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Latex extraordinaire Sandra Scharpf from Studio Fclx gives PRUDE her favourite kink and kink-inspired designers who are making waves in the fetish fashion scene.
Splashed with colour and held together with an assortment of buckles and chains, the latex clothing of Studio Fclx is striking, unique and breaks the mould of typical latex fashion.
The clothes — which include dresses, harnesses, cat-suits, shorts, skirts, trousers, crop tops and even full-arm-length gloves — are completely gender-neutral, and look good in the bedroom, the club and even your local Tesco if you’re brave enough.
“I don’t like to put my clothes in a box, it’s definitely outside of fetish wear,” says Sandra Scharpf, the woman behind the rubber. “I see it as kink-inspired, but not exclusively kink-wear.”
After working as a photographer on a shoot for Berlin-based latex brand LUPAE, she saw possibilities within the latex fashion world that had yet to be fully explored. “Back when I started, pretty much all of the latex brands I knew did black latex,” she says. “There weren’t so many colour choices, and I started doing some designs for myself, and then other people.”
As a designer, Sandra is now at the forefront of a burgeoning scene of independent latex and leather designers based in the UK. As fashion week season drew to a close last week, PRUDE sat down with her to discuss an alternative catwalk of her favourite brands to keep an eye on in 2022.
Soft Skin Latex
Dubbed as a “slow fashion company”, the materials used in the clothing comes from natural latex rubber, each piece is handmade and made to order, as well as shipped in recycled packaging.
“They have very unique designs, and a very strong line, you can tell all their pieces are from them, even with the photography and the visuals,” says Sandra. “I don’t know where the inspiration came from but with the cuffs and the ruffles it’s very renaissance-esque.”
R & M Leathers
A company that specialises in all things leather, R & M is another slow fashion brand that focuses on small-scale, sustainable practices.
Sandra says: “I really like how all of the visual output makes sense with the designs. The way they combine hardware with leather—a lot of the designs have buckles and chains and that combination really works.”
“There are loads of brands that do leather harnesses, and they are kind of all similar,” she continues. “R & M do a really good job [in standing out].”
Good Girl Latex
Based in Brighton, Good Girl Latex’s clothing is more classic in style than Sandra’s other choices, with skin-tight pieces and accessories such as chokers.
“They are definitely more fetish wear [compared to the other designers],” she says. “The designs are made by a sex worker. I don’t usually just follow things which are really exclusively fetish wear, but with her stuff I just really like the designs.”
Monique Fei
Monique’s unique designs melt together knitwear and latex. If that seems like opposite ends of the clothing spectrum — it is.
“I like all of the colours that she uses, her stuff is really graceful,” says Sandra. “The transparent clothes are really nice and the colour palette makes sense. The combination of latex and knitting—it feels really playful.”
A.K. Latex
The knee-length boots that make up A.K. Latex’s range offers a whole different take on latex clothing.
Sandra says: “I actually don’t know other people who make latex boots. It’s very hard because latex is very fragile. I don’t know how they did it but it is really impressive.”
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