On the edge

There’s music by DJs Lanny K and Miss Yetti, but it’s not a dance party. It’s a fashion show by professional designers, but the models come in all shapes and sizes, and none of them are professional. There’s flashes of nudity and fetish gear but it’s not a sex show.

Few events can lay claim to being truly unique, but Edge City comes awfully close. Dean Pearce, who is making his debut as an independent designer for the show this year, couldn’t agree more.

It’s a celebration of anti-fashion in a way, because it’s about people who would wear and live their work -¦ but who don’t need to be acknowledged by mainstream fashion houses or mainstream businesses, says Pearce, who runs a new company called Demon Leather. It’s about celebrating their uniqueness -¦ so it could be a Goth image or a fetish woman in a tight corset or bondage boots or it can be all sorts of different things. That’s what I love about it, it celebrates the sort of bent diversity that I really appreciate.

Pearce is one of a tight corset full of designers displaying their wares on the night, a group that includes couturiers from local businesses such as Mephisto and Karnal Leather, as well as students from the Sydney Institute Design Centre. Hairstylists and makeup artists from the Newtown-Enmore area complete the package, donating their services to the not-for-profit event to ensure the models complete the sometimes pornographic pr??orter from the neck up.

Pearce is promising something nicely bent.

I’ve got six guys dressed in various themed outfits -¦ outfits that I would design for guys to wear to parties or to play, but to present them for Edge City I’ve made them into mythological characters, said Pearce. There’s like a football player wearing a Western Bulldogs outfit made completely of leather and he’s got a muzzle on -¦ and there’s gonna be another guy dressed in a parachute outfit, who looks like he’s just crashed through the trees and landed on stage -¦

Verushka Darling is going to be my major focus, adds Pearce. She’s going to be the Demon Queen, dressed in red leather. I think she’s awesome.

This seems a surprising twist, but Pearce seems to love mixing it up, at play and work.

I’ve been reinventing old shapes and doing something with them -¦ explains Pearce. Like that San Francisco leatherman look is a hot look, but it’s kind of dated now and a lot of younger guys who want to get into leather don’t relate to that look at all -¦ They want to do something fresh and different.

Fresh. Different. Unusual. Expect all of the above at the Enmore Theatre next week.

 

Edge City is being held on Thursday 5 December at 8pm and 10pm. Tickets are $20 plus GST and may be booked on 9266 4800 or at www.ticketek.com. Demon Leather may be contacted on 0438 666 550.