We are interested in attending a fetish night but we are university students and we can’t afford the leather or PVC outfits that are available at places such as Northbound Leather. We’ve tried googling Toronto clothing stores for fetish wear, but most of the results (goth webpages/links) yielded a list of places that were: a) out of business b) for women. We are guys (he’s a bio boy and I identify as a transboi) so this wasn’t much help to us. Are there any places where the financially challenged can get some hot fetish gear?
FETISH-CURIOUS TRANS BOI
Northbound (586 Yonge) occasionally holds sales and, lucky for you, one is on right now with up to half off on selected merchandise from older collections.
Many fetishes take inspiration from military gear, so you might also consider visiting any one of the army surplus stores in Toronto and putting together say, a sharp sailor boy look. And have you checked on craigslist? Sometimes people sell their fetish collections when they are leaving this mortal coil or they need some quick cash, and I’ve also been told by Joe at the Black Eagle that there’s a leather swap/buy there every once in a while, so keep your eyes peeled at their website (www.blackeagletoronto.com).
Corsetiere Andrea Johnson from Lovesick Corrective Apparel is a vintage lover and says Doc’s Leather at 726 Queen W. has some good second-hand leather, some in extra-small boi sizes if you happen to be on the slighter size. “Perfect Leather (555 King W.) by For Your Eyes Only has a bunch of dead stock from the ’70s forward,” she suggests as well. “Not everything is cheap, but they also do alterations and modifications.” I hate to recommend eBay right now because they’re being such dicks to craigslist, but I’ve heard from thrifty kinksters that there are excellent deals to be had there. Also acceptable at most fetish nights: the wide-eyed college boy in fresh white underwear — a highly cost-effective option for both of you.
THE CRYSTAL SHIT
I just read a Google alert that you wrote to Crystal about my work (“Willy crystal,” Love Bites, May 8). Thanks so much for the mention! Just to let you know, there isn’t much you can do with the most sensitive part of the body being “the eyeball,” other than of course using beautiful toys to help seduce yourself or your partner. What I was suggesting was that the anus is more sensitive than the vagina, which I’m sure you know anyhow. Another pointer is that you should steer people to what they are looking for if they come to you for that purpose.
I do an exquisite rose quartz piece with a sterling silver base. Rose quartz is used for healing in Tantric practice, which inspired?this design. I could never ejaculate until I used a six-ridged, highly polished quartz because it causes added friction to the G-spot and vagina wall entrance. Crystals, like all penetrating toys, should not be shared. The crystal actually comes to embody your personal energy (if you believe in crystal healing and energy). As long as you clean the item well and make sure there are no surface cracks, that’s fine. Crystals can help remove blocks people may have towards sexual penetration. I was personally introduced to crystals in this way by a Tantric healer. If you’re about bringing people what they want and bringing people together, I suggest you forward this to Crystal.
On another note, fur is a very sensual material as is feather, which is used in Tantra. My feather tail on my Minx vibrator is completely detachable with jewellery finish. It’s used for the purpose of sensual tickling because a sex toy is not just about penetration and lube. SHIRI ZINN
How about I just forward it to everyone? Because if there’s one thing I am definitely “about,” it’s making sure that the lovable mystic ding-a-lings amongst my readership know just what they’re buying and from whom. Thank you then, for taking the time to personally confirm that your products are created by someone who, at one moment, is drawing on pseudoscience and vague spiritual platitudes concerning the healing energy of rose quartz and, at the next moment, is endorsing diamond-encrusted snakeskin whips and fox-tailed butt plugs.
Now, I myself have inconsistent ethics around animals (love ’em, eat ’em, wear ’em) but I do know that for fashion, snakes are often skinned alive and that even farming them humanely is considered impossible since they take so long to grow. This forces the question: does their unwillingly tortured energy embody the end product and if so, will this impede positive sexual vibrations? Zinn couldn’t answer this question when I emailed her. She only said that, “People who are into whipping are not overtly into Tantra. The two are very different approaches to sexuality.” I dared her to google SM and Tantra. She then called me a bitch, to which I said, “It’s a bit silly of you to give me pointers on how to do my job and then get vexed with me and call me a bitch when I do.”
On the topic of the anus being sensitive, animals cultivated for their fur are anally electrocuted with an instrument that looks not unlike a high-end sex gadget except, you know, it’s used for the big death not the little one. Zinn said she actually uses fake fur to embellish her molten glass butt plug (marabou, to be more precise, which you’ve probably seen stitched to the cuffs and hemlines of cheap lingerie and which is not fake fur but feather), though this is misleadingly revealed in the lavish photography that accompanies her eye-popping price tags. Sex columnist and anal sex expert Tristan Taormino had seen the item in question up close and told me, “It is my understanding the fur is real.” It was, said Zinn, but just for the prototype.
Holy fuck, I need a vacation….
EMAIL SASHA AT SASHA@EYEWEEKLY.COM OR SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO SASHA C/O EYE WEEKLY, 625 CHURCH ST, 6TH FL, TORONTO, M4Y 2G1.