Fetish Girls

Archives 5, Fetish Girls, 2022 NYC

Published by Archives Yan Morvan

Betty Page or Lara Croft? In a New York palace, the second edition of Bond Con - the Bondage Fair - brings together the hundred most beautiful American ‘fetish girls’. For their thousands of fans who only know them from their websites, it is a unique opportunity to meet these modern superheroines in the flesh. From the rooms of this grand hotel in Queens, one can see the ballet of planes at La Guardia airport. In the distance, the island of Manhattan with the World Trade Center towers removed. Genesis Lynn remembers September 11, 2001 very well: «Our first show took place a month after the attacks. We were afraid that everything would stop. But the opposite happened: bondage has never been so successful! The organizer of the New York Bond Con has reason to be pleased: for its second edition, this fetish fair gathered more than 1500 spectators in one weekend. They came from the four corners of the United States, Hawaii or England with the sole aim of meeting for real the most beautiful American fetish women, whom they have been worshipping for years via their websites. Once secretaries or lawyers, these women have been sculpting their image for years, becoming modern-day superheroes for overstressed, shy and probably slightly perverse men, using make-up and accessories. Today, the redhead Julie Simone receives emails from all over the world: «Nothing sexual. They tell me about their lives, they respect me. It’s almost like adoration. Before she became a fetish model three years ago, she was thinking of becoming an English teacher. Each of her fans pays 15 euros a month to surf her site. Julie came to the NY Bond Con with her friend Talia Monet. The pretty brunette sees it as an opportunity to meet producers and photographers, but also to expand her audience: «It’s one of the rules of our business: when you gain a fan, you never lose them. The older you get, the richer you get! In the large room on the ground floor of the Crowne Plaza, fans crowd in as soon as the lounge opens. Their idols are waiting for them behind small tables covered in red velvet. They have placed their signed photos - between 10 and 20 dollars - and their videos there: the pretty girls are invariably bound and gagged. Laura Palmer, queen of ‘classic’ bondage (she even wears custom-made nylons), sees no infringement of her dignity: «Men are like children. We’ve all played bandits and thieves, and that’s exactly what we see in these films! Every month, three million people visit her website. On the stand next to her, all the disguises of these slightly disturbing kids: whips, leather masks and above all ropes of all kinds. «You have to have total confidence in your partner. In these games, you put yourself at the mercy of the other», explains Midori, one of the queens of Japanese bondage. «The submissive is like a baby who needs you,» adds Vanisha, a 21-year-old apprentice mistress from Montreal. Andrew, on the other hand, is not a baby at all. With his little moustache, he doesn’t look 40. As a freight clerk for a large American airline, he travels all year round in the footsteps of his pixel idols: «All my money goes into that!» he admits. His greatest pleasure, like most of the men here, is to pay these women to tie them up and take their picture. «It costs me between 100 and 250 dollars an hour». Sex included? «I’m not that kind of guy,» Andrew replies with a disgusted look. «Tying up takes 20 minutes,» laughs the sculptural Sadie Belle, «and it takes that long to untie the knots! For a pretty girl, that’s a lot smarter than doing porn! In the corridors of the hotel, throughout Bond Con, flashbulbs crackle under the doors. It is a prostitution without sex, timed, under the protection of escorts, often their boyfriends, who accompany the girls. Some of them even dare to make short films. Genesis details one of the set pieces, called ‘Damsels in Distress’: «It’s the archetypal western. A girl is tied up by bandits on a rail and the good cowboy comes to save her! Except this time, the ‘innocent victim’ is wearing six-inch heels and latex panties. To make themselves known and increase the audience of their site, these women invent specialities. Californian bimbos, girls from a 1950s thriller, heroines from manga or fantasy films, their characters are calculated to the millimetre. The Texan D Darkangel, ex-member of the American national gymnastics team, has been working there for five years: «It’s the only job where you have such control over your image». Betty Page, the model for all of them, has been living in Los Angeles and refusing interviews for 40 years. With her little black fringes, she was the favourite model of photographer Irving Klaw and John Willie, the founder of Bizarre magazine, who defined the canons of modern fetishism in the 1940s. Today, only one fetish girl comes close to Betty: the glamorous Dita Von Teese, ex-fiancée of the sulphurous Marilyn Manson, who has been pacing the fetish clubs for the past ten years. «The world has never needed so many femme fatales», says the star in a simple little black dress. The proof? From Batman’s Catwoman to George Michael’s latest video, fetishwear is everywhere! In two days the new queen of pin-ups will be on the cover of Playboy, dressed in a Victorian corset. Jean-Marc Barbieux