I have been a leather lover since I saw Police Academy when I was a small child. I had a brief moment of gender dysphoria when I was discovering my kinky self at 19 years old wanting to be a leather man, and dress in leather and look bad ass and hot as fuck. I also wanted to be George Michael briefly. All this passed when I realised that, as a woman, I could just wear leather cop uniforms and leather fetish gear and still be/look bad ass. In the year 2000, I was in New York and bought this divine corset from Stormy Leather. The brand has always been the hallmark of female leather fetish gear and I was saddened to realise that the store has in fact closed! My issue with leather fetish wear has always been the lack of selection. The designs for women are quite outdated and not timeless like the uniform style of the men in the Blue Oyster Bar. Whilst fetish fashion in the gay scene has very much gone from ‘as much leather and you can cover yourself in’, to ‘a harness and jockstrap and you’re overdressed’, there is still a niche leather movement where the true lifestyles reside. In my early 20’s I would bathe in my leather pants and sleep in my leather pants. I recall seeing a woman walking around Surry Hills one morning in leather pants with a t-shirt and baseball cap. I wanted to be that 24/7 leather person. Like the metal heads in high school who were so metal that they slept in thread bare band t-shirts because their identity rested so hard on it.  My leather love, quite like my D/s identity, is on a spectrum. In my personal life, I like the butch look of layers and layers of leather with a baseball cap. I love the fit and cut of the military uniforms in leather, and of course the power of wearing leather chaps. I LOVE blue leather uniforms, although I do not own any. In my professional life, where hyper-femininity is a requirement, I wear leather corsets and Domme caps, gloves and thigh high boots. The corset pictured below is the one I bought from Stormy Leather in the year 2000 when I was on that first pilgrimage to discover myself. I was exhilarated to find out they gave a discount for industry Dommes and I shopped for my first lot of dungeon equipment for the fantasy dungeon that I was going to create when I got back home. The red wrist and ankle cuffs I still have on my sling! It’s hard to remember these dreams as they slowly become reified into memories. My leather journey is that. This leather corset (pictured left) is made by Stormy Leather and it will be forever timeless. It is 23 years old and still of impeccable quality.

Some googling led me to the Stockroom where I was happy to find Stormy Leather garments still being made. This corset (below) is just to die for. It is butch and Dominant in its styling; hardcore — just the look I like.  FYI I’m a size small.