Fetish Gear Goes Mainstream -- Fashion From The Edge

In 1983, a Londoner named Tim Woodward launched a nightclub he dubbed Skin Two. It was a place for those who wanted to wear leather and rubber. But, says one designer who attended its opening, fashion as such was quite beside the point.

"There were a lot of fat old guys in rubber trousers and women in dog collars. Not a lot of people like me, who were scouting trends."

Over a decade later, that has changed profoundly. Skin Two has helped revolutionize fashion - in locations from Paris to Pioneer Square.

Skin Two is still a club. But it is also a glossy magazine, an annual charity ball - and a flourishing online club. Some of its customers still favor dog leashes. More, however, now see "fetish fashion" as mainstream style.

For them, touches which were once outre - dog collars, bondage straps, leather and rubberwear - are just hallmarks of the fashion moment. Ditto cross-dressing (pioneered by stars like Nirvana), underwear-as-outerwear, tattoos and body piercing.

These bring high fashion some of its requisite novelty. But they have also become linked with certain music, known in the U.S. as "gothic," "industrial" or "electronica."

As the visual synonym for each of these, fetish gear now appears on album covers, in music videos and on the frames of pop figures. Sometimes it's the bondage of Marilyn Manson; other times a tattooed, cross-dressed Dennis Rodman.

The new role of fetish fashion creates more than costumes; some clubs issue records, CD-ROMs, even board games. Colleen Sanders handles exports for one such club, London's Torture Garden (which frequently tours America). Seattle, she says, is a vibrant market for products she sees as "creative and healthy."

"The world is now concerned with sex as play and theater, whether you mean pop music, style or the Internet. In the age of AIDS, we ritualize both flirting and foreplay. We use wigs and Wonderbras, rubberwear and piercing. It's like we're sampling and re-mixing all the signals."

In Seattle, the evidence is all around. At Fantasy Unlimited, at The Crypt and Siren, hardcore fetishists shop alongside nightclubbers. In more upscale stores like Bellevue's Boisvert Lingerie, one owner says, "We sell to anyone who wants style. Whether it's college girls who want to dress like Hole or the cross-dresser who buys a nice chemise."

Certainly, the '90s have plundered fetish. Its world has served as an inspiration for couturiers - from Jean-Paul Gaultier to Alexander McQueen. Madonna toured in her designer corsets, just as Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman slithered in latex.

The Internet, too, is full of bulletins, special newsgroups and fetish FAQs. Want the Web's "largest corset information site"? Or the "Mr/Ms Bargain Boutique"? You can find those - and a whole lot more.

In Seattle, as in cyberspace, real fetishism co-exists with dressing up. Often, a common denominator is musical taste. Seattleite Heather Morton played in the band Cruella; she moved here from Atlanta.

In Georgia, Morton frequented clubs like The Chamber, where she found - to her surprise - "people were really nice." So, in Seattle, she looked for similar venues and discovered Electrolush at The Showbox, Sunday's Festish Night at The Vogue and The Catwalk.

Near the corner of Second and Washington, The Catwalk was built in the 1880s for "Casino Dancing" (the advertisement still appears on its awning). Its two bars also date from that era. But on Saturdays it hosts "industrial night," bringing in the fetish fashion crowd.

Heather Morton first went on New Year's Eve, with pop star Martin Gore of Depeche Mode. Both loved the ambience and the fashions. "Definitely, there was a lot of bondage gear. There were some drag queens and some expensive clothing." If anything, they felt it could have been looser. Says Morton, "Usually, fetish clubs are more relaxed. I'm not used to goth clubs where people frown."

Still, says Morton, The Catwalk has potential. So, she feels, does Seattle fetish fashion.

One hardcore regular - call him Mark - agrees. "With a little luck, you can go out four times weekly. There's goth-fetish night at The Catwalk. There's the Vogue, although that one's shrinking. There's Electrolush at The Showbox and that club Machine Werks - though it's semi-private."

Most aficionados make these rounds, often searching for their favorite music. Mark's is Euro-techno: Underworld, The Orb, Prodigy, Orbital, Mayday, 2XLC. It's the sort of thing MTV might play on "The Amp," but in Seattle these sounds are hard to come by. "Mostly they're available on compilations," says Mark. "Too many club nights have a rigid playlist; any deviations are frowned on."

