The devil wears Northbound
Drew Rowsome exposes X-Posé through the eyes of a designer with a grudge and a ballerina suspended by fish hooks.

“Let me fl uff that.” Marty Rotman, the head designer at Northbound Leather, grips a recalcitrant shoulder pad and, after a deft twist, it now thrusts skyward at an appropriate angle. Rotman is racing against time to get all the outfi ts done in time for unveiling at X-Posé, this year’s Northbound Leather fashion show and fetish party, but his discerning eye won’t tolerate even the smallest mistake.

Rotman has a lot to prove, mainly to himself. Most would consider Rotman an established, well-known designer operating at the peak of his craft but Rotman disagrees. “I feel like an outsider. I don’t show in Fashion Week or in mainstream magazines,” he confi des. “It’s irritating to me.” Because he works in leather Rotman believes that there is a stigma attached to his work. “No matter what I do it’s going to have that fetish aspect — the fact they’re in leather gives it that connotation.”

“And it’s always black leather. Nothing else. It’s a black market,” laughs Rotman. “Colour doesn’t move as fast.” Excepting custom orders, which often border on being sexual devices, Rotman claims that he never thinks from a sexual angle while designing. He insists that his clothes can easily be everyday wear — as long as the wearer is fashion-forward and confi dent. “If it’s different you’re always going to stand out, get noticed,” notes Rotman. And it has to fi t. “Leather is dead. It doesn’t stretch. You can use leather to change your shape. It makes you assume the position, stand up straight. It’s very proper clothing.”

Rotman was displeased with the last Northbound fashion show. “It was all about performers as opposed to what I did. I’m making clothing. If I put naked bodies out there it doesn’t show my skills.” So this year there is a change. Rotman has an all new crew and an army of professional models courtesy of NAM Personal Management. This will be a fashion show with one of a kind creations custom made to fi t each model. Rotman is delighted claiming, “It’s all haute couture. It affords me time to perfect my craft. It’s play time for me.”

There is only one slight adjustment that Rotman has found delightfully daunting. “Our mannequins are too gifted in the bust area compared to some of our models who aren’t as gifted,” he notes. In fact those models are industry standard: tall and rail-thin — not the usual Northbound customer, in fact not the usual customer anywhere.

Rotman wants X-Posé to expose the “personal struggle gay men go through, especially as we age.” He believes that the fashion industry has created a standard that is “not real. It can’t be attained. It’s not even humanly possible. Can’t we just love ourselves?” Rotman spits out the epithets, “Botox and Photoshop,” before throwing his hands in the air dramatically. Thus the theme for X-Posé became “Gorgeously grotesque. I’m going to try to gross them out a little bit. Have them view something they are repulsed by and attracted to at the same time,” posits Rotman. “Contrasting an overweight model to a runway standard.” The waifs are to be desired and despised at the same time but the push/pull that dichotomy creates seems to mirror the confl ict Rotman has with wanting to be taken seriously by the fashion industry mainstream while fi ercely maintaining his fetish roots.

Whether traditional or not the clothes are magnifi cent. Rotman has culled inspiration from a vast catalogue of sources encompassing the 1700s, dandyism, corsets, Thierry Mugler and Edward Scissorhands. All these infl uences coalesced in Rotman’s fertile mind before being painstakingly birthed as intricately detailed sketches. The sketches became patterns, “I cannibalize our current patterns and adjust,” before becoming muslin mock-ups for fi ttings. Cutting the actual leather is a very fi nal stage as at that point mistakes are not an option — as Rotman emphasizes, “Leather is expensive.”

One of the more intriguing designs is a tonguein- cheek play on the fad of lingerie as outerwear. Rotman has created hot pants with a riff on the bustles that were used to hold up elaborate Elizabethan ball gowns. Rotman laughs, “They’re saddlebags. You can put things in them.” The original design caught the eye of Paris Hilton who scoured Northbound for clothing while in Toronto shooting Repo! The Genetic Opera. She put the prototype on hold but when she arrived to pick them up she was overwhelmed by papparazi and fl ed the store. The celebrity non-sale, while a fi nancial and publicity tragedy, was a boon for Rotman’s workload for XPosé as, “now I don’t have to make another one.”

