Fashion – Page 5 – Femdom Resource

Weather

I’m back in the damp drizzle of Seattle. Unfortunately, much as I’d like to moan about the weather here, I really can’t complain when the east coast of the US has just been well and truly beaten-up by Hurricane Sandy. I know a lot of my readers and fellow bloggers are located in that part of the world. I hope you’re all safe, well and dry.

For those who made it through with power and internet connection intact, I’ll finish with a little eye candy. Nothing weather related. Just something pretty to rest your gaze upon.

Origins of a fetish

Yesterday’s post on the reality of medical facilities got me thinking about the origins of fetishes. Scott left a comment about his recent medical procedures and how unerotic they were, which aligns with my personal experiences of hospitals. Yet, the medical fetish seems to be a very popular one. I think that offers a great illustration of just how complex fetish origins can be.

Looking at ‘simple’ fetishes like feet, latex or stockings it’s tempting to come up with a very reductive explanation, involving just the right mixture of the item in question, a female figure of desire and an impressionable child. A suitable blend of positive elements and poof, fetish wiring imprinted into the brain. But how does a child subvert something as unpleasant as a hospital stay into an erotic charge later in life? That’s not an obvious ‘positive’ origin at all. One might guess that fear, female authority figures, clinical intimacy and a focus on the body all play a role. But it would seem impossible to boil it down to some sort of Pavlovian response to basic stimulus.

I’m not really a fetish person, but like a lot of areas of human sexuality, I do find them fascinating to ponder. They may manifest themselves in a similar fashion (fetishized+fetishist=fun), but their origins must be highly variable and complex.

This seems to be a suitable image to continue the medical femdom theme. I found it on the iHonorHer blog. I believe this is Stephanie Seymour from Vogue France in 1995.

Weirdly sexy

This is undoubtedly a sexy image. Gorgeous woman. Well proportioned guy with a cute bow-tie. Nice D/s vibe from the positions. Yet oddly, I find the fact her lingerie is mismatch the sexist element of all. I have no idea why, other than the fact I’m weird.

I found this on the Work is Never Over tumblr (whose author also commented on the mismatch). It’s taken from a fashion shoot and the photographer is Antonio Andrade.

Nurse Ratched Revisited

Medical role play is pretty common in BDSM and particularly in femdom. It’s a natural fit with the dominant female authority figure and all those invasive and potentially painful medical treatments. Everything from needles and catheters through to straightjackets and dental gags have been appropriated into the kinky domain.

Most femdom medical imagery is pretty fetishistic, with lots of shapely nurses brandishing random medical equipment and staring into the camera. For example, this kind of shot. Pretty but not all that scary. For really disturbing kinky medical themed images it turns out the fashion industry is the place to look. Specifically this shoot for Interview Magazine by photographer Steven Klein featuring Karolina Kurková and Crystal Renn.

Apparently it draws heavily on the institutional white trend of Spring 2012 and features such designers as Jennifer Fein, Stella McCartney and Dolce & Gabbana. It’s certainly one of the most fetishistic and BDSM heavy fashion shoots I’ve ever seen. I’m guessing they must have hired a professional bondage rigger for the ropework shot. I think if a photographer for somewhere like Kink.com had come back with these images they’d have sent him away with the instructions to come up with something a little less fucked up next time.

Do you buy that by the pound or the inch?

Here’s a rather well muscled chap being measured in all the relevant areas. The careful shopper should always assess the goods carefully before making a purchasing decision.

Personally I find this kind of objectification of the male form rather offensive. The poor guy is being treated like a piece of meat. Not to mention making me feel insecure about my own slightly less studly physique. But don’t worry, our normal service of hot babes in skin tight leather will be resuming shortly.

It’s originally from a photo-shoot entitled ‘Only the handsome will survive‘ in the Russian edition of GQ style. The photographer is Alex Bego and I found it via the Vrouwelijke Dominantie tumblr.

Celebrity Facesitting

The shot below feature Lenny Kravitz and Adriana Lima in a shoot for Vibe magazine. I assume it’s a pretty old image, given that the two of them dated back in early 2000. You can see other photographs from the shoot here.

I’d be interested to know how the shoot unfolded and who had the idea for this image. I suspect it wasn’t Lenny. In the other images there’s clearly a “I’m a cool rock star” thing going on. Only in this one, with his face hidden, does the dynamic change. I also find it odd that this image isn’t exactly the one featured in the published photoshoot. The original image is this one, which has her hair across her face and her hands in a different position. I guess this alternative version was rejected by an editor and then leaked by someone else.

I’m glad this version made it out into the world. I like to think she’s using her left hand to pinch his nose, and really get him to focus on the job at hand.

Context is king

I’ve often observed that the context for an image is very important. Put an image in a fashion magazine and I’ll think of it as a sales pitch for a brand or a designer. My instinct will be to look at the clothes and the model from an intellectual, not emotional, point of view. Advertisements are about selling things, so there’s an inherent degree of mistrust in the interaction. Put the same image in a femdom tumblr stream and it changes how I perceive it quite dramatically. I’ll start looking for and projecting D/s elements. I might spin little stories about the scene in my head. I may think of myself in the scene, or how I’d interact with the model. It’s exactly the same image I’d flip past in a copy of Vogue, but somehow somebody else labeling it as erotic and kinky gives me permission to do the same. It creates a far more emotional reaction.

The two shots below are examples of the kind of images I’m thinking about. I found them both on the Strangely Compelling tumblr. The first was a shot for Numero magazine by Greg Kadel. You can see more images from the shoot here. The second is from a sequence titled Orchidee Noir by the photographer Jose Herrera for Oxxo Magazine.

You and me babe, how about it?

This image is taken from a sequence titled ‘Backyard Love’ by the photographer Ville Varumo. That title makes me think of a pulpy porn novel set in the deep south of the US, with a cover featuring a busty blonde in daisy dukes. Instead it’s actually based on the classic love story ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Or, if like me you tend to the cynical, the classic tale of two idiotic teenagers who would make fine candidates for a Darwin award.

Anyway, regardless of the source, I kind of like the image. Although I’m not sure I can put my finger on why. There’s a nice sense of balance and elegance to it. The wall and the blindfold actually makes me think of a firing squad, which isn’t sexy, but certainly adds an interesting edge to it. You can see the rest of the sequence at the homotography blog.

Oh, and ten bonus kinky points (zero monetary value, non-transferable, void where prohibited) to anyone who can name the link between this post and the title I gave it.

Updated Femdom Image Page

I’ve added four new entries to the femdom image page, as well as doing a little bit of shuffling of entry order. Two of the new entries are blogs: Femdom Empire and Yes Mistress! The other two are tumblr sites that I’ve been browsing recently: Celibate Husband and Onania Org/asm.

Image is from the Yes Mistress! site and from its watermark was created by the Revanche de la femme corset company.

The eyes have it

I’m sure most people looking at this image would not immediately think of female dominance. Prior to posting, I spent a long time staring at it, trying to figure out exactly why I thought it was an appropriate image to post here. She’s not sneering at the camera. Or staring down at the viewer with a cold expression. There’s no leather gear in sight. And no whip clenched between her teeth. Yet, for some reason, it instantly appealed to me as a femdom image.

I think it’s because of her eyes. They seem to stare right into me. She has a very penetrating, knowing look. And that reminds of intense moments, deep in a session, when the mistress looks into my eyes. Those are the moments when I’m vulnerable, in pain, exposed and unable to hide. The usual protective shell we build around ourselves has been stripped away, and the mistress can look into me and know me in a way nobody else does.

I found this on the human error tumblr site.