And at that point, it probably was. But I’m afraid the 2019 GFB Weekend just held in Berlin easily trounced its predecessor, exceeding expectations in very many respects.

From the opening Kinky Cocktails party to the headlining Ball itself, this premier European fetish fest effortlessly ramped up its credentials with an unprecedented number of attendees — including what must surely have been its largest ever international crowd.

I got an early hint of how multi-national the whole thing would turn out to be when, standing outside the entrance to 260 Grad where the Kinky Cocktails/Fetishistas Directory launch party was held on Wednesday evening (May 29), the first five people to arrive for the event were all Australian!

They turned out to be the vanguard for a much bigger crowd from all corners of the globe who came to the first night and received one of our exclusive Fetishistas Directory promo gift packs. 

The packs were ably handed out by our latex-clad greeter Vero, who also helps on the Bondinage stand at the Fair. I last saw her towards the end of the evening getting her rubber-stockinged feet massaged by Fetishistas video presenter Peter Monochrome. Something there for everyone, then.

Each gift pack included a little silver metal pill-box stamped with a Fetishistas Directory logo and stuffed with mints. These freebies went down exceedingly well, and rumour has it that some people even found other uses for the tins once the mints were consumed. 

The same Wednesday evening also played host to Savage Wear’s party at Badehaus, which I’ve enjoyed in recent years. Under other circumstances I would definitely have put in time at both events, as indeed many people did. 

But being co-host, along with the GFB crew, of the 260 Grad party, I couldn’t really desert my post on this occasion. However, I’m reliably informed that Savage Wear managed to have a good night without me! 

A sunny afternoon on the Spree

Thursday (30) brought with it a beautiful sunny afternoon that was absolutely perfect for the first of that day’s numerous events: a revival of the GFB Fetish Cruise on the River Spree.

Back in 2015, chilly overcast weather limited enjoyment of the original GFB river cruise.

However, with warm sunshine forecast for this year’s later cruise date, the revived event clearly caught more imaginations, selling out its 90-plus tickets within a couple of days.

KINKING SPREE: Rubber-clad reveller hails a
passing river boat from the GFB Fetish Cruise

The Spree river boats depart from the East Side Gallery dock opposite the new Mercedes Platz development. And this year before departure, there was a riverside group photo shoot for which everyone had been encouraged to dress to impress.

They did not disappoint. And the attention the gathered kinksters attracted from Berlin residents and tourists around the dock was a joy to behold. People treated it like exactly the kind of spectacle you would expect to see in this artistically edgy city.

Once our boat full of kinksters began its voyage, their enthusiastic exhibitionism — cheering, waving and flashing fake boobies — continued to get positive reactions from onlookers on the river banks and passing boats.

In all, the two-hour trip felt like the perfect public promotion for our pervy invasion of Berlin!

We have linked up with Xklusiv, the weekend’s organiser, to co-host the new GFB Kinky Cocktails party. It will kick off 2019’s festivities at a new rooftop bar, 260 Grad — so called because its roof terrace offers an impressive 260-degree view across the city.

Doors will open for Kinky Cocktails at 20:00, and admission to the event is free. There is no formal dresscode, but there will be some photography and filming, so fetish wear and other photogenic styles are of course welcome!

In addition, the first 250 guests to arrive will receive an exclusive Fetishistas Directory gift specially created to commemorate the launch.

The entrance to 260 Grad is on Mercedes Platz, a vibrant new development stretching from the Mercedes Arena down to the East Side Gallery on the banks of the Spree. 

Close to Warschauer Strasse and the famous Matrix venue, and just across the river from the regular Ball and Fair venues, Mercedes Platz boasts new shops, bars, restaurants and hotels that should be well worth exploring.

Joining me as part of the official Fetishistas team at Kinky Cocktails and other GFB events will be longtime Fetishistas contributor and Directory researcher Heidi Patterson (aka Miss Fuzzy Bunny), and our Swedish video crew of Nikdesign, Peter Monochrome and Kari Berg.

We promise there’ll be no speechifying or PowerPoint presentations! We just want everyone to join us in this cool new venue to help celebrate the official start of the GFB Weekend and the official international launch of The Fetishistas Directory.

