Sian also ended up working at Coco de Mer for a couple of years as a casual/part-time sales assistant. Did her involvement with the store teach her any valuable lessons about the luxury erotic clothing/accessories business?
“Because I wasn’t there very often, I didn’t gain as much knowledge as I would have, working there full-time,” she reckons
“I suppose the most useful thing I learnt about the luxury market is that it is extremely tough when dealing solely in high-end items made in the UK, and it improves business to stock lower-priced items too, combining high luxury with affordability.”
She also recalls vividly that the biggest sale she made while working behind the Coco counter was for £10,000–worth of exotic butt plugs!
What was her thinking behind the launch in 2013 of sister brand The Model Traitor, which features her most fetishistic and BDSM-inspired garments and accessories, including discipline corsets, restraints, body harnesses and whips?
“The Model Traitor happened quite naturally, without much of a plan about where it would take me. But now it takes up most of my time and I have had to cut down on corsetry wholesale.
‘I have always been designing a lot of fetish-style corsets such as the Slave styles, which were designed with restraint and discipline in mind’
“I have always been designing a lot of fetish-style corsets such as the Slave styles, which were designed with restraint and discipline in mind.
“These corsets attach to a Neck Corset (posture collar) and contain various D-rings to attach cuffs or tethers so that the wearer can be bound to the corset.
“I started making matching collars and cuffs which were all boned and laced like a corset. But I was keen to create something at a more affordable price.
“Although I have a good reputation for being one of the top names in my field of corsetry, I was struggling to make a decent living from corsetry alone.
“Because the corset brand is my own name, I often felt a little uncomfortable expressing my deviant ideas with a brand that is associated with my name.
“I didn’t want to scare off potential clients, because my corset range is very broad and not strictly fetish.
“With my radical passion for the arts and erotica, The Model Traitor allows me to express my darker desires by creating luxury bondage products at an affordable price.
“There are no limits for me, I believe in breaking down stereotypes and taboos, and encouraging experimentation. The idea of my pieces leading to the exploration — and ultimately the fulfillment — of fantasies is thrilling.
“If we lift societal pressure in the form of discrimination and judgement, we are left with a beautiful spectrum of people, including a fluidity of gender and sexuality.
“That is what I want my work to convey and endorse.”
Would Sian Hoffman consider herself a ‘crossover’ designer in the way that, say, Atsuko Kudo is perceived to be in the latex scene?
“My corsetry can appeal to a wide range of people,” she replies, “from the trendy fashionista to the body-conscious people who simply want an undergarment to slim down their waist; from the bridal and luxury lingerie fanatics to the deviant fetishist.
“All depends on the style they are looking for. I have been lucky to receive a lot of press coverage in the fashion media which is always a great confidence boost considering I work alone without any assurance of what I am doing.”
Does catering to such different markets ever cause her to be pulled in conflicting directions as a designer? And if so, how does she resolve this? Her answer:
“I like the variety so I don’t have any problems with making tame pieces. I get bored easily. But I tend to specialise in the provocative because that’s what I enjoy the most.
“As all designers want to empower their clients, for me of course there is that, but I also what to promote expression and fantasy.
“Where once corsets represented the repression of women, my garments are intended to symbolise the antithesis: liberation from society’s constraints in terms of gender, size, sexuality, status, class… essentially one’s identity.
“When someone wears an item from my collections, I want them to feel that conventional norms and expectations are suspended; that they can truly embrace whichever persona they choose.”
“The list is endless, but my favourite artists are Pierre Molinier, illustrator Carlo, Hans Bellmer, and vintage fetish photographers such as YVA Richard, Man Ray, Elmer Batters and Irina Ionesco.
“I’m drawn to the radical — the artists who are not just trying to do something sexy, but are proper perverts who invite each viewer to bring to the images their own response of excitement or disgust.”
A particularly spectacular example of this designer’s channelling of vintage fetish art influences into a ‘living’ garment can be seen in her Sweet Gwendoline spanking corset — inspired, as the name suggests, by the work of John Willie.
But how often does she set out consciously to create such a recognisable homage to an individual artist’s work? “Not often enough!” is the answer.
“The Sweet Gwendoline corset was something I’d had in mind for many years, along with many other ideas to create more extreme kinds of corsets that can work with other contraptions for BDSM play.
“I am heavily influenced by vintage foundation wear and have been a collector and wearer of historical underwear all my adult life — which has given me the opportunity to study the garments closely from the construction to the fine details.
“And when it comes to stockings, all I can say is, once you try fully fashioned nylons, there’s no going back to modern Lycra tights! There is nothing quite like them.”
While her new website majors on the garments in her Sian Hoffman and The Model Traitor ranges, bespoke work (where garments are fully handmade with the pattern cut from scratch) is another important part of this designer’s activities.
She says: “I still find it quite bizarre, when I’m working in solitude from my home studio, to think that some of the most famous people in the world have managed to wear my work.
“I have created bespoke pieces for Kylie Minogue, Madonna and Sarah Brightman as well as others who have worn my pieces in the Press.
“Sadly, many of the top stylists insist on freebies and I have often had to turn down work for multimillionaire pop stars whose stylists apparently have no budget.”
But just to make things clear for mere mortals who are not rich or famous enough to demand freebies, even if you’re not in the market for a bespoke corset, any garment you order from Sian will still be made-to-measure. She doesn’t do ‘off-the-peg’.
Perhaps it’s not surprising then that, asked to think about the future of corsetry, Sian Hoffman is not interested in advances in technology such as 3D printing that might have the potential to ‘revolutionise’ the making of such garments.
‘Many top stylists insist on freebies and I’ve often turned down work for multimillion- aire pop stars whose stylists apparently have no budget’
“The joy of making corsets is in the craft itself,” she insists. “I’m far too old-fashioned to be seduced by modern technologies such as 3D printing. It goes against the concept of creating something from scratch with one’s hands.
“Perfected over years of dedicated craft, through sheer love for the object itself. From flat lifeless panels and components that come together with the finest precision to a sculptural object with the capacity to bend flesh.
“In an era when everyone wants everything quickly and cheaply, dedication to corsetry shows one is patient enough to take the time to let it happen, and that is in itself a beautiful notion,” she maintains. “Seeking beauty, pleasure and true intimacy in a world that goes too fast.
“Also,” she adds, “when considering the contemporary tightlacer, it is of utmost significance to take into account the element of informed choice and inadvertent fascination.
“At a time when wearing a corset is not the commonplace way of conforming to cultural norms, the practice becomes one of devising beauty paradigms that are aware, empowering, sovereign.
“The current appropriation of the corset is one of eclectic individuality, with formalistic pleasure at its centre.
“I believe its powerful mystery will ensure it continues, and the fact that it has been passed through the centuries proves that it will.”
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