Fetish Costumes

Fetish costumes are a lot like standard fetish wear, but as a rule they're more people who are playing at BDSM activities (bondage, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism) than they are for people who are seriously into BDSM.  Fetish costumes are for when you want that sexy look but don't necessarily want to go all the way with it.  It's like the old joke says: "It's erotic if you're using a feather. It's kinky if you're using the whole damn chicken."

There's nothing wrong with that – everyone has different tastes, and it  would be a dull world if that weren't the case.  Many people like to play with fetish clothing without necessarily engaging in fetish sex play – it's a fun way to spice up sex of any kind, adding a little thrill of the wicked to the proceedings.  (Some serious BDSM fans will disagree with this, and that's their prerogative.  Make up your own mind, and don't let anyone else make it up for you.)

That said, although you can buy standard fetish wear for costume play, there is also such a thing as fetish costume clothing.  It's designed to look like fetish wear, but it generally less confining and less heavy.  Fetish costumes can be found in a number of colours, with black and red being the most common due to the overtones of the dangerous, the forbidden and the erotic associated with them – although both white and hot pink are also quite popular.  Black is by far the most popular colour, because in fetish costumes as in all clothes, it goes with everything.

The fetish costume has a long and mostly favourable history in movies and television – the leather body suits worn by Emma Peel and cat suits of Catwoman are both examples of fetish costumery, and the outfits worn by the good guys in the Matrix films are also somewhat fetish inspired, with their heavy use of black leather and latex.  Abby on NCIS is another character who also sports an impressive collection of fetish wear.

And as that last example suggests, there's also a bit of crossover with both the Goth and Punk looks and fetish costume clothing.  Both subcultures are particularly fond of black leather, while the metal studs that are so frequently found on fetish wear of all sorts are also a big part of Punk fashions (although in Punk, the metal's more likely to be found on blue denim than black leather).  Gothic fashions, like fetish fashions, often feature a heavy use of lace, and corsets of all sorts feature heavily in both subcultures.  One fashion item in particular is common to all three: the wearing of leather dog collars around the neck.

Like any other costume, fetish costumes are about engaging with and enacting a fantasy.  Wearing a costume gives you the freedom to be someone other than who you usually are – and there's no kind of costume that allows more freedom than a fetish costume. Whether you're a top or a bottom, fetish costumes allow you to safely unlock sexual fantasies that you might otherwise never fulfil.  Just be sure to agree to a safe word before you start (and remember that "more" is not a good choice for a safe word), and you can indulge your most hidden desires freely.