While other fashion students lusted over Chanel tulle and Dior silk, Atsuko Kudo wandered into a Tokyo fetish shop and fell in love with latex.
“The first piece I tried on was a latex leotard,” Atsuko tells Opening Ceremony on our recent visit to her Holloway Road, North London boutique. “When I put it on, I felt like Superwoman.” Following that discovery, the Japanese designer moved to London to study European costuming, simultaneously getting a job at a fetish shop next door to her current boutique.
“I couldn’t really learn about latex in school,” she says. “It was kind of underground, so at this shop they were making traditional gimp suits and other fetish icons, and I learned how to use glue, developing techniques from there.”
The result: sleek, skin-thin, sexpot pieces that give latex both shape and structure. Store racks are filled with demi-couture-like black dresses, laser-cut body suits, and hand-punched latex petticoats, bringing the once fetish fabric into the world of high-fashion. It looks fantastic on a lithe frame like that of supermodel Kate Moss (who recently wore the designer's Cheongsam dress) or a more curvaceous bod like Kim K's (here in a custom, blush-pink bustier top and pencil skirt.) “I don’t think latex will replace any fabric,” Atsuko of the glove-fitting fabric. “But I always saw potential for it to go out of the dungeon.”
More with the designer below.
Shop all Atsuko Kudo, including 11 OC-Exclusive pieces, here
JESSICA CHOU: What’s the best way to wear latex, casually?
ATSUKO KUDO: You don’t have to wear a full dress or suit all the time. You can just wear a glove, or a collar, or something like that. It’s just a little bit to feel powerful. Latex brings the unordinary to life, and it doesn’t have to be big things.
Is there a way to make it any more comfortable?
Well, latex isn’t really comfortable; it is a fetish fabric, after all. It will make you look great and feel special, but it’s not for every day. When you wear latex garments, you put talcum powder inside or lubricant, so it’s like a ritual. It’s like beautiful high heels or a corset; you have to go through it to get the pleasure.
Have you found any new ways to treat the fabric to make it more wearable?
Latex has been around for many, many years, but not many people have used it in fashion. It’s only been used since maybe the '50s or '60s, so there is still so much to do, and I’m still learning new things about the fabric. But latex traditionally can’t go under UV rays, so we’re finding ways to protect it. It used to be that if you went under the sun, the latex would turn white, like Dracula. That isn't the case today.
That explains why most people wear it at night or in dungeons.
It’s still better to wear it for an evening party or something for sure, but now we have this spray that protects the latex. But oftentimes, people think latex is only for thin people or fashion models or fetish, but it’s not. We have so many different people come in here. When latex is cut properly it works like
“The first piece I tried on was a latex leotard,” Atsuko tells Opening Ceremony on our recent visit to her Holloway Road, North London boutique. “When I put it on, I felt like Superwoman.” Following that discovery, the Japanese designer moved to London to study European costuming, simultaneously getting a job at a fetish shop next door to her current boutique.
“I couldn’t really learn about latex in school,” she says. “It was kind of underground, so at this shop they were making traditional gimp suits and other fetish icons, and I learned how to use glue, developing techniques from there.”
The result: sleek, skin-thin, sexpot pieces that give latex both shape and structure. Store racks are filled with demi-couture-like black dresses, laser-cut body suits, and hand-punched latex petticoats, bringing the once fetish fabric into the world of high-fashion. It looks fantastic on a lithe frame like that of supermodel Kate Moss (who recently wore the designer's Cheongsam dress) or a more curvaceous bod like Kim K's (here in a custom, blush-pink bustier top and pencil skirt.) “I don’t think latex will replace any fabric,” Atsuko of the glove-fitting fabric. “But I always saw potential for it to go out of the dungeon.”
More with the designer below.
Shop all Atsuko Kudo, including 11 OC-Exclusive pieces, here
JESSICA CHOU: What’s the best way to wear latex, casually?
ATSUKO KUDO: You don’t have to wear a full dress or suit all the time. You can just wear a glove, or a collar, or something like that. It’s just a little bit to feel powerful. Latex brings the unordinary to life, and it doesn’t have to be big things.
Is there a way to make it any more comfortable?
Well, latex isn’t really comfortable; it is a fetish fabric, after all. It will make you look great and feel special, but it’s not for every day. When you wear latex garments, you put talcum powder inside or lubricant, so it’s like a ritual. It’s like beautiful high heels or a corset; you have to go through it to get the pleasure.
Have you found any new ways to treat the fabric to make it more wearable?
Latex has been around for many, many years, but not many people have used it in fashion. It’s only been used since maybe the '50s or '60s, so there is still so much to do, and I’m still learning new things about the fabric. But latex traditionally can’t go under UV rays, so we’re finding ways to protect it. It used to be that if you went under the sun, the latex would turn white, like Dracula. That isn't the case today.
That explains why most people wear it at night or in dungeons.
It’s still better to wear it for an evening party or something for sure, but now we have this spray that protects the latex. But oftentimes, people think latex is only for thin people or fashion models or fetish, but it’s not. We have so many different people come in here. When latex is cut properly it works like