LATEX FASHION AWARDS: Either this is a red carpet media board mock-up or Latex 24/7 has discovered the secret of time travel (image: Latex 24/7)
Latex 24/7 announces ‘world’s first’ Latex Fashion Awards
UK-based latex enthusiast website Latex 24/7 has announced its launch of ‘the world’s first’ Latex Fashion Awards, aiming to attract nominations from the global fetish community for worthy recipients of its first ‘Glossies’ – the trophies winners will receive. One of the important elements that – reports Tony Mitchell – promises to distance it from some other fetish awards is that winners will be chosen on genuine merit by a panel of industry experts. The top banner image is based on a catalogue shot for the new Latex Daily range from Anoeses, the Ukrainian clothing brand often featured by Latex 24/7
Popular latex enthusiasts’ blog site Latex 24/7 has just announced the launch of “the world’s first Latex Fashion Awards”, with the aim of celebrating “this incredible and innovative industry and the designers, brands and labels who are behind it”..
While a number of previous and current fetish-related awards have included fetish design or latex design within their (usually broad and numerous) award categories, this is indeed, as far as I know, the first example of a dedicated latex awards programme — something I think is well overdue!
As the Latex 24/7 announcement points out: whether it’s latex dresses, rubber accessories, captivating corsets or shiny catsuits, the world of latex clothing has something for everyone.
And, it promises, “The Latex Fashion Awards are designed to allow designers, models and industry insiders to be publicly recognised, on an international stage, for the amazing work carried out by them.”
The intention is that there’ll be a number of individual award categories (to be announced soon) that will be voted upon “as those in the trade vie to win one of the first prestigious ‘Glossy’ awards”.
The winner of each category will receive one of these ‘Glossies’. These specially designed and handcrafted trophies have been “expressly devised to exhibit the incredible inclusivity and diversity of latex fashion”, and to “proudly display and show their achievement” to all and sundry.
FILTH LATEX, a Dutch brand featured by Latex 24/7, is the sort of smaller label that we imagine could be a winner in the Latex Fashion Awards
But now we come to what, for me and The Fetishistas, is a critical question about the proposed Awards, namely: how will the winners be selected?
Some other awards in the fetish sphere are known to rely solely on public online voting that can be easily gamed, or they award trophies to brands that just happen to be among their financial sponsors.
Some smaller independent designers and other fetish creatives who have complained of feeling cheated out of any chance of an award have gradually withdrawn their support for certain events, complaining that they could never win, regardless of their talents or achievements.
Latex 24/7 says that its Latex Fashion Awards will, like some other awards, invite the fetish public to nominate deserving businesses and individuals from around the globe.
But with the exception of one publicly-chosen award, the judging will be carried out by “an esteemed panel of members, made up of industry insiders [who] will vote to decide the winner of each category using their knowledge, expertise and experience.”
In my decades documenting the fetish scene, I’ve served on two long-running fetish awards panels — hosted by The German Fetish Ball Weekend in Berlin and the Dominatrix Weekend parties near Amsterdam — as well as doing jury service for an edition of Las Vegas-based Sin City Gallery’s 12 Inches of Sin awards for “provocative art”.
THE ARDORE, an Austrian brand liked by Latex 24/7, showing that a latex skirt can be worn with ‘normal’ clothing as easily as leather can
The GFB allowed only nominations from and voting by the panel, Dominatrix also allowed public nominations and voting but maintained a key role for its industry jury, and the 12 Inches of Sin panel judged art submitted directly by the artists.
I’m not going to claim that any of these systems was totally perfect and impossible to undermine. But my experience was that all three provided a much greater chance of their awards being won by people who genuinely deserved them.
When I messaged Latex 24/7 to establish formal contact over the Awards, Ade from the blog replied: “I’ve known for a long time how supportive the latex community are, but the level of support for the awards has been beyond any of my expectations.
“Your thoughts on the nominations and voting echo my feelings exactly. I am truly hoping that public nominations — which allow both large and small designers, brands and models to be in with a chance of winning — and the panel members will allow for some authenticity and it won’t simply become a ‘popularity contest’.”
Amen to that! The Fetishistas looks forward to sharing more info around the awards, and how community members can get involved.
Even at this early stage, this feels like a commendably legitimate project that will deserve our support.
In the meantime, check out the latest from Latex24/7 and others via the links below!
latexfashionawards/instagram
latex247.co.uk
latex247/facebook
latex247/instagram
Anoeses.com
Filth-Latex.com
TheArdore.com
Tags: Awards, Blog Sites, Latex
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