The gallery at the bottom on the left gives an idea what to expect if you’re planning to join us for the Kinky Cocktails Directory launch at new venue 260 Grad. 

The weather should be agreeably warm in Berlin at the end of May, so we’re expecting to make full use of the open air roof terrace with its views over the river and beyond. We hope to see lots of you there!

Fetishistas Directory Evolution

Our desire to provide a listings service actually goes back almost to the launch of the original Fetishistas online magazine site in 2007.

For about 18 months, the original site did include fetish events listings, but the friend who provided them unfortunately had to give up the research work when his circumstances unexpectedly changed.

However, I promised myself that if the opportunity came to revamp the original site, I would make events listings part of the editorial offer again.

In 2014, that chance arrived. I wanted to relaunch on the WordPress platform, so my web developer and I started looking at listings add-on packages that were WordPress compatible.

Discovering that the add-ons then available were not that impressive, we decided a better solution seemed to be offered by a then brand-new standalone Directory theme.

A major advantage was that, while it was suitable for events listings, it was also designed to accommodate most other types of business listings too. 

This gave us the opportunity not only to relaunch The Fetishistas magazine on WordPress, but also to develop a WordPress Directory site to follow in its wake. 

Furthermore, we decided the new Directory would launch with listings not just for events but also for latex clothing — the latter being another key area of interest for our audience.

The Fetishistas v.2 — the site that you’re looking at now — was successfully launched in November 2014 after about nine months of development.

At that point, we figured we’d need about another six months to launch The Fetishistas Directory, taking us to a go-live date of May 2015.

The story of why it took four years longer than we anticipated is one that I shall probably tell one day — but perhaps not for a little while yet.

An unexpected benefit of refusing to be defeated by the technical challenges we encountered during development is that we’ve actually ended up with a much bigger and better product than the one we expected to launch four years ago. 

Consequently, what we’ll be celebrating in Berlin on May 29 is the arrival of a free global resource offering no less than 540 pages of listings covering the fetish events scene and latex clothing industry.

Take a Look Around the Site

Start to browse its content, and the first thing I hope you’ll notice is the emphasis on good design. Great visuals are a far more prominent part of The Fetishistas Directory than they are in most other fetish listing products.

For us, it had to be that way. Having relaunching TheFetishistas.com with the state-of-the-art design its WordPress theme enabled, it was really important to us that the Directory sister site would maintain similar design standards.

The visual emphasis is very obvious once you being exploring The Fetishistas Directory’s Home, About and Info pages. All make use of top quality images from some of the scene’s best-known photographers.

If you want to check out our gallery of photographic contributors, visit the Info page (accessible from the

But for a first time it worked out really well. Of course I am a bit biased, since I attend the Flowers and Bees parties (held by photographer Michael Küttner and his wife Svenja) as often as I can. (See link to my earlier Fetishistas report below.) 

Combining an alt/fetish fair with fashions shows, exhibitions and other entertainment (and a pre-party the night before), Honeyland made its debut on January 13. 

The first fair’s exhibitors were exclusively German, as there was not enough time to organise any international participation. I do hope this will change with the next edition, scheduled for this September.

On the evening of Saturday 12 the pre-party (in the same venue) was even more last-minute. You may wonder about this reversal of the more usual order of things, but I must say I liked it. 

Honey Bee Warm Up pre-party

The party, called Honey Bee Warm Up, was not an official Flowers and Bees. But surprise, surprise, it had a karaoke stage. 

It was so cool to see artists, models and even a lost, slightly drunk, Dutch photographer accompanied by a long-legged and blue-haired Dutch model [I wonder who they were — TM] join this stage and entertain the crowd with heavenly singing/grunting/screaming. 

There was dancing, laughter, good music (ie not only techno), and drinks. This all sums up a pretty good party for me.

On Sunday the Delta venue, well known as the location of many previous Fetish Evolution Balls, was transformed into a happier industrial setting for the event described by its hosts as a ‘kinky fetish fashion show and play market’. 

Honeyland uses the same parts of the venue complex that are used for the Flowers and Bees parties, plus the main hall used by Fetish Evolution for all the fashion shows.