Mail-order works

But deviation is in when it comes to fashion. In some places, such as Fantasy Unlimited, club and fetish threads hang side-by-side. But a lot of clubbers find their gear on the Net. Explains one, "Mike," "You can't really get great clothes here. But you see them, in magazines and online. So mail-order is the logical thing."

Probably the biggest online source is Skin Two, which ships rubberwear around the world. A more specialized couturier is London's Dane Goulding - for whom Seattle is a thriving mail-order market.

"First is France. Then Russia. Then Seattle and Atlanta." Goulding is famous for his D.A.N.E. label, which produces unisex fetish fashion. He's also known as a "cover girl" for "The Transvestite's Guide to London."

Goulding describes himself as a "gender defector" who appropriates styles to please himself. With his partner Tracy, he has a 2-year-old, Paris.

Despite fatherhood, Goulding remains a pioneer cross-dresser. He is famous for his corsets, mesh suits and neoprene skirts, dressy ensembles printed and padded in space-age shapes. His latest collections are "Beauty Assassins" and "3001"; items from both are visible on local dance floors.

What Seattle mail-order customers miss is Goulding's politics, which are part of all the work he does. "People always mix up gender and aesthetics. Skirts, for example, are not gender-related. They're not like a bra or a codpiece, which are made to fit real bodily differences. I don't see my clothes as gender-specific. I mean, I go out, and I wear heels and lipstick."

Goulding's customers are understandably shy with names. But they are enthusiastic about his talents. One buyer, "Rick," says the lure of D.A.N.E. clothes is Goulding's sense of humor. "Sure, his stuff is very fashion-forward. But it's also clever. At one point, he had skirts with clip-on symbols, the international signs for `male' and `female.' If you worried about people knowing your sex, you just clip one on and you advertise it!"

Take a taxi

A sense of play draws new crowds into clubs like The Catwalk - a sense of play and the chance to really dress. Says Belinda Lisen, who moved here from Paris: "In Seattle, these are my favorite places. Why? Because I like being quite theatrical. No one bothers you once you get inside. But it's wiser if you go by taxi."

Lisa Sherman is Skin Two's online editor. She says Lisen's view is very typical. Much of Sherman's e-mail is "from first-timers." "Fetish clubs attract a pansexual crowd. Heterosexuals, bisexuals, gays and lesbians, both transvestites and transgendered people. But they're really not pickup places. Women, especially, can wear what they like, in a way they don't usually get to."

For The Catwalk management, the key to a happy mixture is dancing. "That's the basis of keeping everyone comfortable. People add the fashion to express themselves."

The Catwalk is becoming known on Web sites, and its clientele is starting to change. Its doorman offers one recent example. "We just had a guy in from Germany. Six feet tall, with industrial fetish gear. This guy hardly spoke one word of English, but he had a

printout with our logo. Lots of people in Seattle can't manage to find us; this guy found us all the way from Germany!"

If the scene's look and soundtrack are co-opted by Tower Records and Netscape, where does that leave serious old-style fetishists?

There is room for everyone, says Tim Woodward. "I started Skin Two's magazine in '84, when the Internet was far from anyone's mind. Yet things crossed into style and music quickly. Still, we've always been pretty varied. We were different ages, we were gay and straight. Some were fashionable, some were famous. Others were extremely plain or suburban.

"Nothing has changed that yet, and I doubt it will. Because we know now: It's the same everywhere."

---------------------------------------------------------.

More info

The Catwalk is at 172 S. Washington St; 622-1863; e-mail catwalk@iname.com. Skin Two can be found at http://www.skintwo.co.uk (e-mails: magazine@skintwo.co.uk; retail@skintwo.co.uk) and the magazine is available at Tower Records and Fantasy Unlimited. Clothing by Dane Goulding may be ordered from 011-44-171-241-2735; 4/17 Frederick Terrace, London E8 4EW, England. Selections from Torture Garden's CD, "Journeys Through Cybersex," may be heard on The Seattle Times' InfoLine. Call 206-464-2000 and enter category CATS (2287). It's free within the Seattle calling area.