Dawnamatrix congratulates all the other designers who continued to last night’s celebrity wardrobes and onstage outfits (be they latex or anything else), as well as all the winners and array of announcers on hand at Madison Square Garden, We also sent a special thank you to Marni Serofonte for honoring us again by reaching out and asking us to be part of Beyonce’s show-stopping performance
Losing sponsors, venue changes, designers deciding not to show or showing in wholly different ways, mixed with after-parties and music celebrity outing/performances/runway shows taking the spotlight to many speak to a certain decline in the NYFW’s prestige and power. As a designer of certainly more ‘alternate’ couture all we can do is sit on the sidelines like the rest of you (unless somebody reading this blog is indeed one of those private appointment attendees …and if you are, please write us!) and see what comes of The Big Apple’s fashion week.
Whoever performers or just announces the winners, no matter how much latex is on hand, through all the surprises that are bound to occur (the VMA’s are really one of the best shows for surprising audiences) next week at Madison Square Garden in New York City, we are sure to all see some unforgettable sights and hear some inspiring sounds
With Kayne’s solidifying his connection with Adidas just this past June, the Yeezy line as much about the sneakers that sell out as it is anything else, and the Pablo stores sure to bring in crowds boasting exclusive wardrobe items for a limited time only, Kayne assault on the fashion world for this Fall 2016 might well be unprecedented.
When it came to this particular Olympic games nobody actually knew (or even still knows) what to expect. Deplorable athlete housing conditions, Zika virus scares and the recent mugging of Ryan Lochte and his teammates certainly speaks to certain obstacles heretofore unrealized in Olympic history.
Just these two examples, and there are certainly plenty more, reveal the truth we all live with presently. No longer is social media and the net being influenced or reporting on culture, the reverse now exists, where apps and the social networking are influencing and driving fashion and style, so much so that whole new business are sprouting up from a Grindr or a Kim Kardashian West looking for bloggers (a job no one had before the net) for her beauty app.
It’s true that alternate couture is a global pursuit. Even if we could exercise our most selfish business druthers we would still want to see a marketplace with all the latex designers presently available showing their wares across the net, at shows, and in stores. It’s a more-the-merrier atmosphere we have always felt and if you were to take a cross-section opinion from most designers, they’d admit they feel the same. Given this, we are still very proud to say we are an American-based (North Pacific America in fact) and were thrilled to share our designs with, as much as meet, all the fetish-y faithful from the area. Surely folks came from all over for the VFW, but there was no way ignore where we all were.
There is the sexy techno beat God’s Deathtrap Remix of Die Antwoord’s “I Fink You Freeky,” a kaleidoscopic overlay of images, inside and out provocation from the ladies and the matching of fur shrugs over both our high waisted panties in one scene and a cat suit in another (and a truly dangerous image of one of the ladies walking round in a gown from our Space & Time Collection, brandishing an axe.
While Vancouver has a vibrant local fetish community, they are expanding each year to create an international sensation. The organizer at VFW said “This festival has been growing like blazes and this year everyone was talking about how it really felt like it had stepped up big time to a whole new international level”. We certainly saw that cross section of people in the nearly 500 who were at the fashion show Saturday night.
Ironically, the latest big news of U.K. Brexit referendum seems to be truly benefitting overseas buyers. Prices are reduced in general across all U.K. retail products with the current weakness of the pound and if there was ever a time to buy some latex from a U.K. alternative wardrobe house (or go grab English goods in general) this might just be the very best opportunity to order up some Yummy Gummy sheet latex and have Dawnamatrix make you up a catsuit or some other sexy accessory.
It seems the phrase ‘It doesn’t matter’ (in a good way) rules the day when dressing in a latex Dragon Queen Bodysuit at Comic Con. Buzzfeed’s Associate Creative Producer Mandy Caruso contacted us to create a custom version of our Dragon Queen Bodysuit, along with thigh highs and gloves for a Comic Con piece they were preparing….and we were honored to do just that. But Mandy created her own ‘fake’ superhero and nobody much cared, they loved her look anyway!
The Fox film opens as a movie inside a movie, with an audience reacting to all the Rocky tropes watching the The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This time around the cast includes Victoria Justice, Ryan McCartan, Reeve Carney, Christina Milian, Annaleigh Ashford, Staz Nair, Adam Lambert, and Ben Vereen joining Cox and Curry. Wild cinema wardrobe seems to include metal studded black leather jackets, red corsets and speedos, so we might very well be on the right track for this remake (original Rocky duds have populated many a museum exhibit) become Rock impresario Lou Adler, produce of the original film as well as responsible for bringing the original U.K stage show to L.A., is coproducing this time around, with Kenny Ortega choreographing and directing. The men claim they will be staying true to Richard O’Brien and Jim Sharman’s original songs and script.
Surely, this Halloween will seem like 1984 as kids (especially ‘girls’ of all ages) take to sporting the infamous Ghostbusters jumpsuits, as will there be an uptick in Ghostbusting cosplay, as people celebrate Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and the rest of the crew in this modern day reboot of a costumed classic.