Our hosts put in a great effort to make it as perfect as possible. There were extra decorations like big candy balloons and kinky/sexy pictures on the walls, plus extra lights for the exhibitors, fitting booths and much more. 

At the entrance, there were little people waiting at a miniature sugar candy bar to help you out with cotton candy and popcorn. (I went back a few times; it’s free and I’m still Dutch.) There was some lighthearted flirting going on over there too, which added to the fun atmosphere.

Surprisingly there was also good food like fresh baked pizza, typical German wurst and of course drinks. This meant that after their first shopping spree, visitors could take a short food break and then continue with their retail therapy. This is something I could very easily get used to. 

Next to the DJ booth there was a comfy lounge area with an exhibition of work by German photographer Vince Voltage.

It was a perfect opportunity to chill out and leaf through his book, or even buy it. I am super impressed by his weird, stunningly original, crazy-colourful style. 

The lounge area was also perfect to actually lounge like a pro and to have a few words with the designers, artists and models who were hanging out there.

And there were quite a few walk-around acts. A giant woman with extraordinary make-up guided me through the area where fetish models were walking around with gorgeous masks and jackets by Jaded Jewell. 

I think I spotted all the post-apocalyptic people from Wasteland Warriors moving around the location in their extravagant and creepy-looking outfits. Some even managed to scare the shit out of me. I can always appreciate that. In a way.

Honeyland fashion shows

And fashions shows. Each designer was able to show their kinky and colourful designs twice, and visitors were treated to fun performances from the 14 models on stage.

One label, Rimo Fashion, even made their show work with just two female models. Two. Much respect to these ladies, since it was almost a magic act to behold! And the happy faces. This always works for me.

My favourite newcomer (and friend), the photographer AverageShots, premiered his new clothing line, AverageCouture, on the Honeyland catwalk.

Mr Average had been working on some very intricate harness designs for the previous few months and was finally able to show them on the runway.

I wouldn’t know how to put any of them on, and probably would suffocate while trying. But the designer explained in a calm way, to all his customers, how his creations could be worn.

Among changes this year are the return of the Fetish Cruise first seen in 2015, and expansion of the German Fetish Fair to a second exhibition floor. Also promised are the launch of a Femdom dinner and a revamp of the Sweet Surrender play party.

Last but not least, The Fetishistas will be co-hosting the new official GFB Kinky Cocktails party, which kicks of the whole five-day programme at rooftop venue 260 Grad on Mercedes Platz on Wednesday May 29.

The expansion of the GFB Weekend has happened in parallel with developments in the East Side Gallery area of Berlin (roughly between the Mercedes-Benz Arena and the River Spree), which is close to most of the GFB’s traditional venues.

It’s not that long since the new Holiday Inn Berlin City East Side provided fans of the ultra-chic nhow hotel, beloved of GFB attendees, with a nearby overspill alternative of decent quality.

But a whole new quarter has now emerged around the same location, with a shopping mall and several new hotels including the Hampton and the Indigo, the latter chosen as GFB organiser Xklusiv’s official base for this year.

René of Xklusiv even thinks that in the future, the preponderance of hotels now in this area, including such kink-friendly establishments as the Moxy and the Schulz, might finally facilitate a full GFB hotel takeover in Berlin for the first time in the event’s 16-year history!

Wednesday May 29

I was delighted to accept Xklusiv’s invitation for The Fetishistas to co-host the German Fetish Ball 2019 Weekend’s official launch party on May 29. 

I’ve supported the GFB since its inception during my time on Skin Two. I’ve documented its evolution into the event it is today — surely the most important gathering on the international fetish calendar. 

So it’s great to be offered an official place in this year’s schedule, to — as René puts it — celebrate our long-time friendship and partnership. 

“The scene has seen the loss of many magazines, publishers and editors, and you taking the bold step to create a website like The Fetishistas ensured our community a quality source for information, news, reviews, etc,” he tells me. “ The scene needs a site like this!” Aw, thanks! 

As some will recall, the first Kinky Cocktails parties were hosted on behalf of the GFB by Martin Pelzer of FetishGuerilla fame, who, incidentally, was also The Fetishistas’ original webmaster. 

There followed a period when Xklusiv took Kinky Cocktails under its direct control, before Alex Heim of Savage Wear got joint custody of the event, hosting it first at Rooster and most recently at Badehaus.

