Fetish fashion How is it that the little corset has the power to draw gasps and bring men to their knees?
Power to free
By Nadine Kam
the wildest fantasy
Star-BulletinThey started out innocently enough as beautifully crafted items of privilege, by reason of economics. Simply, the richer the individual, the more clothes he or she wore. In ancient Greece it was the athletes who played their little games in the buff. In 14th-century Europe, peasants wore nothing beneath their tunic and skirt, while the elite treated themselves to fine wisps of silk, laced and embroidered, hidden away today in museum storerooms not due to the modesty of curators, but because of the fragility of the fabric.
By the 16th century, the tight fit of the corset affirmed the second-class status of women. The heavy -- up to 10 pounds when made with metal stays -- restrictive garments were meant to keep women immobile and chaste. It was the ungirdled woman who was considered wanton or loose.
Such was the power of this idea that it carried over well into the 20th century, only to get the boot in the '60s, when liberated women abandoned their girdles, burned bras and "let it all hang out."Now that we're reveling in freedom, it's the aberrant woman who wants to be corseted, playing up her sexuality rather than her strength. Even more threatening to the status quo is the question, What if her sexuality is her strength?
But wait! What 21-year-old cares about this stuff? They just want to flaunt their once-in-a-lifetime perfect forms.
"Hi, sexy!" they smile,coo and kiss as they greet each other at the Eye on a Friday night.
Gretchen Nilsen, a theater major accustomed to period plays and corset-making, said: "I love corsets. I love the way they make you feel, putting everything in the right place. I love the tight fit. I've bruised my ribs before.
"I feel like I lived in the medieval era. When I put on a corset, I feel like I belong."
In earlier times, however, she may have been feared as the demon succubus, said to seduce men in their sleep, leading them to certain death and eternal damnation.
At least those reading this will be safe tonight, able to spot her easily enough at the Dungeon when Succubus Couture debuts its collection of after-midnight garb designed to enchant any demon, night crawler or just your typical club kid.
Succubus Couture is the love child of designer Cassie Johnson, who makes a hobby out of creating corsets, sheer dusters, bras and other underwear-as-outerwear designs just for the thrill of seeing her fantasies spring to life.
In spite of the name she has chosen for her line, Johnson, 25, says she is not into vampires or the occult. When she's not hanging out in the dark recesses of the Dungeon, with its wooden and iron crosses, flogging stocks and flames of hell painted on the wall in glowing fluorescent oranges and reds, she's out in the sunshiny fields of Maunawili riding horseback, a modern-day Lady Godiva with bleached platinum hair and ... riding pants?
You were expecting Elvira?
"My husband's into reading about different religions and occult books, but I don't believe it. Horse poop keeps me very grounded in reality," says the statuesque designer, covered up in respectable jeans and a sleeveless top while tending to models dressed in barely-there fetish gear which shouldn't shock anyone in post-Madonna America.
"At fashion shows you'll see more boobs than you'll see here, and those are broadcast on television, on E!," says Johnson, whose real vocation is creating saddle pads and equestrian clothing.
An avid rider since the age of 5, she was always complaining she could not find riding gear she liked. Two years ago, husband Chris Rice bought her a sewing machine, and "it was all over." Once she perfected her Hawaiian print saddle pads, she started looking for other outlets for her creativity.
Frustrated by the $500 price tag attached to corsets that are basic to any club-goer's wardrobe, she decided to make her own. It came naturally after spending so much time in high school "Frankenstein-ing" her Salvation Army finds.
She will have 40 pieces in the show, and unfortunately for those who will undoubtedly want to place orders, she is not retail-ready.
Although she said she loves to play in piles of mesh and velvet, satin, feathers and lace, she is only producing garments for friends at cost, simply because of one universal truth: "Club kids don't have any money because of the clothes, the shoes!"
(About those shoes: Better make them 6-inch platform, black patent, lace-up boots, or don't bother showing up at the club.)
One of Johnson's beneficiaries is Michelle Jericho Poppler, a Kapiolani Community College journalism student whom Johnson laced into a corset accompanied by a frothy pink tutu.
"When I met Cassie, she designed a Halloween costume for me, a fairy," Poppler said. "She knows I used to dance ballet and that I like happy, swishy things. ... She calls me her little pixie."
Perhaps because of her name, taken straight from Bram Stoker's "Dracula," Mina Hemmy, also a journalism student, is envisioned as a Goth princess in a feather-caped, sheer duster.
"I like that Cassie's clothes make me feel sexy and glamorous. It's important to feel beautiful and good about yourself. Every woman needs to feel special."
After the show, Johnson will be devoting time to her horses. She has even been asked to stage a show for the horsey set. "Western riders are dressing up their horses with spangles and sequins. People are already selling hair glitter and hoof glitter," Johnson said.
"It's just the English side that's stodgy, although they're getting into gold trim on saddles."
It's a start. Thirty years ago, who would have thought of going out in a corset?
On stage: From 10 p.m. today Succubus Couture
Fashion Show
Place: The Dungeon, 3259 Koapaka St.
Cost: $21
Also: Concert by Razed in Black (see page 10), go-go dancers, slave stage, pervy projections
Click for online
calendars and events.
