Rubber. It’s not all sex, submission and seediness
Rubber. It’s not all sex, submission and seediness: the way we view latex is changing and Kim West is back on the scene to spearhead the new rubber revolution.
According to designer Kim West, rubber can be slotted into our daily wardrobe with relative ease and she believes that the material, previously associated with fetish wear, can be worked into mainstream.
Inspired by the prevalence of the theatrical style of hyper-real pop star (and increasingly culturally significant) Lady GaGa – who has been a leading ambassador of the sexy trend – Kim West relaunched her line in November and since then rubber has been experiencing a noticeable revival. Even Topshop has started to stock it.
“I’m amazed it still has that ‘naughty’ aspect to it,” says West, chief ambassador for the malleable fabric that she believes should be used more for everyday staples not just suspenders or gimp suits. “It looks so great when it’s on, nothing else looks like it, it’s completely unique.”
Kim West is a veteran in rubber and a name that many musicians have associated themselves with. Her designs can deliver shock and are subversive whilst remaining cool. So how did she come to work with the stuff?
It was London, 1984, and West was working as a waitress at the time and planning a hot date where she wanted to impress. Being skint, but a women with an imagination, she crafted a dress from rubber from a Hoxton sex shop and cemented it with a bottle of Copydex. The response was encouraging.
“People were coming up to me all night asking me what it was made of and whether or not they could touch it,” she recalls. “So a friend of mine said that she would sell one of my dresses in her shop at The Great Gear Market. Ten were sold on the first day. I made £400, which is more than I would make in a month from my job as a waitress.”
