Who's the Daddy?

I recently came across Septembers issue of Wallpaper Magazine. Normally I'd think twice about buying, essentially, a £5 advert dressed as a magazine but something caught my interest.

It was an  article on leather clad architect Peter Marino who, day to day and dispite having a wife and daughter, seems to dress more like your average Leather Daddy. Intriguing. It made me ponder more about the acceptability of leather casually. Many of us in the leather or fetish scenes know what it's like to get geared up in sexy hide for an evening in the bar/club or some play but the social acceptance of wearing leather day to day is always less accessible. I've always done a double take whenever I've seen any guy wearing any leather remotely kink based.  Infact, I once saw two "leather boys" in tight leather jeans and RoB t-shirts wandering through the Elephant & Castle shopping centre; a VERY strange occurrence for anyone who knows the place and how unlikely that is! That brightened by day and I must admit that I do occasionally wear my leather jeans out and about. Usually on my way to work (working in a fetish shop has it's advantages).

About a year ago I read a number of predictions from various fashionistas that leather was truly coming back for boys and girls and they pointed to numerous catwalk examples.  I'm not just talking about leather jackets, which are everywhere, I'm talking about people wearing leather as a statement; jeans, gauntlets, shirts and ties. The trouble is (and a you'll see in the pages below) that catwalk leather fashion is just too high end and call me cheap but who can really justify paying £960 for a leather shirt? I think it will be a long time before leather chaps, jeans and muir caps filter their way down the the high street. Perhaps if they did, we'd see more people bolding wearing leather in public. For now, I'll keep giving my jeans the occasional outing and save my Sam Browne for the more special interest events.

I thought some of these fashion shots were quite sexy.