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Ahh, traveling halfway around the world from Los Angeles to London for the 16th annual Skin Two Rubber Ball Weekend can make a guy have some high expectations. The last and only other time that I attended the Rubber Ball was 6 years ago in 2001. I really loved that last event, it was amazing. One of the best-dressed crowds at any fetish event I had ever attended. Now I'm back for round two from Skin Two. London is not only a wonderful city to visit; it is a place where you can get caught up in the fast pace of how this city moves. I guess the locals must cope with the cost of this very expensive city by moving twice as fast. It's not laid-back, sunny southern California here. Very little here is laid back. This must be why they take their fetish scene seriously.
The 2007 Rubber Ball Weekend started with a lot of confusing politics. To showcase the capital of fetish fashion, the attendees were given the chance to buy and see the best UK fetish gear and clothing at not one, but two Fetish Market Expos. The first one was held by the folks who normally organize the Fetish Expo for the Rubber Ball Weekend, but due to some disagreements with the Skin Two organization they decided to go without their normal Rubber Ball partner and team up with Tony Mitchell's TheFetishistas.com instead. The first non-official expo was called "Xpo: Fashion at the Barbican 2007" which was held in the same location that the Rubber Ball Market had been using for years at the Barbican Centre. I decided to check out this one on the first day, Friday. It went from 3-9pm, with fashion shows and performances. When I arrived I found a great collection of amazing latex and leather designs, gear and toys. For me the highlights of the vendors at the Xpo was Jed Phoenix. Her edgy punk pinstripe and webbing pants and jackets that are uni-sex and sexy as hell. Jed is a designer that I have admired since she made my first Rubber Ball outfit six years ago. She has integrity and is so inventive with her classic punk style. This year a new latex designer was debuted at the Xpo. Her name is Haether Meikle and her line is called Overt Clothing. Her style was that of the gentle 50's with inspired printed latex dresses in soft colors. Be on the look out for her, she will be making a name for herself fast in the fetish and fashion world. In addition to these highlights, almost all of the main players in fashion were on hand: House of Harlot, Pretty Pervy, Bondinage, Breathless, D.Vote Clothing, Ectomorph, Libidex, Radical Rubber, Rubber 55. The cloth-and-leather designers were FairyGothMother, Libby Rose Designs, Max Kane, Velda Lauder, Essentia Hats and a whole lot more.
When we entered the long spiral staircase of this huge converted church-cum-night club, we waited impatiently with everyone else for the coat check so that we could all show off our amazing skimpy outfits. The crowed wore the entire range of fetish possibilities. From full latex gimps and German uniforms to sexy corsets and over the top club wear. There was even one guy I saw who had on silver latex pants and a t-shirt that had a white Apple computer logo appliquéd on the back. I suppose you can sexualize anything these days. The place was packed: two dance floors, a main stage, a performance cage and the play dungeon. Torture Garden has a way of making the energy flow, the DJs were amazing all night with Allen TG doing his set at three in the morning. The Highlight was the fashion show put on by House Of Harlot and a moody and artsy Japanese rope bondage scene by Midori and Kumi in the performance cage. Both of them looked like zombie geisha. Watching Midori tie-up someone is pure poetry and was given and extra surreal edge by the wild dance floor going on around them. I met a death rock couple from Sweden, dommes from Chicago, a submissive from Italy and of course a fairly big Los Angles crowd. I even saw Jewell Marceau who was looking as hot as ever. When I asked if she was performing during the weekend she laughed and said "can't a girl just enjoy herself?" We had lots of fun in the dungeon. The scene was packed with people, good equipment and smooth music. Unlike the States, the UK believes in consenting adults being able to express themselves how they please. There was some very hard core playing and lots of fun sexual energy. Blackout rooms and dark corners galore. We decided to call it quits at 5am, but the dance floor was still packed with techno induced kinksters. All and all it did not disappoint, another successful Torture Garden. The next day, Saturday, I traveled to the official Skin Two Rubber Ball Expo in ExCel, London. "Where is that?" you might ask. Well, it's not next to Soho. It was a good 45 to 90 minutes by train to a new state of the art convention center with brand new