California fetish and bondage queen Jewell Marceau has an insatiable appetite for latex, so any trip she makes to to London inevitably involves major shopping expeditions for new rubber wardrobe. One of the designers she most likes to visit, hang out with (literally) and stock up from is Robin Archer at House of Harlot, so it was no surprise that even on a relatively short recent visit to the capital, she managed to fit in not one but two trips to Harlot’s Holloway Road HQ.
I’ve always enjoyed taking her to shop there because I get to shoot the breeze with Robin, who’s never uninteresting to talk to, and both of us get to watch Jewell bouncing around the store in her underwear and trying on loads of latex. Which, thanks to Robin’s enthusiasm for designing for the bustier type of female, is more likely to fit her than other stores’ off-the-peg stuff is.
Jewell wears House of Harlot corset and skirt. Photography by Sean McCall
Jewell says she always feels really at home at Harlot, so it’s usually not very long after she’s through the front door before she asks “Can I take my clothes off now?” And who are we to say “No”? In a trice she’s stripped down to her thong and is working her way through all the colourful latex on display on the walls, like a kid in a candy store. She homes in on a few particular pieces and tries them on, while Robin notes minor adjustments that are needed for a perfect fit.
One of the great things about buying from Harlot, especially if your time is tight, is that Robin can often make adjustments while you wait, which of course most retailers can’t. On this occasion he thought it better, rather than adjusting the existing garments, to make a couple of items she wanted from scratch, and this was done in 48 hours, which again is one of the great advantages of having designer and studio attached to the shop.
Jewell was also excited to discover that Robin’s long-time shoe-designing chum Natacha Marro, who is based at Harlot, is now making the square-toed ballet boots that have not been available anywhere since Little Shoe Box (which was also located in Holloway Road) went out of business. All the widely available ballet shoe and boot styles from other fetish shoe outlets have round toes, which, says Ms Marceau, are much harder, if not impossible, to walk on.
It seems that a lot of manufacturers (and probably quite a lot of pervs too) don’t realise that there are lots of girls who can and do walk in this extreme fetish footwear — if they can get the right type. I’ve seen Jewell herself walk in them confidently with her ankles hobbled by a short chain, her elbows strapped tight together behind her back, and one of those trademark family-size ballgags in her mouth. So I’m afraid people who think these boots ain’t made for walking don’t know the half of it!
Natacha wants to make her ballet styles in red sparkle and other exotic finishes, which may well tickle a few fancies. But as Jewell herself says, the market both among the girls who wear ’em and among the people who like to look at the girls who wear ’em is for black, black and more black. Coming from the woman voted world’s top bondage model in the recent Signy Awards, this can be considered reliable inside information. So I hope Natacha will bear it in mind.
Incidentally, for those who thought House of Harlot no longer had a physical shop and had moved over completely to online retailing, well that was the plan, but Harlot reckoned without landlord problems that have made it necessary for them to stay put, for the time being at least. That’s plainly good news for shop customers like Jewell — but there’s good news for web customers too. As part of his plans to go over to online retailing, Robin spent many months revamping the Harlot website, and as a result it now looks (and works) much, much better than the old one, doing this top brand real justice at last.
www.jewellmarceau.com
www. houseofharlot.com
www.seanmccall.com
