Throwing open its doors during PFW, new counterculture bookstore 1909 played host to a special curation of fetish and erotica publications by the founders of SORT zine
Paris may be widely regarded as the capital of romance (see Balenciaga’s AW19 campaign for proof of that), but when it comes to sex and and subversion, what goes on in the city is largely kept behind closed doors and conducted well after dark.
Looking to change that is new book store 1909, which threw open its doors during Paris Fashion Week just a few weeks ago. Located in the vibrant Canal Saint-Martin area, surprisingly, the store is the first of its kind in the city – dedicated to counterculture and the goings on of the underground, it bills itself as a space for ‘all freaks, and those in search of beauty far from convention’. With its shelves lined with rare books spanning visual arts, fashion, music, and beyond, basically, it’s a must-visit if you ever find yourself in Paris.
To celebrate the launch of the store, Joseph Delaney and Matt King, the creative (and slightly twisted) minds behind SORT zine, were invited to curate a handpicked selection of vintage erotica and fetish magazines and books. “Kelly (Bonneville, the store’s founder) contacted us out of the blue to see if we’d be up for it,” explains Delaney. “To begin with, we weren't sure how she’d found us, but it ended up being through a band called Poison Point who we’d worked with before. It was great because she just kind of entrusted the space to us to do what we wanted.” The two also threw a debauched party at Pigalle mansion Le Carmen, alongside subversive British designer Dilara Findikoglu.
The result was an edit of fetish publications from the 70s and 80s that explored everything from BDSM and Shibari, through to latex and piss-play. “It wasn’t necessarily even about the content, we were more focused on the aesthetic and art direction of the magazines we chose,” confirms King. “Their layouts, the colours the designers used… some of them are so inspiring.” So inspiring that the edit sold out pretty much immediately, with Delaney and King actually dipping into their own supply and keeping a selection for themselves.
With future collaborations on the horizon, as well as plans for a series of (for now) secret events, here SORT zine’s founders share their favourite issues from the edit with us.
MISTRESS
“Mistress is an old school magazine written for slaves with a female focus – it’s not particularly hardcore, it’s more like old-school, 1970s, playful feminine domination, which we thought was quite interesting. And it’s got cartoon strips in it, which makes it quite funny compared to the others we’ve chosen. Everything’s quite tongue in cheek. This one was really an aesthetic decision because the cover was so brilliant. The use of red and green, which you should supposedly never, ever do in design just worked so well.”
GROTESQUE
“This was actually the starting point for the whole project: finding that delicate balance between things that are beautiful and things that are grotesque. It’s also a word that’s quite important to us. The magazine itself is amazing – the cover with the bound testicles is so intense and weird, but there’s something beautiful about the way its been shot even though it’s quite harsh. With the 1909 edit, we really wanted to include things from different communities and different points of view, and I think this one is probably at the extreme end of things.”
HOMO BOYS
“We really liked this one because of its size, it’s super small, like A6, and also because the cover is strong – the two naked guys and the red with the Homo Boys logo. It’s like a little flip-book. We chose this one because there’s all this erotica-focused stuff and it’s like proper porn, and in a weird way it was more well-designed than anything else, which we found quite odd. You know – people who obviously have quite a good eye have ended up making this stuff that’s super taboo. It’s quite interesting.”
RUBBERIST
“Rubberist has obviously become a lot more popular since Christopher Kane released his Rubberist collection, but Rubberist issue six is actually quite a rare one. As with all of them, we fell in love with the cover first, how strong the woman in the mask looks, and the red on the black is great. The contents are totally weird: there’s this series with someone in a fetish-y rubber suit and gas mask swimming around in a lake called A Walk On The Wet Side, and there are all these rubber and latex ads where you can order briefs for like £7.50 or long gloves for £8.75.
There’s also this amazing series that looks like a fashion editorial which features people in full rubber suits splashing around in a waterfall in the middle of nowhere. It’s so surreal and almost innocent. Everyone thinks there’s this harshness to the fetish world, but actually, if you ever have the opportunity to be in that world or meet these people, they are the politest, calmest people you’ve ever met. It’s this super-respectful world. So the people in these images in the water almost seem like they could be someone’s auntie or mum.”
PISSEUSES (CLAUDE FAUVILLE)
“Pisseuses is this beautiful black and white book full of photographs of women pissing. It’s really intense but so beautifully shot – we’ve never seen anything like it. All the images are really shallow and captured on film and it’s like super intimate, it doesn’t seem harsh or anything even though it’s the most intense subject matter. It’s obviously quite a taboo topic, but I think it’s the nicest publication in terms of our edit. Everything else was a nude mag, but this is a big, thick tome.”
1909 is now open – follow it on Instagram here and pick up your copy of the new issue of SORT zine in-store.