The Beautiful and the Damned

Sigmund Freud. Penis envy. So many women are buying strap-ons you’d think the old fool had actually got something right. Perhaps we had better retreat to safer ground. If you want to join the strap on revolution it’s best, as ever, to avoid the sex industry and go to an artist who has been making and testing these products for decades.

I’ve written before about Dutch designer Kadett’s exemplary leatherwear and dungeon gear
(Londonfetishscene.com/News/Reviews/The_Beautiful_and_the_Damned-200710194066/) She learnt her trade in gay underground clubs in Amsterdam and Berlin and will make anything you imagine and much that you can’t. Her satisfied customers range through the UK, France, Denmark, America, Japan and South Africa and a female Hollywood star whose actor husband used to HARDly ever DIE owns a Kadett designed Superwoman crest strap-on harness. Perhaps that’s why her new toy boy husband is looking dazed but happy these days...

The harnesses recently came first in a test by a German lesbian magazine - being the best looking and the best made. So if you want a harness which fits you perfectly, and a beautifully designed silicone dildo, which will fit snugly inside those all those dark, yearning spaces, visit her studio in a mews not far from Kennington Tube. (Choose from Babes-n-Horny or Playstix dildos, both excellent with a wider range of designs from the former - Babes-n-horny.com)

Mass market designs may be good enough if you’re lucky but we are all built differently. If you want the best fit, total reliability and an individual design then it has to be custom.
She does make a budget price harness for beginners, the Kadett classic, but in any case her prices are much less painful than a cheap product coming loose and ruining a passionate encounter. Harnesses can even be made adjustable in order to fit both partners in a couple. Check out the options online (beautifulanddamned.co.uk) but the surest way to satisfaction is to discuss your requirements in person.

For leatherwear, Kadett works from large skins avoiding the need for the seams or mismatched pieces one sees on inferior products. There are a wide range of prints - leopardskin, gingham, flowerprint (which she recommends for dressing uppity subs) red cross on white nurse style, classic red on black, camouflage and other military designs. She even has crocodile-look and genuine snakeskin. I’m having an eyemask made from white speckled python skin (pretentious, moi? Well, is there a better of recycling pythons?)

I would tell you how about good Babes-n-horny dildos are - superb works of art in a wide range of colours and designs - except that the designer once told me off for including one of her competitors in an article. I obviously should have used my telepathic powers to ascertain the exact provenance of some sex toys and who had ripped off whom in the most important copyright dispute since the Beatles and Steve Jobs were in dispute over the trademark ‘Apple’.
The whole thing was obviously my fault and not whoever had copied her designs (which you can’t copyright anyway, so she was technically, and actually, wrong.) She then charged me an enormous amount for postage for something which arrived weeks late. While it was both stylish and durable it was still only an item designed to be shoved up someone’s...“Enough! Can’t you forgive and forget? It was ten years ago!” “No!”

Incidentally if you have any ordinary leather items that need fixing Kadett can do it in an instant. I had a sleeve practically detached from a leather greatcoat. She machine-sewed it back in the blink of an eye, advised me to use dubbin on the ancient thread then magicked up a fine leather buckle to replace a missing briefcase clasp. The coffee’s pretty good too. Although I wouldn’t accept the offer of a drink unless you ever drank Oliver Reed or George Best under the table. We will draw a veil over the consumption of a bottle of Grappa at her friend’s house. She might know what happened but I certainly don’t. Another time she took me to a friendly neighborhood pub which was full of off duty football hooligans. She was unfazed by the thuggish lumpenprole banter, but then she once told the bothersome heir to a legendary South London crime dynasty to cease and desist. Which he did.

This sounds a little intimidating which isn’t the case.
Although an imposing woman, and a motorbike enthusiast, she remains charming and amusing at all times, even when recounting nightlife tales which would have made Caligula blush. It’s worth buying something just for the anecdotes.

The best businesses are a labour of love. Someone sees a gap in the market and works as hard as they can out of a passion for quality. The Beautiful and the Damned is no exception to this rule. And she has certainly chosen the best material for fetish wear. Let’s face it. Rubber rips but leather lasts. And if you want the sturdiest, best looking dungeon gear, made to your exact design, then visit Kadett. You won’t be disappointed.

telephone 07967 532228 www.beautifulanddamned.co.uk