Alex and his Berlin partners will still be hosting a Savage Wear party at Badehaus on Wednesday 29 this year. But it has now been rebadged as Savage Wear Fetish Night 2019 — Birthday Clash. 

But why did René decide to move Kinky Cocktails this year? He explains:

“I always wanted to strengthen the community feel of the weekend. So we’ve tried to bring back the traditional Kinky Cocktails — back when it was an event with no DJs and no entry fee, but a nice get-together at a nice place for everyone who’d already arrived in Berlin. 

“With the 260 Grad we’ve got a great rooftop bar at Mercedes Platz 1, overlooking the Spree.” (Not the rooftop bar at Hotel Indigo, he emphasises.) 

“With an indoor space as well as the sundeck,” he adds, “this should be perfect for getting into the Berlin vibe and talking to people. And it’s a short walk from the hotels, so no need to rush through the city!”

Thursday May 30

Thursday afternoon sees the return of the GFB Fetish Cruise — the first of three events scheduled for this date. Despite rather chilly weather for its first outing in 2015, many people hoped this event would become a regular feature of the GFB programme.

It took a few years to reinstate, but the fact that all 90 tickets for this year’s cruise apparently sold out within a few days of being announced suggests that it was a most welcome revival — and one which may well, adds René, become a regular feature from now on.

Furthermore, since this year’s GFBW straddles the end of May and start of June when Berlin generally gets very warm, there’s every chance the weather will be perfect for a couple of hours on an open boat.

Even if isn’t, the boat has an enclosed lower deck as well as its sundeck, so enjoying the city’s sights from the river will be possible either way.

Departing from East Side Gallery moorings, the cruise welcomes fetish attire though it’s not compulsory. But since the cruise will also be the meeting point for a group photo, people might well opt for dressing to impress.

Early Thursday evening brings the debut of the GFB Femdom dinner, at Restaurant Rio Grande on the banks of the Spree — a venue known to The Fetishistas and approved of by discerning GFB folk such as Ian Dutton and Shea Hovey.

 “We’ve got a group reservation for 100 people with a three-course menu and a welcome drink,” says René. “The restaurant is fetish friendly and in walking distance from the hotels and other venues. 

“Dinner will be €60 per person including an aperitif. With so many great dominatrices coming from all over the world every year and with our new femdom castle party coming up, we think this might be a perfect add-on for many.”

Femdom castle party, did he say? Yes, Xklusiv has indeed added a brand new weekend for dominant woman, called Triskelion Manor, to its roster of legendary castle events. 

“The basic website is up and the more expensive rooms sell quickly,” says its host. “So the risk of renting this beautiful castle for just a special theme seems to be worth it.”

The dates of the new weekend’s debut are, as it happens, exactly the same as the dates of this year’s Avantgardista Weekend in Munich. But the castle gathering is limited to just 50 couples, and is likely to appeal to a mostly different audience from Avantgardista’s target crowd.

Thursday night sees this year’s edition of the VIP reception and GFB Sonic Boom party at Matrix.

“Sonic Boom stays the way we had it last year, as a great pre-party to come to, dance, hang out and play,” says René. “And looking at the sales of VIP tickets [which include entry to the VIP reception], I can already tell that many are keen on the entire weekend experience.”

Friday May 31

Friday is the first day of the German Fetish Fair, to be followed as usual by two events on Friday evening.

Female Fantasy I starts the ball rolling with fresh takes on some classic role-play looks — many previously only available in latex as expensive custom items. 

Cowgirl, racer girl, cheerleader and female cop are among the styles given a thorough makeover by the Libidex design team. Extensive colour combination options and laser-cut decorative trims and appliqués add substantially to customer choice — and all at no extra cost.

But the fact that this marks the first major new women’s range from Libidex for a few years does not mean that this London label — probably now the world’s largest producer of original latex fashion — has been resting on its laurels in the meantime.

After moving from Bloomsbury to Islington in the late summer of 2015, the company used the largest space in its new headquarters to accommodate a full-time Libidex design studio for the first time.

