Hall of Fame for Leather and Latex Fetish Fashion in Media

Who are the women who brought fetish fashion to the mainstream? Today it is not unusual to see a Lady Gaga or the Pussycat Dolls dressed up in tight latex, leather, PVC, or vinyl outfits in their music videos, on live performances or even out in public. It is now very common to see such fashion warn by characters in the movies or on television shows. But there was a time when these types of clothing were rarely seen on the stars. It would take some influential celebrities to make fetish outfits more acceptable in the mainstream. So lets honor them. These are the first eight inductees in the fetish fashion hall of fame.

Diana Rigg
October 23, 1965. The show, The Avengers. The episode, Death at Bargain Prices. Agent Emma Peel is undercover at a department store as a clerk trying to find out why a fellow agent was killed. Originally hired to work in the women's lingerie department she is asked to sell to sell space themed toys in the toy department. To do this she is required to wear a space outfit, which consists of a leather catsuit with silver gloves, boots and belt. Fans immediately wrote in of their approval of seeing Diana Rigg in this costume and begged the shows writers to have her dress in it again. Well, there was little cause for Mrs. Peel to dress up in an astronaut type costume again, so the gloves, boots and belt were removed to make it a single black catsuit. This costume made a little more sense as it could be explained that she needed it to sneak in and out of buildings in the dark without being seen. An all black outfit would help in that case. The catsuit became so popular that she began to wear it all the time whether it made sense in the mission or not. Even the opening credits featured the lovely Emma peel fighting her way across enemies in her catsuit. While leather fashion and kinky clothing was nothing new to the series her catsuit took things to the extreme. Long after Rigg left the show her portrayal of Emma Peel in the leather catsuit would be fondly remembered.

Olivia Newton John
Olivia was always the shy pretty country girl who just happened to come from Australia. Her wholesome image made her perfect for the role of Sandy, the goody two shoes character in the movie adaption of the Broadway musical Grease. While for the majority of the movie Olivia lived up to her own reputation, the end of the movie had her wearing tight satin pants, tight black tube top and a leather jacket. Fans were impressed by Olivia's new look, and she became a sex symbol overnight. Wanting to maintain her new found status Olivia released the transitional country album Totally Hot with videos that featured her in various leather jackets, followed by the movie Xanadu which had her in a tiger print shorts and top costume and a memorable metallic gown. Promoting Xanadu Olivia wowed television viewers by wearing a tight snake jacket and pants on the Mike Douglas Show. But she really pushed the fetish envelope with her hit television special Physical. Here she wore many fetish inspired outfits, particularly a stunning red latex dress in the video for Landslide, which also had her in a skin tight white Lycra catsuit style costume.

Madonna
Madonna career quickly followed on the heels of Olivia Newton-John's Physical special and immediately realized she had to step up her game if she wanted to be noticed. Madonna danced erotically on stage and knew how to make herself look sexy in any outfit, including a wedding gown. But the most sexy outfit she was seen in those early days was a replica of a satin gown worn by Marylin Monroe from the movie Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. The late 80's saw her in a tight corset top for the video Papa Don't Preach and yet another corset outfit for the video Open Your Hart. And the movie Who's That Girl had her character wearing a tight vinyl top. But it was the 90's that saw Madonna daring to make music videos with full out fetish fashion including Justify My Love, Erotica, Fever, Bedtime Story and her ultimate tribute to latex fashion Human nature.

Michelle Pfeiffer
It was her Catwoman costume from the movie Batman Returns. A tight vinyl catsuit stitched together that became one of movies most iconic costumes. For this reason alone Michelle Pfeiffer has earned a place in the fetish hall of fame

Pamela Anderson
Whether it was her in the movie Barbed Wire, her hit show V.I.P., as a guest on the tonight show or out in public Pamela Anderson regularly dressed her body in leather and latex outfits. Pamela first made a name for herself wearing a one piece bathing suit on the show Baywatch and quickly became Americas top pin up model constantly wearing the sexiest outfits she could fit into. No celebrity wore fetish outfits more in the 90's than Pamela.

Lara Croft
Lara Croft has the rare distinctions of being the only non-human to make it into the hall of fame. Game designer Toby Gard had been creating an adventure game called Tomb Raider that had an Indiana Jones type character when his boss asked him to come up with something more original. Well, what would be more original than a female adventurer? Lara was always dressed in skimpy outfits, usually shorts and a tank top, but occasionally her outfit of choice was a tight latex black catsuit. Although worn very few times during the actual video game franchise the catsuit took on a life of it's own as a costume worn by models portraying Lara at comic book shows.

Britney Spears
With the occasional fetish outfit worn in her videos and concerts what really puts Britney Spears into the hall of fame was her iconic red latex catsuit worn in the video Oops I Did It Again bringing latex fashion to her teen fans.

Carrie-Anne Moss
The movie was The Matrix. The character, Trinity. With outfits that ranged from leather coats to PVC catsuits there was not a scene in the movie where Trinity was not dressed in some sort of latex inspired fetish fashion. And the most memorable catsuit in movies since Batman Returns.