I wasn't, for a long time.
I associated latex with a very specific kind of person — confident in a way I wasn't, comfortable with attention in a way I wasn't, with a wardrobe that had a clear aesthetic and a reason for every piece in it. I had none of that. I had a lot of black clothes and a vague sense that I should probably be dressing better.
The first latex piece I bought was a mistake, technically. I was looking for a skirt — something structured, something that would hold its shape better than the jersey things I kept buying and immediately regretting. I ended up on a product page for a latex pencil skirt and spent about forty minutes talking myself out of it before buying it anyway. It arrived on a Thursday. I wore it on Saturday. I've worn it more times than I can count since then.
The thing nobody tells you about latex is that it's not actually high-maintenance to wear. Getting it on takes a minute. Once it's on, it stays exactly where it is. No adjusting, no checking, no awareness of it at all after the first five minutes. I wore it to a friend's birthday dinner and forgot I was wearing anything unusual until someone asked about it at the end of the night.
I think the reason people who aren't latex people avoid latex is the same reason I did. It feels like a statement. Like you're announcing something about yourself. And maybe for some people it is — but a well-fitted latex skirt with a plain white shirt and flat shoes is not a statement. It's just an outfit. A good one, but still just an outfit.
The other thing is fit. I'd seen latex look wrong on people — stiff, slightly off, like the garment was wearing them rather than the other way around. That's an off-the-rack problem. Latex doesn't compensate for a bad fit the way other fabrics do. It just shows you exactly where the fit is wrong and leaves it there. A piece that's made to your measurements doesn't do that. It just fits, and fitting well is most of what makes any piece of clothing work.
I still don't think of myself as a latex person, particularly. I just own several latex pieces and wear them regularly and don't think about it much. Which is, I think, the point.
Written by the Form Latex team — bespoke latex clothing handmade in the UK.