Queer Beauty in Leather

Last month, I wrote the text for the beautiful collaborative project by Fleet Ilya and Anna Sampson exploring the potential of leather and erotic gaze beyond the binary. The project draws leather's queer heritage and explores the possibilities of gender expression through the material. We love to see it <3

We often think of leather purely in relation to our bodies – a garment to wear, an object of desire, a sculptural piece of design. But while encompassing all these things, leather is more than that: leather can be a space too. Historically, leather has created links and communities – from leather bars and kink clubs to emotional and romantic connections.

But as much as putting on a finely-crafted thick leather harness can grant you a passage into physical spaces, it can also open a space within yourself – your own private playground of experiment, fluidity and self-acceptance.

Drawing both from LGBTQI+ leather heritage and the sense of this inner freedom, the new collaborative project by Fleet Ilya and artist Anna Sampson captures queer beauty in leather.

Fleet Ilya is renowned for masterful leatherwork and sculptural pieces which naturally lend themselves to experimentation: from masks to corsets and harnesses, they are designed to be worn creatively.

But the powerful potential of boundary-breaking self-expression has always been at the core of the brand – since its inception at the dark dancefloor two decades ago.

“Ilya and I, now husband and wife, met at weekly party Nag Nag Nag in early 2000, where individuality, subculture and freedom of sexuality thrived. It was this community and celebrated ‘otherness’ that inspired the creation of Fleet Ilya, this story is a reminder of that feeling of liberation through self-expression,” explains Resha Sharma, co-founder of Fleet Ilya. “With Anna Sampson, we wanted to create visual work which is a celebration of the journey towards discovering our individual sexuality, its potential for fluidity, and the right to the feeling of empowerment, which we hope to enable through our pieces”.

Behind the lens for this series is Anna Sampson, London-based artist and photographer who explores the potential of queer erotic gaze, while playing with representations of the body, gender, and power; and exploring the interplay of fetishism and sedition.

A lot of Anna’s work could be described as erotic – but erotic in a subversive and non-conformist way. “Erotica is so much more than just sexy pictures – it’s a form of power and resistance – and queer gaze is crucial for social and political change,” she says. “Erotic photography and erotica are still dominated by the male heterosexual gaze – a queer gaze offers a different perspective on sexuality”.

With pleasure and politics going hand-in-hand, Anna wanted to create a celebratory space where beauty thrives beyond the binary, size, skin colour and age. “The role of leather is pivotal to the history of the gay liberation movement, so I wanted to keep the symbolic and aesthetic values of leather alive in this story; especially in ode to those under-represented and censored in history, such as dyke, trans(masc), sex workers and leather daddies,” she adds.

“As our creations explore sexuality which is unique to every individual, it is important to look at perspective through more than one gaze,” Resha adds.

“Diversity should be explored both through the subject and the creative that documents it, with the intention of giving the language of our leather a richer context and speaking to a wider community. There is also something very satisfying and exciting about collaborating and seeing our pieces interpreted in different ways, it brings life to our work”.

Explore the full project here.