North Bound Leather

The owners welcome and thank people for showing up over the last ten years.

Saturday. For the day I decided to take on the shape of a small ball and bury myself under covers until the last possible second then get up and go down to the Docks in the evening to shoot the North Bound Leather fashion show. The cold that I thought I'd get last night I got and it was kicking my ass.

I felt like crap. One part sore throat, one part headache, one big part tired achy body. Still, the photographer in me managed to drag my almost corpse like body out of bed and down to the Docks with an hour to spare before the actual show started. As a result I managed to get a pretty good shooting location right in front of the runway.

Domenic, a photographer wearing small black leather shorts, a guy I met durinf the shooting of fashion week asked why I wasn't wearing any leather. This was a fetish party after all and it was put on by a company that made leather garments, incredible leather garments. I looked down and said "What about my belt and boots? Do they count?". I got a "no" as an answer. Domenic didn't seem to realize just putting socks on for me was a task in itself never mind the whole leather thing thanks to the cold. He shrugged and wandered away to take some people pictures.



Compared to fashion week where the models just walk up and down the catwalk with glazed eyes (okay I'm exaggerating to make a point) this show was filled with attitude and as a result made for some pretty interesting, if not racy photos. Exaggerated body poses, glaring eyes, it was like shooting for a comic book.









The show itself started off with some pretty tame but very cool Matrixy type clothing and as the show progressed got a bit more racier. Bigger lights, larger productions, the inclusion of nipple rings and dildos, and throw in some bat-like wings. The finale was a half naked woman chained to a large X surrounded by demons, some with large dildos, with a vampire like singer in black vinyl and two female vampire back up singers. The girl on the X had her crotch eaten out, with fake blood dripping down her inner thighs, then was carried by the dildo demons along the stage for some kind of sacrificial performance.



By the time the show was over I was exhausted. The slight headache I woke up with had ballooned into crowbar-to-the-head proportions. I needed to get outside to get some air. More importantly I needed to get back home to bed. Darkness started swirling around my vision. The blackness started making things a bit difficult to see. I was starting to pass out. I sat down on the floor for a moment to let the feeling pass. I remember people wandering around me taking down the scaffolding for the video guys to make way for a dance floor.

It's times like this that the invention of a teleporter would be good. Just beam me back to bed and those warm blankets. My vision cleared and I picked myself off the floor and started to head out when I bumped into my editor, Juliet. She wanted me to stick around to take pictures of people at the party. There was that demanding tone in her voice or maybe that was how I perceived it as I was kind of out of it by then. I managed to talk her out of me shooting the people shots.

I told her I was sick and wanted, no, needed to go home. I guess she looked at me to see if I looked the part. Upon approval she herself started to escort me to the door. It took us forever to get me to the exit. On the way out I actually did take a couple of pictures. Guy with big hat, guy dressed up as a sailor, girl with boobs practically jumping out of her corset, girl in bone dress, the usual stuff one might see at a fetish party. Yes the photographer mode in me was still a GO.

Once outside I hailed a cab. I made it home in what seemed to be the longest cab ride ever. The amount on the meter proved otherwise. Looking at my watch only 10 minutes had past. Maybe the cab driver thought I might spew into the back seat.


Designer of the bat wings shown on stage.