That studio was set up so that its creative team could be constantly involved with planning and producing designs for future latex collections. But Libidex chief Simon Rose wanted this new way of working to be applied first to substantially increasing the label’s range of latex for men.

So until summer 2017, the new studio focused on developing and launching, in three parts, a new range for men it called Hard & Heavy. 

This range would eventually boost the Libidex catalogue by hundreds of new male items — styles intended to appeal primarily to gay rubberists and other men more into the hard fetish aspects of latex.

Simon says Hard & Heavy stuff has been very well received on the gay scene. “Although we did male clothing before, it wasn’t quite what the gay scene was after. 

“When we did stuff that was more explicit — guys wearing cock rings and so on — we felt more confident about going to gay websites and magazines and showing our stuff there. 

“In the past we’d been a bit hesitant, because our designs looked a bit wimpy by their standards. On the straight scene guys do like things like ruffled shirts. But on the gay scene, they’re much more direct — they want stuff they can have sex in. 

“They’re not really about peacocking — they’re more about cocking!” he quips.

However, not yet finished with men and desirous not to ignore male fashionistas, Libidex followed Hard & Heavy with two Male Fetish Fashion collections. 

Rose confesses to being particular proud of the second of the two Male Fetish Fashion releases — the main body of the collection. “We really put our backs into it,” he says. “I think we did a really good job of it — I’ve got it on the wall in the workshop and it looks fantastic.”

Having seemingly got it right for gay rubberists with Hard & Heavy, does Simon feel that the Male Fetish Fashion range has been as successful broadening horizons for straight men?

“I would think so, yeah, but it’s hard to say. When we do our pop-up shops, we get a lot of men coming in. They do like the funky stuff. 

“We don’t watch the sale of each item that closely, but since we don’t make our patterns until we get an order, we can tell by how many patterns we’ve made which styles are sellers or not. 

“It’s much easier than gathering stats from our website — a nice ready reckoner!”

He says that Libidex’s ability to cater for a wide range of body shapes and sizes without offering made-to-measure any more is something else that seems to be paying off. 

“Because we now do sizes up to 6XL, we get a lot of larger people, and I think we’ve made a lot of people happy. On the fetish scene there’s a bit of an issue along the lines of ‘Oh they love their size 10s but what about me? I’m an 18 or a 22’. 

“So offering the larger sizes at no extra cost has really taken off. We also do heights — petite, regular and tall — so you’ve got those three extra options across our range of ten basic sizes, so that means 30 sizes in all.”

And then of course there are all the colour combinations. 

“There’s a choice of 60-odd colours. So when you see one picture of one catsuit on the website, it’s actually available in 1,800 combinations of size and colour. That’s not bad is it?”

I’d have to agree. And Simon’s contention that while Libidex doesn’t do custom work per se, that choice of 1,800 combinations gets you something that’s “fairly custom, just by colour and size” is hard to dispute. 

“And when you add trim colour on top of that,” he continues, “that’s another 60 colour permutations. Sometimes you have three trim colours, so that’s another 60 times 60. So everything almost is customised because the choice is so large.

“The nice thing is that with Libidex, you don’t pay any extra for this. If you go to a small maker they’ll start piling on the price. Whereas with us, with a catsuit that you can get for £250, you can have it fairly customised off the peg.

“We’ve done this because we didn’t want to lose the sort of customers who wanted made-to-measure and as much choice as possible.

“What it means is that if you buy something from our site, and you’ve chosen colour combinations, you’re not going to walk into a room and find someone else wearing exactly the same piece. Two of the same garments made in different colour combinations look completely different.”

The announcement came just two weeks before the final edition of another of the capital’s seminal fetish events: Club Subversion.

As previously reported, the retirement of Club Subversion with a final party on November 23 was the result of a decision made in June not to continue the event beyond 2018, following the terminal cancer diagnosis of longtime collaborator Dave Playpenz.

Dave sadly died shortly after making a brave appearance at the club’s last night — a night that brought to an end a partying history of 15 years, the last 12 of which were with Dave’s close involvement.

In contrast, the demise of Rubber Cult a month after its sixth birthday event in October was a bolt from the blue — apparently as much for founder Miss Kim as for everyone else.

In a joint statement issued on November 9, Kim and co-host Synth (aka Cynth Icorn) explained that they had “made the difficult decision to close” following Synth’s decision to quit and focus on her art practice.