hotels and clean streets. When I got there I felt like I could have been anywhere USA, no charm what so ever. The actual Expo was fairly big, but there was a definite lack of vendors. Only Skin Two and Honour were selling rubber clothes and a couple of big shoe vendors were selling fetish footwear, club shoes and some cheap crossdresser's boots to boot. There was fair amount of fine fetish photography and jewelry for sale and a couple of good whip makers on hand, but not a lot. The only gear that caught my eye was by a company called "der Rosenfessel." They had a simple but elegant bondage system that revolved around a pretzel-shaped rope with gold end bits. Worth looking into. It was nice to see Steve Diet Goedde and the Stockroom handing out flyers. I wish Stockroom had come out to vend; it would have really helped out the Skin Two Expo. I also got to talk with the folks of AEBN about their latest project called Social Kink. AEBN is determined to be the center of everything porn and after speaking with the head of the company I know that they have a very strong commitment to the fetish/BDSM community. Social Kink is their answer to a kink friendly myspace. I tried it when I got back to my computer and liked it a lot. It's still in beta mode and not all of the features are working but I can see it being a great kinky networking tool for the community. Over all I would have to give the official Skin Two Expo thumbs down.
The crowd matched the theme pretty well. Everyone was dressed to impress with a lot of period pieces. There were Roman soldiers, latex sailors galore, even a very cool couple in matching latex Croatian folk costumes. The entertainment for the evening was a huge list of acts done on small stages throughout the different rooms. There were over 20 different performers from, burlesque dancers and Psycho Cyborgs to Lucha Libre and something called Switch Theater. Honestly, I did not see a single act all night. The idea of having a lot of smaller stages spread throughout all of the rooms was a good concept, as was having a bunch of different-themed rooms. But in the end, whether or not someone was performing, there was no focus on the acts so I would always walk into the room just as the acts were finishing, or I would not even notice them. The rooms looked great and had very good videos being played with a great sound system. But it never felt like the DJ could get the rooms really hopping. Things were too spread out. I'm not sure of the actual attendance for this year's event, but to me it did not look like it filled up, and could not get that critical mass of partiers to bring up the energy. Sadly, the room that did not work was 'The American Room'. It felt like a high school gym dance. We all still had a great time dancing and watching people play and prance around in their outfits. By the time we got everyone together and left, the event had emptied out a lot -- which is unheard of at 4:30am at the Skin Two Rubber Ball. Luckily, we had another private party to go to that lasted till five Sunday afternoon. Lots of fun, hardcore playing and merriment was had by all. When I asked people at the party what they thought of the Ball this year, most replied that it was not the best hey had ever been to -- and I would have to agree. Needless to say that with me partying for over 24 hours it meant that I could barely keep my head up, let alone go to the final night's event which was called Skin Two's Sunday Soul. It was suppose to be a very chill and limited admittance event with sassy singer Bridget Metcalfe. Maybe next year I will pace myself better so I can last all weekend long or get an I.V. drip of espresso and just carry it around with me like some strange medical fetish scene. Skin Two's Rubber Ball Weekend is still the best-dressed event I have ever been to. People travel from around the world to attend this weekend and it shows that they care about what they wear. In addition. the crowd was fun and open-minded. The ability to have sex while still engaging in a public BDSM scene made for a lot of hot voyeurism and was a refreshing change from parties in the States. Would I attend another Rubber Ball? Absolutely! But my expectations have been taken down a bit by this year's lack of thorough planning and petty political infighting. Like it or not, the Fetish world is still a very small segment of the greater adult industrial complex. What we all need to do is help each other to succeed and bring more community to the BDSM world -- not divide it. So let's hope that next year everyone in London realizes the great potential of this world-class fetish event. I hope that they work together to make next year's Rubber Ball an amazing weekend for all the people that travel from all over the globe to attend.
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