Ellis Jaz’s subversive offering is captured in a new photo series by fetish photographer Anna Sampson
The inspiration for Ellis Jaz’s SS23 collection came on a trip to Ram Books. The incongruous enclave, hidden just off a grimy stretch of London’s Holloway Road, is a go-to for the best in bizarro erotica and fetish publications, and somewhere the rising RCA designer visits on a regular basis. On this particular occasion, in the early months of 2022, Jaz stumbled upon a book called Lesbian Caners.
“I fell completely in love with it,” she explains of the book, the pages of which are full of black and white images depicting women in various states of undress bending over and awaiting the sharp thwack of a crop or cane. “It has no information in it about the photographer or the women in the photos, and the text is this very heterosexual erotic scenario, but positioned alongside these gorgeous photos.”
Jaz’s subsequent collection I Love You, Lesbian Caners draws inspiration from the tome of the same name, as well as 1995 film The Elegant Spanking, in which Goddess Rosemary (Rosemary Delain) and Maid Kitty (Marie Beatty) enter into a subversive relationship of worship and punishment, and 1996 follow-up The Black Glove, which was also directed by Beatty.
These inspirations translate into a collection and accompanying photoshoot that rejects the heterosexual male gaze, through which traditional lingerie is so often imagined. Captured by renowned fetish photographer Anna Sampson, Jaz’s all-femme model cast are seen contorted around each other, crops quivering in hand, bottoms in the air. The collection itself, meanwhile, is designed to fit the wearer’s body as opposed to the wearer squeezing themself into something not quite right.
Silky knitted slip dresses crafted from glistening golden yarn bear easy-access peekaboo panels, while bra and pantie sets feature cross-crossing latticed lace-ups that spider across the body. Structured basques are cut low on the torso so the breasts are exposed and prone, with slinky, second skin bodysuits come trimmed with popper fastenings to allow them to be whipped off easily and at will.
“The pieces take on the shape of your body, rather than restricting it,” says Jaz. “I’m inspired continuously by women who find their own unique ways of expressing their sexuality entirely on their own terms. As a queer woman, the designs emerge from an adoration for the female body: a conversation between women that challenges and embraces the power of the feminine erotic.”
