“She’s a good egg, the nicest woman in the world. And some of the sagest advice we’ve had has come from Jo over the years.”
As an example, Richard cites how Jo persuaded him to think beyond his initial idea of how he might recruit more people. Which was that he would “put that out and try and get somebody to work for us — just pick someone we know and see whether they’re interested”.
Her response, says Richard, was to say, “No, you’re an idiot. You’ve got a proper company here that people would kill to work for, and you should put a proper ad up to say ‘We are recruiting’ and see what comes of it.”
So he did that, advertising on the Latex 101 website and social media in parallel with putting an ad out to the general population. (He felt the latter might still be necessary in order to find somebody local, ie in Scotland.)
“And 130 applications later,” Richard says, “we were flabbergasted!”
The majority of applicants generated by the general ad may not have been suitable for the job, but there were also 15 “really good” applications.
“And a handful of them were really interested to come and work for us because of who we were, which included Beth, who works for us now,” says Richard.
“She was living in Nottingham and had been working for Invincible, had seen the job advertised and had gone for it. We hired her in a heartbeat because she was appropriately qualified.
“She was a fashion graduate, in a latex firm, and she was absolutely square on the bullseye of what we wanted.
“And we thought, OK fine, we’ll do it like that then shall we? And so we grew — and have grown bigger again.”
3D SCANNING PROS AND CONS
What prompted the company’s plunge into the technical minefield of 3D scanning?
“I’d been thinking it should be possible to do a 3D scan of somebody and get made-to-measure done,” Richard replies. “Savile Row had it so why couldn’t I have it? It’s all proprietary, all very much in a box, so there’d be no easy way to do it and we would have to do a lot of research.
“Then at a fair, we bumped into a customer who was doing a 3D Modelling degree and I thought, right, I’m going to quiz him. And that’s Gavin, who works for us now.
“He’s also a photographer — and a very good one — and we asked him to come and work for us, to help us with the project to set up the 3D scanning.
“So he did nearly a year’s work on it at some considerable expense to us, and after a year of hard work and heartache, on March 19, 2016, we launched our 3D service, which we call Future Fit 3D.”
In its current incarnation, the 3D data from the scanner is turned into a 3D representation of the customer’s body, then Latex 101 purpose-builds, in 3D on the computer, a catsuit to the customer’s form.
Hundreds of measurements are taken from this virtual suit, and these are turned into a garment pattern which is the right shape, size and length.
“So all the trials and tribulations of buying off-the-peg go away,” says Richard, “along with some of the trials and tribulations of made-to-measure — because you can’t measure yourself.
“It’s weird: when you put the suit on — what I noticed when I put one on — is you literally put it over your leg and it’s like yeah, that’s my leg, it’s actually my leg!”
One of the great advantages of these myriad measurements is that a catsuit made in the heavier 0.5mm rubber Latex 101 favours can be made to fit as well as suits in much thinner, stretchier but more easily damageable grades.
So it’s a shame to have to report that while the basic concept works well, the process from start to finish needs further development and refinement before it can be considered commercially viable.
Richard’s hope now is that the firm can reinvest in 3D next year “to bring it to the market properly”.
PETER DOMENIE WOMEN’S LATEX FOR THE UK
The addition of Peter Domenie women’s latex fashion for the UK market is a result of Latex 101’s belief that, because men are its natural target audience, it has to “work that little bit harder” to ensure it has really good products for the ladies (just as it has with accessories).
And I think when latex fashionistas in the UK see what is now available for them through Latex 101, they’ll be pleasantly surprised.
But I fear that, in its determination to remain essentially a men’s latex brand with some womenswear, Latex 101 may be hiding its new acquisition from view a little too effectively.
Admittedly the women’s latex has its own Facebook page, called Latex 101 Ladies. But on the firm’s website, the women’s range is neither mentioned on the home page nor included among the featured items you first see when clicking through to the shop section.
This may be the firm’s chosen way of handling the fact that it is only offering the Domenie range to UK customers. But it does seem odd to take this step into women’s fashion then not give it decent visibility.
The original version of this article included two galleries of Peter Domenie outfits. Unfortunately copyright issues obliged us to remove them, but you can see all the Domenie styles sold by Latex 101 by following the Latex101.com/womenswear link at the end.
Incidentally, the exact provenance of these women’s styles is something neither Latex 101 nor Domenie will publicly disclose. But if it’s any comfort, I can tell you they are definitely not made in the Far East!