For those in more of a masquerade dress-up mood (and maybe our Epic Ringleader Trench would do well for such an even?) HBO will present Comic-Con’s 42nd (yes 42nd, you read that right!) Annual Masquerade. This is where the lace hits the steampunk (and lots of other combinations to be sure) during a certainly award-heavy night. People portray their favorite characters on a big elevated stage through comedy skits, lightsaber duels, songs and dance. With four video screens providing close-ups for the nearly four thousand who will attend the show in the ballroom (and for another two thousand more watching on projection screens outside it) the audience will be witness to solo and group costuming of cinema wardrobe and other fanciful dress. Master and Mistress of Ceremonies will be-once again- five-time Hugo Award-winning artists and writers Phil and Kaja Foglio.
It’s a sure bet you’ll find some of the very best latex clothing couture in cities like San Francisco, London, Amsterdam and Berlin. You can also assume the very best kimonos ca be found in Japan. And pretty much, this is the truth, though we try our best with our Dawnamatrix collection of latex kimonos. But when you are thinking of where to catch the best collection of kimono-wearing cross-dressers in Japan, you only have to look at the ancient Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Iron Phallus).
Born in Western Canada in the early 1960s (and still living there) writer/cartoonist Roxy Katt first published erotica in 1997 in Heavy Rubber Magazine’s first edition. She jumped a few years until the mid-2000’s publishing again in earnest in anthologies by Cleis Press, Constable & Robinson, and Logical-Lust, and the many books she produces to this day. Presently she’s got a kinky story coming out in December in the print/ebook anthology: Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, is working on a novella set in the 1960s-a BDSM romance between a woman and a phallogyne (a leather-suited chauffeuse)-and promoting her Naughty Tales of Leather and Latex, published by the new and rising publisher Wordwooze.
The addition of elaborate headpieces and prosthetics, props like fiery batons and even a separate “World UV Bodypainting Award” competition is what makes this festival unlike anything else ever seen. Further awards are given out for “Facepainting” “Airbursh” “Body Art with Special Effects” and “Brush/Sponge” to name only a few award categories.
At 41 and a mom herself, Fergie certainly qualifies as a MILF (no matter what word you want to use for the ‘F’). Her new candy-colored video features openly out gay Spanish supermodel hunk Jon Kortajarena, delivering milk to a bevy of MILF’s, Fergie leading the gaggle. The scenes change from backyard lawns to soda fountains, to classrooms to bathtubs, pretty much each time showing Fergie and her friends in latex costume designs.
The Nike Premier Slam Dress is the signature outfit for female players on the circuit endorsing the sportswear brand. But this year a group of players paid to endorse Nike (and wear the dress) asked for alternations to the outfit, over concerns over the dress’s length (or lack of it). Simply put, a goodly amount of vocal lady players feel the dress exposes way too much flesh when they run, jump, manage splits and bend during pl
We have seen celebrities and models like Lauren Hutten or a Helen Mirren fight ageism with recent fashion and accessory modeling campaigns. And certainly body image paradigms are being fought all the time (just this past year Sports Illustrated’s annual Swimsuit Issue featured not only featured its first plus size model on a cover-Ashley Graha-and another curvy lady, Nicola Griffin, who is 56 years old.)
At least Chopra has some humor about this all, and after all any news is good news, right? Tweeting about the armtroversy herself with an untouched picture of the armpit in question, Chopra added the hashtags: “#WillTheRealArmpitPleaseStandUp#nofilter#armpitdiaries.”
We have been hearing only great things though about the upcoming Seattle Fashion Week. By all accounts and our sixth sense things are going to be a smashing success between October 13th and 19th this year. We have great confidence in the people organizing the event. Experience tells us that this will certainly prove to be the premier fashion happening for the north western part of the country. And we are tickled by all the other talent on the roster.
Heldt, who died this week at the age of 98, opened her own salon and had the Cosmetologists Chicago organization name a scholarship for her, created the towering conical woman’s hair style for a hair styling magazine in 1960, called her invention “the beehive” and quickly saw starlets and politician’s wives sport the do well into the decade…and beyond. Supposedly inspired by a black velvet hat the lady stylist found one night when working late as her family slept, Heldt built the hair in a wrap-around conical style creating what the magazine at the time called, “a circular silhouette with high-rise accents.”
It’s going to be a long hard slog until November. Whomever runs against whom there’s sure to come lots of back and forth battling in the press, across debates stages, on the net. Surely we all have a lot more to worry about in our upcoming Presidential elections then who is wearing what, but sartorial concerns are part of any modern day political campaign, and there is no denying this fact.
We’ll be making our west coast debut at Vancouver Fetish Weekend, 7/21-7/24. Hundreds of local and global fetish enthusiasts from all over the world will come to the long weekend and celebrate with an international community of fetish partiers, performers, models, designers, artists and photographers. Opening with the Scarlet Harlots Fetish Ball at the newly renovated The Imperial, followed by the Fetish and Fantasy Ball the very next night then both The Extreme Players Fetish Cruise and the Sleaze and Tease Player’s Ball after the cruise as the ending party, there will be plenty happening here for anyone’s tastes.
