and taking an extended mystery tour of the area (during which I did at least meet a very friendly black Labrador) — I soon realised Exxtravaganza was a quite different proposition.
The very first person I spotted in the dark interior of this self-described food hall/live
music bar was Lotte LaVey, an Amsterdam model pal of mine from earlier times.
She’d popped over to London to promote her sideline in vinyl accessories as well as to pose in some of the new House of Harlot styles.
We embraced and exchanged the traditional Dutch three cheek kisses. When we separated, I discovered I was bleeding from two small holes in my chin where Lotte’s head harness spikes had pierced me.
Apparently I looked like I’d been bitten by a vampire, which didn’t seem entirely inappropriate for the occasion.
Lotte (who by coincidence appears twice in my Fetishistas August cover story about AI artist Leila Lovit), was an Art History student when we first met at one of Amsterdam’s legendary Dominatrix weekends.
WARDROBE MISTRESS, left: House of Harlot designer Iris with some of the new, playful latex styles she showed at Exxtravaganza. Right: Princess Aurora, in various shades of pink latex, harmonised perfectly with House of Harlot’s new looks at Exxtravaganza (both photos: Tony Mitchell)
Lotte still models as well as holding down a proper day job. So what prompted her to launch her Lunar Larva label?
It transpires that she’d wanted another outlet for her creative/fashion impulses. Specifically, one that would not tread on the toes of two close pals who make leather and latex pieces respectively, while also doing her best to avoid duplicating what other Dutch brands were already doing.
This led her to start designing vinyl (aka PVC) accessories, hoping these would fit both those criteria, and also have crossover appeal in both the fetish and rave scenes.
At Exxtravaganza, her wares were set out in a space right next to Iris Trika’s House of Harlot ‘corner plot’ next to the DJ booth.
Iris had a rail jam-packed with new latex designs that seemed to be bursting with colour: baby pink and baby blue, other pastel and trans colours, and coquettish frills aplenty — in all, a pretty effective refresh for this long-established brand.
While it was still light, there was some photography around the venue’s outside tables involving Lotte and other models in HoH pieces, as well as a few appropriately dressed visitors (it was not a dresscode event).
By the time I left, the music had been turned right up and Fabwick had filled with diners, drinkers and schmoozers. So as I made my way home, it felt safe to assume the evening segment of the Exxtravaganza programme probably did fulfil its host’s expectations, numbers-wise. More pictures coming soon!
Autumn afternoon delights: principal links
Tags: Accessories, Designers, Fashion Shows, Latex, Social
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