AND YES, SIZE DOES MATTER!
The ‘something for everybody’ principle behind Latex 101’s inclusion of women’s accessories and latex fashions applies to its sizing policy for menswear too.
“We pick the dozen or 20 lines that we know customers will really like and make all the sizes from really small to really big,” says Richard. “And it’s well recognised that if you’re of any size, and you’re at a fair and you want menswear, you can only come to us.
“On other stands, you barely see an XL never mind a 2XL or 3XL. But for us ‘big men’ is no more a niche than ‘men’ is a niche.
“Someone who’s broad and muscly or tall or otherwise, they’ve really no options. Men have got few enough options as it is, and if you’re holding more than a little bit of weight, you’ve no chance.
“And we wanted to be really inclusive because we’re nice boys, you know, and the company is full of nice people and none of us is… there’s no supermodels.
“There are some cute boys and cute girls but we’re all just normal people, so we have to have things for everybody that are gonna look good. So we try really hard to have a good range and fit all the sizes, and make sure that when you come to us we’ve definitely got something for you.
“For example we sell loads of trouser belts, ’cos nobody ever does them, and we just make loads at a time. We have trouser belts that will literally go twice round some people.
“It’s simple things like that — having things we know people will recognise that they can come to us for.
“Whether you’re wee or whether you’re big — boys and girls — and whether you like stuff that’s a bit outlandish and in-your-face scary colours and combinations, right the way down to a plain black shirt with press studs or a nice black vest you can pull on over your head… we’ve got something for you.”
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
My penultimate question for Latex 101 concerns the surprised reactions I got from various UK designers when I mentioned that Richard and Stewart had taken German lessons in order to be able to sell more effectively at German fairs.
I tell the lads I don’t know of any other UK label exhibiting at European fairs that has shown that level of commitment.
“I don’t either,” says Richard. “It would be wrong to say that we don’t spend 80 percent of our time on the stand when we’re in Germany speaking English, ’cos we do. But yes, we did learn to speak German.
“Before even our first German fair — Fetish Evolution in 2009 — I punted out for some private lessons. We found a local teacher, and said, ‘This is who we are, this is what we need to do, so I need to learn these things, this vocabulary.
“I’m a linguist, so I wasn’t afraid of learning another language, and I reckoned it would help us. Why would it not help us to be able to speak the language of the country we were going to?
“I have a long-standing commitment with all of the team that if they want to learn to speak German or any foreign language that would help us with a fair, we’ll pay for it. I believe it’s a skill that stands you in good stead in life, never mind anything else.
“People really appreciate it,” adds Stewart, who, unlike Richard, at least did basic German at school. “Especially when they need it. If we get someone who has no English whatsoever, if we couldn’t speak to them in German, we wouldn’t be able to do anything for them.”
Richard adds that the desire to equip the Latex 101 team with work and life skills now goes beyond just foreign languages.
“We’re now at the size where you’ve got to start thinking about people and their careers: what they’re trying to do, their personal development and what will really help them out, what skills we can share with them.”
Obviously, he says, a small fetish business is not like a bank that has big budgets for staff training and development. But, he believes, “We should be able to do that as well — just on a smaller scale.
“Because your people are the only thing you’ve got. The thing that’s become apparent in the last few years is that the team is what you’ve got.
“They all work hard, and if you can keep them loyal to you, and keep them doing something interesting and keep them developing as people, then you’ve got half a chance of growing the company.”
A FUTURE BEYOND EUROPE?
Finally then, as Richard and his team prepare for this year’s German Fetish Fair in Berlin (May 11-12), how does he see the future mapping out for Latex 101?
“We are absolutely bursting at the seams orders-wise, so this year we have decided to invest in training a bigger team,” he says. “If we could make twice as much, we could sell it.
“This time next year I would like my making team of seven to increase to 12. It will be difficult and it will involve a bigger workshop. But it will set us up for the next phase of growth.
“We travelled with our stand to Chicago last November for a gay event that really opened our eyes to the size of the straight and gay fetish markets in the USA.
“I can see that becoming a possible focus for us if the company expansion goes as planned.
“But right now, what I want people to know about Latex 101 is that we work hard, we are innovating like none of the big names, and we have become known now for setting rather than following trends.”
Well, to me, that doesn’t seem like such a big ask.
First published May 7, 2018; updated May 16, 2018
Tags: Designers, Latex, Retail, Wholesale