Synth said: “‘It has been a huge honour to have created and run Rubber Cult with Kim; to have created a unique space for rubber culture and community.”

From its inception, she said, Rubber Cult had been about “making an inclusive space for rubber fetishists which had a simple and clear focus”. But, she added, the “incredible warm community” that came with it had blown them both away.

She went on to thank all the club’s patrons and “all of our artists, performers, fashion designers, venue hosts, helpers, mistresses and maids over the years”, plus the European Fetish Awards for RC’s Best Start-Up award, and her co-host Kim for “all her hard work and dedication as a team”.

Synth ended by hoping that, after the “ground- breaking” event that was Rubber Cult, “may we move forward knowing we were all part of that piece of fetish history“.

Kim’s contribution to the same post revealed how taken aback she was by her collaborator’s decision to depart.

“When Synth told me she was off to pursue her own artistic endeavours, and no longer would be a part of Rubber Cult, I was shocked and gutted,” her statement began.

“I felt we were a great combination and really made Rubber Cult groundbreaking in every sense. Straight away I thought I didn’t want to do it without her.”

Then, she added, she thought about all the people who were going to be disappointed. “I tried my best to think of lots of different solutions, but I just kept coming back to the same thing: it wouldn’t be the same without Synth.”

So a common thread running through the otherwise coincidental closures of these two influential London fetish nights was that both decisions stemmed from the loss of a significant individual without whom the remaining team members did not want to continue.

But I was keen to find out why retiring Rubber Cult — which had been so important to the UK latex community and also to rubber enthusiasts from further afield — had been seen as the only option once Synth decided to leave.

For example, I wondered, had the pair not considered the possibility, after hosting their final Rubber Cult, of someone else being interested in taking the event over, and thereby keeping both the brand and the spirit of Rubber Cult alive?

I first saw the possibility that latex design could achieve this back in 2003, when I met a Danish trio who had just launched a label called NPNG (aka No Pain No Gain). 

At that point I started to rethink my taste in latex clothes. Prior to meeting them, my wish list would have included lots of fetish archetypes such as latex nuns, nurses, corsets and catsuits. 

But seeing their work was eye-opening because much of what they produced was more rooted in contemporary fashion, but made in latex, with the same finishing touches such as buttonholes and linings. 

Seeing latex used in fashionable skirts and men’s dinner jackets inspired me, and expanded my knowledge of this material. 

It left me wanting to see more designers explore it in a similar vein — such as NYC’s pioneering label, the now defunct Gaelyn and Cianfarani, who made waves by outfitting rap artists and performers for magazine and newspaper photo shoots. 

So of course I keep a keen eye on latex when it bursts into the fashion mainstream, whether on the catwalk, or in museums, adverts, music videos or fashion magazines. 

But I’m often underwhelmed by the latter, as fashion stylists tend to reach for black latex opera gloves and knickers, and not much more. And often the fetish versions of vanilla styles skimp on the details and look more like fancy dress than the original garment. 

Tableaux Vivants, however, seems to have found its own niche, crafting latex pieces with attention to conventional fashion styling. By doing so it has made inroads into high fashion and in the process has helped to expand the public image of our favourite material.

Started in 2009, its founder, Brooklynite Sonia Agostino, chose the name Tableaux Vivants because to her, it meant ‘living picture’. “That’s what you should feel like in my designs,” she says. “A gorgeous living picture!” 

Sonia studied fashion design at famous New York institution The Fashion Institute of Technology in the early millennium, supporting herself by working as a cigarette girl at some of the more legendary and now departed New York clubs such as Twilo, Tunnel and Limelight. 

“It was there that I met a lot a great people and it’s where I got the connections into my first design jobs,” she explains. “I was working with designer Garo Sparo — making beautiful custom garments for some of the most influential people in fashion, nightlife and music.” 

Her work with fashion influencers continues, and her creations have been worn by such notables as Madonna, Winona Ryder and Kylie Jenner. 

The latter’s S&M-inspired shoot for Interview magazine’s cover, photographed by Steven Klein and heavily influenced by the artist Allen Jones, caused quite a stir in the media.

