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Hot UK EventSkin Two is more than a once a year night out. It's more a concept, to some a way of life. It can deliver anything from fashion to furniture but with a very pervy twist to it.
I like it because I am a complete quality freak and with Skin Two you are talking quality. Take the quarterly magazine. It is an immaculate production, stylish and informative, a kind of National Geographic of the fetish world. I could waste all of my column explaining the concept and frankly I am a new girl on the block so lets save time, (yours), and effort, (mine), and let Skin Two Magazine's Contributions Editor Michelle Olley explain the concept:
“Skin Two is to fetishism what Hoover is to the vacuum. Skin Two style is about wearing clothes that you feel good in, that empower you. That's not just rubber - PVC, leather, drag, uniforms, lingerie, nun's habits, - if the peaked cap fits, wear it! Fetish fashion is a statement about your sexuality - it takes guts to wear our clothes but then there are plenty of women and men out there more than ready to wear their libido's on their black, shiny sleeves.....thank goodness.”
Many of you have e-mailed me for inspiring you with my writings on coming 'out', well all I would say is it takes guts like Michelle says. All I would say to all you girls is think where you are but think of that in the context of where you have come from. I do that all the time and honey it makes me feel like a million dollars. Hell, the bullets just bounce of me!
Anyhow back to the Ball. My escort was 'Angel 1' Sarah. The first friend I came 'out' to and someone who is pretty close to my favorite human being ever. I met her at the tube and she was like a giggling schoolgirl in expectation, but then again so was I! We managed to release some of our energy by skipping around Sloane Square on our way back to the our base camp in Chelsea. I knew then that the night was going to be SO good. I am a very spiritual and instinctive person and my sixth sense is 'smelling a good time around the corner.'
One of the many things I love about drag is preparation, looking through each others new make up and fashion purchases, cracking open a bottle of wine, (only one glass for me, remember Don't Drink and Drag). Sarah's dress was wicked. In delicious blood red silk displaying her cute naked bum, leaving the eye to be directed by a pair of black hold up stockings. The dress was made by her sister- in-law who can claim to have the Rolling Stones as her clients. I am always dubious about home- made clothes as they can look cheap but not this one. She looked like what we call in my hometown rhyming slang, a donkey's knob, i.e. just the job!
Well I didn't reveal all until I was made up. I wore a body stocking and M&S bikini briefs, with fishnet tights. Over this I squeezed a black boned corset with delicate crimson ribbons courtesy of 'Westward Bound', (thanks guys for making me wait until the day before I flew to London when Postman Pat delivered it....mind you the stress of that probably enabled me to fit into it as it was six...I said 6 inches below my normal waist size...HEAVEN!).
Suitably suited and booted we posed for Lorraines photo collection and the 'Angels' giggled as I posed and stared in front of the full length mirror, better than drugs and certainly better than television! I hailed a cab and we headed for Hammersmith Palais.
We arrived and were obviously in good company. However if you ever decide to go to future Ball's bear in mind that everything is fairly up front. Girls and boys dressing as girls and boys but a little more provocatively than your average High Street. You can admire and be admired and there was so much to look at. Here was true imagination. Sure you had your S&M boys looking like the last one, Cyberbabes, (how do I explain that to you???), and a smattering of drag queens who looked superb.
This has to be the first cloakroom queue that I have enjoyed standing in. Everywhere people looked proud, naughty and free to be whoever or whatever they wanted to be. The thing that Sarah and I kept on saying to each other was just how completely intimidating the whole place was. When I go clubbing in Newcastle to straight clubs there is some imagination but also a lot of sniggering and in the gay clubs I feel quite a lot of tension. Here I felt totally at home. I knew I was with one of my best friends who shared my fun, voyeuristic attitude, (and looked gorgeous to boot), I was truly on Planet Amber.
We went into the hall and the music was good to wicked and took my hips over. As I always say, "Give me a pair of heels, a good rhythm, a 40' runway and a thousand staring eyes and I am away." Plus I knew TWA. (Transvestites With Attitude) were DJing later on and I have shaked my bootie to them all over the country. So what else did I see? Well let's get one thing straight this is not a drag ball. However there were some devastatingly gorgeous Queens there, you know the sort, the ones that when you see them make it very difficult to think of anything else. Plus they were all gorgeously glamorous. Me I can't be bothered with what I call the 'introverted housewife' look. I like it to be gorgeous and glamorous. My preferred look has to be devastating on the eye, it has to be over the top but also with taste.
Fortunately this seems to be the chosen look of Queens in London at the moment and frankly I thought we brought a great deal of color to the other rubberized and leatherised party-goers. It was a big thrill for me personally to see Winston. Many years ago I had gone through a period of grave doubt about this whole drag thing when a documentary on Winston had come on the telly. It is probably true to say that it changed my life. I no longer felt weird...I was inspired. He is gorgeous, has the all essential movements and mannerisms down to a tee, but I still think I have better legs!
What I like is taking the attributes that seem to be weaknesses like height and really accentuating them. As all who know me will know my main feature are my legs which are long and very slender, (a source of envy with the Angels as my legs are cellulite free and glide into my pert buttocks). I noticed when I arrived that there were sofas scattered around the club and I wanted one so badly as I do look good on a sofa. Sarah and I found one and I just stretched out cat like.
Naturally I adore the attention and the stares as people looked at the two of us sitting resplendent, and content just to let this crazy world drift by us. I am sorry I can't review the fashion shows for you. I am sure they were fine and dandy but I did not feel like being one of the crowd, creeking my neck to see someone dance across a stage. Sarah and I were having much more fun being The Voyeur Sisters!
A lot of Mistresses and their slaves passed us by but I didn't find them all that convincing. One, however, was. She had a beautiful body, was tall, blonde and in a rubber catsuit with a rubber corset and peaked cap. Her movement was magnificent and the dancefloor seemed to part before her. I felt no fear toward her just incredible envy. She had real power. She would disappear for hours then from a balcony I would see her later on in the evening emerging from a corner...wow! Having tired of the sofa we moved onto he dancefloor and found it a bit too crowded. Me I like to move when I am dancing, I am a complete exhibitionist. We went onto the raised stage where we could see and be seen and spent the final hours being busy, stopping for a 10 minute break to see who was doing what or wearing what.
The Ball was great for me as I usually have to struggle when I go out and take quite a bit of abuse and sniggering. And here's a little secret. I have had some bad nights recently. On the Saturday prior to the Ball I went to a well known drag club in London. It was so cliquey and inward looking that I left with the two girls I was out with very depressed. How depressed? Well I seriously thought about packing this whole effort in. But at the Skin Two Ball I just felt totally at home. Thanks to the Ball I feel recharged and re motivated it also convinced me that I have to relocate to London something that I should have done by the end of the year. Basically I was going for a night out with one of my best girlfriends to have a good time. The atmosphere was unreal. Totally unintimidating, totally free. There was just so much to look at and everybody accepts that they can stare and will be stared at. So did we have a good time? Well we've started planning next years costumes...but that's another story!