LustLoveLatex

Somewhere there’s a graveyard containing latex fashion designers and firms who no longer create their art. Among the most notable: Pigalle, Geoffrey Mac, Slimwear of America, Inn-Skin, Fit to Be Tied, Kim West, Pure Sex, and now, perhaps, Boutique of Pleasure.

Boutique of Pleasure made a very auspicious start around 2007, with a heavily promoted web site, slick presentation CD, costumes for Skin Two’s Rubber Ball, and a very well-supplied stand at last year’s Skin Two Docklands Expo. Their designs were classically fetish in style, but with clean crisp new details, and they were soon known for their well-fitting and flawlessly constructed made to measure garments. With a nomination for Best Startup at the 2007 European Fetish Awards, they seemed on their way to becoming an established fetish label.

Now it seems they’re closing shop, according to posts on RubberPal, and on their RubberPal profile (registered members only). The reason given? Lackluster sales! (An email sent to the address listed on their site yielded no futher information or response, so it’s best for now to assume all orders in process are being fullfilled, while the firm wraps up loose ends.)

To someone outside the fetish industry, such a claim hardly seems possible, given the perceived high price for a latex outfit, but it’s a reality in this business – the personalized nature of most pieces, the slow and painstaking construction process, the cost of latex, limited customer base and running a business can quickly lead a new company to packing it all in. Often latex designers move production to cheaper locations, such as Eastern Europe or China to cut costs, but this business model only seems to work when they’ve got wholesale customers willing to buy more mass-produced items in bulk. This business model seems difficult, if not impossible, however, for those designers whose orders tend to be custom pieces or made to measure, and who want to keep a more hands-on approach to production.

I’m not sure what the solution is to keeping your favorite firm in business, other than to continue to support worthy designers and businesses whenever financially possible, and of course, spreading the word when someone does a nice job on an order.

If there’s any consolation in all this, some designers return, such as Maid in London’s Daniel West, who’s relaunching his line in the very near future.

In the meantime, try and support your favorites by keeping your latex wardrobe up to date and fresh, so they’re around much longer to keep us stylishly outfitted!