Not that any of us would have any doubt how popular cosplay is to both the mainstream world, as to us latex clothes lovers. But Sexpo Australia’s first cosplay competition was such a smashing success the event’s organizers plan to add the event to the winter Sexpo.
Not that we ever had any doubt we wouldn’t get to show-off our latex designs while celebrating Seattle, but we just learned that Seattle Fashion Week has been rescheduled for October 13th-19th. The actual fashion shows will be the 13th, 14th and 15th, with the city giving permission for a week-long proclamation of celebration of fashion and designers from/for such a fashion-rich pocket of the U.S.
Now for the alternative clothing market, latex couture specifically, Amazon has only dipped their toe in the water thus far. It would seem niche styles, material, textile art clothing might just be left to us all to figure out, as least for now. The fans, friends and customers we have seem to be more about meeting at fetish fashion events, posting over Instagram, keeping-up relationships via Facebook and Twitter, ordering custom made items or picking tasty morsel from our online store, more than they are for shopping for a latex bra on Amazon (this is not to say people aren’t buying their latex couture through Amazon, it’s just that so far in our experience we have seen our customers come to us in other ways.) But forward thinking as Dawnamatrix has always tried to be, we welcome any new way of selling and honest and fair competition. It would be foolhardy to keep blind to progress, or not recognize a giant like Amazon making the strides that it is.
A little clutch might make more of the statement you are looking for then a big purse (plus be easier to carry). Yes, that hood might just be perfect for that outfit, but do you need the tail as well (surely, we will sell you both!) Or have you the tail, do you need the goggles, or if you have the goggles need you the…you get the point. Don’t overburden your wardrobe with too many extras, or if you do have the sensibilities to overdo the accessories, then pile them on as tastefully as you can so they don’t clash…unless you are looking for a bold statement of clashing that no one is soon to forget.
Featuring latex models Kay Morgan & Ophelia Overdose, the story here covers action in a new world where men and women are chasing after an electronic device to gain global domination. Along the way comely models in wildly alternate wardrobes, some riding super cool cars like Citroen’s new prototype (the German car company also lent Gloger two 1971 cars as well as a ’77 GS for his shot) run round the Shadow Vegas character who pulls strings behind the scenes.
Nicola Thorp started this all after coming to work at PricewaterhouseCoopers in December wearing flats, only to be told she had wear heels to work, heels with at least a two-inch heel. Thorp refused, indicating fellow male employees not having to heel to such seemingly gender-biased requirements. She was subsequently told to go home…and not paid. Thus was created the: “Make it illegal for a company to require women to wear high heels at work,” petition.
The names here read like a who’s who of male-burlesque and are sure to showcase some wild costume design…stuff surely be slipped out of, peeled off, ripped asunder in no time. Performers across both nights include Broody Valentino, James and the Giant Pasty Lucky Charming, and The GlaMonster, Boys’ Night: An All-Male Cirquelesque Revue, The Great Dubini, UmAShaAdow and Ray Valenz.
So it is with sadness that we learned of House of Harlot’s closing; Robin Archer made it official last week that his famous UK latex brand and rubber clothing line is ending a twenty five year run. It was also announced that former HoH employee Iris Trika bought the company’s ‘stuff’ with an eye to relaunch the business. Trika currently owns the IrisTheSpider line and she will maintain the HoH main site as well as their Etsy presence once her full restructuring is complete.
ABC-TV news announcers wondered over Beyoncé latex gown and how she kept cool in it, as Miss Bey topped the dressers at the Met Gala at the beginning of the week. With co-host Taylor Swift “Goin’ Goth” in mostly black thigh-high strappy sandals and a silver mini and Zayn Malik sporting silvery faux robot arms, lots of celebs were attempting dress to the “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” theme of the night. While others, notably Beyoncé, went her own way…in a stunning latex fashion design.
As to be expected presently lots of folks are mythologizing, worshipping even, our dearly departed Prince’s wardrobe; stage wear, everyday wear and his cinema wardrobe. For the next few weeks-at least-lots will be said, done and considered about the purple one’s music, mystique and surely his fashion sense and his bespoke costume design. Just recently it was announced Prince’s V-neck motorcycle jacket from his hit movie “Purple Rain” (he wore this jacket through the woods on his bike with Apollonia) will be put up for action at the well-known Profiles in History house between June 29 and July 1 in Calabasas, California.
Yes, when it comes to fashion statements, we sexy costume, cosplay, latex outfit wearers have known the power of a corset (for both men and women) for a very long time. You know how it goes, they eventually catch-on to what we have been doing for decades. They suddenly realize that you might just turn heads by wearing specific pieces of lingerie on the outside of your clothes…or just the lingerie with a little jacket over it. Or they start taking to a specific material-latex maybe-and call because one or two big time celebs get seen out and about it a latex catsuit once in a while, or somebody sports a pair of leather gloves to the elbow. We can’t be haters for the John·ny (or Jill)-come-late·lies though, they are just getting hip to what we have already known and have to be patient enough to lead by example.