Like so many other things that were only recently considered too sexually charged to comfortably see the light of day, in a few short years the leather harness has infiltrated the realms of what we consider fashionable. That may sound like a critique but I can assure you it’s not; it’s merely a fact. When bondage and fetish fashion first hit our trend radars back in 2009 it was all bodycon, leather, studs and chains. But it’s progressed. It’s moved on. It’s no longer a season-defining trend as it was back then, instead it’s morphed into something that remains nebulously floating around the edges – more refined, more classically-inspired, and a little more isolated from everything else that’s going on.
And you know when something goes from the shelves of Coco de Mer to the runways of Hermes the shift is complete: it’s no longer luxury fetish, it’s just plain luxury. That’s where bondage, and the leather harness in particular, has ended up. Still far from mainstream, far from over-saturation, but with enough exposure that we no longer question it as strange or outlandish. And right now, that’s the best place it can be.
And you know when something goes from the shelves of Coco de Mer to the runways of Hermes the shift is complete: it’s no longer luxury fetish, it’s just plain luxury. That’s where bondage, and the leather harness in particular, has ended up. Still far from mainstream, far from over-saturation, but with enough exposure that we no longer question it as strange or outlandish. And right now, that’s the best place it can be.
Abbey Lee Kershaw: Vogue Russia, April 2011
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