Artifice Clothing: Rock On, Gold Dust Woman


Photo: Jeff Hui. Makeup: Giancarlo Intini. Model: Engel Schrei.

This catalogue photo was buried deep in the Artifice Clothing website, but I found it so arresting that I had to share. There’s something both calming and surreal about it. Between the lack of eyebrows, the plastic-looking skin, the serenely knowing expression and the pointy, B-movie-villain-looking hood, this picture tells a story, despite the complete lack of background and props.

Good fetish clothing/photography has always been 90% about the imagination and maybe 10% about sex, to me. For that reason, I’ve found most fetish fashion to be disappointingly banal in recent years. Barring a few notable exceptions, most designers are too busy cranking out the same tired pin-up trappings to make any effort at reinvention. And even if the outfit’s shapes in this photo aren’t necessarily new, there’s something refreshing about it. It’s the kind of photo that can inspire a filmmaker, a painter, a science fiction writer: is she a diver in Offworld Olympics, getting ready to execute a perfect octuple jump?

7 Responses to “Artifice Clothing: Rock On, Gold Dust Woman”

  1. creativename Says:

    Oh hey, I have the skirt from that shoot…

  2. m1k3y Says:

    fantastic image!

  3. Mer Says:

    I love it. You know my feelings about fetish gear (really hit-or-miss, mainly miss). But this is deeeee lish. Thanks!

  4. sascha Says:

    Here Here, I agree with you completely. I absolutely adore classic/modern fetish photography that has taste and class, not the cheesy stuff that you see in most alt mags. Thanks for the pic!

  5. Camilla Says:

    It looks like she’s protecting her boobs from the buckles on the straps.

  6. steve p Says:

    oh my…i love me some engel. she’s a rockstar in her own right. thanks for posting this.

  7. Engel Schrei Says:

    Thank you :) It was an amazing shoot, though I was shedding glitter for at least a month after.

    And no, I wasn’t protecting my boobs from the buckles. The outfit was very comfortable and much fun to shoot in. Emily never fails to deliver. :)