R&M Leathers Made Its London Fashion Week Debut
Presented alongside Pornhub and complete with studs, corsets, bodysuits and a good dose of pageant glamour.
R&M Leathers brought the ghosts of old-school Times Square to London Fashion Week. For its inaugural runway show, “Miss Leathers,” founder Ruby Mariani looked to the vanishing world of pre-sanitized urban vice, revisiting the peep shows, leather bars and neon-soaked excess that once defined 42nd Street.
Presented alongside Pornhub, the show unfolded inside a draped, arched peep-show installation, with models cast as contestants in a surreal beauty pageant inspired by the televised glamour of 1980s swimwear competitions. References to now-shuttered institutions including Peep-O-Rama and Show World Center appeared throughout, while a brass admission token from the latter was transformed into an oversized belt buckle.
Mariani’s leather universe is distinctly theatrical. Slimline calfskin bodices were softened with broderie-anglaise-inspired trims, while corseted busts, high-cut bodysuits and crystal-studded leather strips reshaped the body into exaggerated arches. Elsewhere, babydoll slips, floor-length columns and a leather dress inspired by Nan Goldin’s Nan as Dominatrix channeled the darker side of the collection’s references.
The show’s female archetypes, from showgirls and brides to Bavarian maids, were similarly twisted, appearing alongside ostrich-feather headdresses, leather roses and flyaway veils. The Pornhub collaboration added another layer of subcultural nostalgia, with rhinestone-studded bikinis, orange-accented pieces and URL-emblazoned baby tees sure to be all over your feeds soon.
In a farewell to a disappearing leather counterculture, “Miss Leathers” asked what happens when the things we once watched from the shadows become the spectacle themselves. Check out some of the looks above and head to the brand’s website for more.
For more on London Fashion Week, here are our favorite SS27 shows.