Rotman is rightfully proud of his work but does become unhealthily attached. “They’re like my children. I hate to see them go.”

Ruefully he adds, “And I even have to cost them all.”

Rotman is blasé about the disconnect between his work life and his personal life. He just happens to design in leather and the fetish aspect is a challenge, a spice, that keeps him fascinated. “This is my job that I do 40 hours a week. I go home and do something else to stay refreshed,” confesses Rotman. “I went to the S&M 101 seminars and I talk to people and try to tailor to their needs.” So while Rotman’s emphasis for X-Posé is on the fashion he has more-than competent help from those immersed in the fetish scene who will provide a heavy dose of twisted spectacle.

The Circus of the Damned performance group is pitching in as what Rotman describes as “the actors. All the stuff is done to them. They’re more or less the bottoms.” Being the bottoms means the actors have hot wax drippings, medical examinations and lots of bondage and beatings to look forward to. Lea Lawrynowicz, aka Maverick, has the role of a “ballerina suspended.” The ringleader of Circus of the Damned, Maverick contacted Rotman about X-Posé after Circus of the Damned participated in last year’s Northbound extravaganza Switch. “Marty wanted to do a fi sh-hook suspension,” recounts Maverick. “I practically shouted ‘Talk to me. I suspend.’”

The trio who form Circus of the Damned, Maverick, Nymphetamine and OneArmBob, are looking forward to providing full-throttle fetish spice at X-Posé. “There’ll be a real sexual heat to it. Lots of stuff to do with pain,” enthuses Maverick. “There’s a lot of appeal due to the pain factor. Other people aren’t turned on but they’re attracted to it. They like to say ‘That’s gross.’ We’re trying to gross people out. There should be some fainting, or ‘falling out’ as we call it. I’m always disappointed when there isn’t.”

Though the Circus of the Damned is well trained in doing not only what could be dangerous acts in the wrong hands, they are also all well-versed in burlesque, dance and theatre. None all of these arts come naturally, Maverick notes that, “It took six months of training for me to learn Hula-Hooping.”

While Rotman’s perceived stigma rankles, Maverick is, well, more of a maverick. “We don’t get taken seriously. We’re seen as circus performers. We’re regarded as down-and-dirty carnies.” Maverick shrugs, “It’s a compliment. There’s still a stigma attached to fetish. As if we’re all disturbed and crazy.”

Maverick is resentful if resigned, “Johnny Knoxville became a millionaire for stapling his nuts on MTV. Onstage, up close, people have a problem with it. People with high-end jobs and families are just kinky but those of us who willingly embrace pain, embrace their weirdness… It’s just about being honest. I like to be put in a cage, I like to be degraded. I enjoy having staples in my face.”

Maverick obviously enjoys her work but it does have one side effect: “I’m so boring in my daily life. I like to hang out and I’m pretty chill. I don’t have to be weird in my private life as I let all my weirdness out on stage.”

Rotman and Circus of the Damned make a good team with Maverick gleefully unleashing her weirdness while Rotman fl oods the stage with his haute-couture ambitions. Would Rotman ever consider going mainstream and designing a line that doesn’t involve leather or fetish? Not likely. A colleague is quietly hunting up sponsors to snag Northbound a spot in next spring’s Fashion Week. Marty’s eyes glitter as he thinks of how he can push the boundaries of the conventional presentation of fashion ideals. He speculates it would be “worth our while to have the mainstream media attention. And damn would we give them a show.”


X-Posé is on Sat. Oct. 25 at the Sound Academy, 11 Polson St. Info: www.northbound.com Circus of the Damned info: www.circusofthedamned. org

Drew Rowsome is an associate editor at fab and is as fond of circuses and sideshows as he is of leather.