Latex but not latex
by Anita Tsia on Jan.03, 2010, under Fashion Types
Latex fashion may get more mainstream, but the media is more often than not mistaking when giving the latex attribute to a garment.For the past year or so in publications such as newspapers, magazines or the internet, you often see a title blur out “X wears latex“, where X is replaced by the name of a hip celebrity. However, on closer investigation, it turns out that more than half the time… it’s not latex at all! As soon as the garment in question (a legging, most of the time) has even a hint of shine on it, it automatically is labeled “latex”.
The question has to be asked: are these reporters misinformed, ignorant or just after a catchy headline? Because latex has appeared in the press more and more over the past few years, it’s become a hit word. The general line of thinking seems to point to: if you want to catch the eye of the reader, use “latex” in the title of your article. Does the catchy headline win the game for these authors? Not entirely. Latex fashion affectionates and fetishists have a tendency to rebuke such false claims, seeing these headlines as misleading. Further more, they feel it contributes to mal-informing people about the nature of latex clothing.
For most people (not active in the fetish scene) the word latex has a strong connotation with “kinky”. So these article headlines lead people to beleive that if the clothes look kinky (i.e. tight and shiny), it must be latex! This is far from the truth. In fact, most often than not we see all kinds of shiny materials other than latex appearing in these allegadly “latex articles”: leather, pleather, vinyl, PVC, spandex… So, if you see an article labeled “latex”, take a closer look just to be sure!One article even mistake a wetcuit for a latex catsuit (neoprene is a synthetic rubber). In the original article, the wetsuit that Paris Hilton is wearing on a diving break is labeled “latex”. Of course technically you could make a diving suit out of latex, I don’t see why not, but this certainly isn’t one of those! On the other hand, when Paris does wear latex (the real stuff) it’s not always picked up correctly. In this article of Paris hosting the opening of the Pussycat Dolls lounge in LA, the dress is mistakenly identified as leather… (more on this opening event in our previous page). This just goes to show most journalists don’t really pay attention (or don’t care?) to the origin of the clothes these celebrities are wearing. Then why do they insist on labeling the clothes? The pictures below all came from articles where the clothes were wrongly labeled ‘latex’.
January 4th, 2010 on 1:09 am
i’m just glad to see more celebs wearing this type of clothing. I can see getting latex mix up with maybe vinyl or pvc, but not with leather.
January 5th, 2010 on 4:30 pm
There is a lot of confusion about the fetish materials amongst those who are not real fetish wear related, but indeed it is fantastic to see this alternative lifestyle coming out in public so much more! Even here in Thailand where I am based with my fetish boutique I am proud to say that I am one of the few offering this line of clothing and the potential is here.
March 16th, 2010 on 12:28 pm
Would you kindly translate your website into Italian since I’m not very comfortable reading it in English? I’m getting tired of using Google Translate all the time, there is a cool WordPress plugin called like global translator which will translate all your pages automatically- this will make reading articleson your great blog even more enjoyable. Cheers mate, Malcolm Pian!
March 17th, 2010 on 10:11 am
OK, I’ll try