Here are a few choice paragraphs from a long but fascinating GQ article by a man addicted to buying Gucci leather outfits, nearly bankrupting himself in the process. He comes across with the arrogance of extreme privilege you’d expect from a man who spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on fashion, but writes deeply and insightfully about the power of clothing as both a fetish and a lifestyle in itself:

“…I began to seek sexual expression in the form of high fashion, men’s because I liked the hardness and women’s because I liked the sexiness. Blended together, it became a rocker look, particularly with the three skull rings on each hand to fit my usual dark mood…

…I had always been attracted to S&M, even at an early age, when I didn’t know what it was. My mother wore leather gloves in springtime. My first teacher in kindergarten, who probably thought I was mentally challenged because I never spoke, also wore leather gloves, and every day as she left I would watch as she slowly put them on with the stretch and pull of the fingers. My eighth-grade math teacher wore stiletto black leather boots and black hair like Elvira and spoke in dismissive clips, and I adored her, even when she dropped test results into my lap with B- circled in red at the top… 

…I did engage in a relationship with a dominatrix after the failure of my second marriage. I left the scene after two years. But I clearly missed it, the trappings of leather increasingly irresistible. I liked extreme feelings of restraint and taking pain. But I was also interested in everything…

…I began to wonder about sex and sexuality and where exactly I fit in in the complex spectrum. I did go into the sexual unknown, and the clothing I began to wear routinely gave me the confidence to do it, to transcend the rigid definitions of sexuality and gender, just as I also know there were the requisite stereotypical snickers…”

Full article here.