Showing black-latex-clad Jenner in a gold wheelchair, it was accused of insensitivity to people with disabilities. 

You will also see Sonia’s collections mixed with high-end fashion and couture clothing in print magazines such as Vogue, V and Vice Magazine, which puts her near the top of the food chain and in the company of other Fetishistas favourites like Atsuko Kudo, Dawnamatrix and Vex. 

Earlier Tableaux Vivants collections featured feminine shapes, capri trousers, capes and full skirts mixed with classic macs in heavier gauge latex. 

DEBUT: Ad for first Tableaux Vivants Collection

Subsequent collections have nodded to fetish classics as well as mainstream high fashion, incorporating basques, collars, slashed latex effects and lacings. 

Last year’s Fall/Winter 2017 Collection offered transparent latex in pink and natural hues, and slightly retro styling with cute puffy shapes, flirty blouses, cropped tops, prints, whimsical floral appliqués and leggings — all photographed for her lookbook on a classic gamine-like model (see gallery below right).

This year’s Spring/Summer 2018 Creatures Collection embraces an ’80s punk/goth/new wave vibe, especially in its lookbook stylings, and details such as zippers, slashed and lace seams and accents, peaked collars and net effects (see gallery below left).

What’s so inspiring to an admirer of high fashion such as I am, is how well-curated Tableaux Vivants collections are, and how consistent the imaging and branding are. 

This cohesiveness of approach is likely an advantage gained from Sonia’s formal fashion education — a benefit not enjoyed by all latex clothing designers.

Latex fashion ranges often evolve in a more haphazard way, inspired by customers’ demands and whims as opposed to executed from scratch as part of a whole.

So naturally, I wanted to learn more about the Tableaux Vivants designer’s rise, and how she ended up embracing latex instead of working with more easily-obtainable materials.

Sonia first got to know latex when she met legendary NYC figure and latex doyenne The Baroness, who was looking to hire a new assistant. 

“I knew nothing about this material, and even less about the fetish industry,” Sonia says. “That is where I learned how to work with this amazing material. 

With an amazing 50 years of underground art output to his credit, there is a solid case for claiming that Eric Stanton had, by the time of his death in 1999. become the most famous fetish artist in the world. 

And that case is nowhere more convincingly made than by fetish art enthusiast and historian Richard Pérez Seves in his eagerly awaited Stanton biography, Eric Stanton & The History of the Bizarre Underground.

Into the 288 pages of this 7 x 10in ‘junior A4’-sized hardback, Pérez Seves packs the most exhaustive examination of Stanton’s life and work — including more than 400 colour and b&w images — attempted by any writer.

But as its full title implies, this book is much more than just an Eric Stanton biography. 

Because of the many overlapping circles Stanton moved in, it is actually an impressively forensic record of an entire era — often referred to as the golden age of fetish publishing. 

The author’s account of this period — spanning just over two decades from the late 1940s to the early ’70s — is populated not just with now-legendary artists and models, but also with the various publishers and distributors they worked for, some of whom were notorious and a couple of whom were very shady indeed.

Richard Pérez Seves had already given us a taste of his expertise in the realm of vintage fetish with his revealing biography of Charles Guyette (Charles Guyette: Godfather of American Fetish Art).

This self-published, profusely illustrated paperback (reviewed by us on August 25, 2017) was actually put together by the author while awaiting publication of his Stanton meisterwerk.

Guyette was a previously unsung hero of the genre whose work, though likely to be familiar to anyone with an interest in vintage imagery, was rarely attributed to him by name. He was a major influence on many of the people who now surface in this new book as part of Stanton’s story.

Not the least of these was publisher Irving Klaw, who in 1949 was the first to employ Stanton as a fetish artist. 

As Pérez Seves explains, Stanton’s work for Klaw, and subsequently with a variety of other publishers, including another fetish publishing legend, Leonard Burtman, founder of Exotique magazine, brought him into contact with an ever-widening circle of fetish artists that included Gwendoline creator John Willie (John Alexander Scott Coutts) and Eneg (Gene Bilbrew).

During Stanton’s early days with Klaw (the man who famously made a star out of Bettie Page) his job included censoring artwork from other artists to meet Klaw’s strict ‘dressode’, in place to keep him out of trouble with the law (a recurrent problem for fetish artists, photographers and publishers of that era).

Pérez Seves reveals that Stanton was upset by Klaw’s insistence that his hero John Willie’s artwork must be censored (generally by adding more clothing) prior to publication. 

And he didn’t much enjoy having to do similar cover-up work on the bondage photographs of Bettie Page and her model chums that soon became a staple of Klaw’s business.

But Eric always had an eye to putting food on the table for the children of his first (unhappy) marriage, and he applied his artistic talents wherever he could to bring money into the family home.

These events are an obvious draw for many fetish and goth folk, who tend to have a natural interest in ‘darker things’ and already enjoy dressing up in special outfits for a fun night out.

For them, Fetish Halloween is a great excuse to ramp up the party style they already adopt for their other clubbing activities.

But the reason many fetish parties’ Halloween editions are bigger, more elaborate and more glamorous affairs is that these annual specials often purposely set out to attract a broader audience than the hosts’ regular fetish nights do.

Fetish Halloween nights can be a great chance for vanilla folk and the fetish-curious, who might normally be wary of going to a full-on fetish party, to dip their toes safely into kinkier waters. 

For this one night of the year, they can play at being a public perv and interact with the fetish world without straying too far from their comfort zones.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the biggest, most successful Fetish Halloween nights are almost all crossover events, with dresscodes expanded to accommodate those whose wardrobes are not bulging with fetish gear but are nevertheless up for some dress-up fun and a light sprinkling of kinky spice.

Now it’s true that not all fetish folk are unreservedly enthusiastic about sharing a venue with visitors from the planet Vanilla at this time of year.

Some feel that large numbers of straight interlopers inevitably dilute the fetish vibe of the event.

Others complain that ’nillas don’t always know how to behave properly, being unacquainted with fetish etiquette and, fuelled by party spirit, more likely to invade pervs’ personal space in an unacceptable way.

But it’s worth remembering that the larger crowds these Fetish Halloween specials attract tend to facilitate a scaled-up event, often staged in a more impressive venue, and with more shows and other attractions for everyone to enjoy.

So there are also upsides to expanding the dresscode to accommodate more people once a year.

A couple of well known Halloween events aim to arrive at the same mix of cultures from a different starting point. They are first and foremost big ‘general’ Halloween parties, but make a point of specifically welcoming pervy people and are popular with the fetish crowd as a result. 

At the opposite end of the partying spectrum at Halloween time are a number of smaller fetish events whose regular October or November dates fall so close to October 31 that it’s a no-brainer to theme them as Halloween specials.

This type of party, especially if it’s normally a BDSM play night, is likely to be comprised mostly of the event’s regular crowd, some of whom will be in ‘Halloween mode’. But it may also present itself as a newbie-friendly ‘gateway’ event, pitched to a broader than usual clientèle.

Below you’ll find brief previews of a selection of this year’s Fetish Halloween events from around the world. The information is drawn from the global fetish event listings that will soon be freely accessible online with the launch of The Fetishistas Directory.  

Since Halloween itself is inconsiderate enough to fall on a Wednesday this year, Fetish Halloween party hosts have once again had to choose between the weekend before and the weekend after to stage their events.

Our listings reveal that the vast majority of party promoters have opted for Saturday October 27. Just a few have chosen the following weekend, although significantly for London partygoers, one of these is Torture Garden on Friday November 2.

A few Halloween-themed events take place earlier than Saturday 27. Not insignificant among these are Fetish Factory’s big Halloween Fetish Ball in Fort Lauderdale, USA and Hellfire’s Annual Helloween Experience in Sydney, Australia — both scheduled for Friday October 26.

In the information below, we’ve also included a few fetish events that are not actually branded as Halloween parties but are happening on or close to popular Halloween party dates. 

These events may still be ‘Halloween friendly’ — we advise checking things like dresscode with individual organisers if you’re considering attending.

A large number of fetish events now handle their ticket sales through third-party agencies like Eventbrite. Our listings below include some useful ticketing information but not usually details of the ticket agency itself.

But full, up-to-date ticket sales info is usually easy to access via the event organiser’s website, or via individual event listings on Facebook.