The Defiance of Silly, Sexy Fun -With Aimless Gallery Latex

Last week we sat down on a giant orange sofa with Amy, founder of latexwear brand Aimless Gallery, to chat with them about how they established their brand. Little did we know we were in for a treat with a peek at their current project in the studio, and many (many) boops from their pooch Spot.

Catching a glimpse of Aimless Gallery on social media you’ll see Chappel Roam twirling on stage in her custom bra, shorts, skirt and sleeves. You’ll see sexy latex hot pants with the word ‘horny’ emblazoned across the ass. You’ll see a giant latex inflatable Buzzball costume, a sexy cow print set, and – Amy’s trademark style – latex pieces with explicit block capitals spelling out their political agenda. ‘Queer as in end occupation’, ‘fuck the fascists’ and ‘genitals do not define gender’ – to name a very few.

Overall it’s a loud, unapologetic, very sexy explosion of queer joy – which hasn’t always been the norm within latexwear.

In their own words Amy describes their brand as ‘Colourful, queer, slow fashion. Like.. it’s just very gay.’ Which we couldn’t agree with more.

And where did the concept come from?

“In October 2019, I'd got out of an abusive relationship that had been really controlling. I was, like, 24, and I'd been having the worst time, I’d really dulled myself, I’d been compressed down, and leaving that relationship I started dressing like myself again. I was also exploring the kink scene just before COVID happened, then I was furloughed in 2020.

In a past life, I was a prop maker, scenic artist so I'd been doing that before COVID and had always been very creative. But I was looking into buying latex and it was all very tight, black, bras with big underwired cups – which there is a place for, but none of it as very fun or silly… and I was feeling very silly at the time.”

Beginning by making pieces for themself Amy soon had friends asking for pieces, and since being on furlough, they were actually able to. This was during lock down, so they weren’t leaving the house, or really spending money, so this is when they also started donating to Trans+ GoFundMe’s through their work.

“I then started donating the money to trans people's GoFundMe’s, and it just snowballed - people would pay me a bit of money to make them some latex and I'd donate it. I didn’t want to go back to what I was doing before COVID and I ended up doing this full-time, but it was never really a plan to have a business. It just kind of happened.”

There’s a lot to be said about brands that build organically, through founder passion and community demand. As opposed to big brands with funding behind them, who drop into our lives and tell us what we want, or what we should wear. Amy has always done the opposite, making what brings them joy, and creating orders on a custom basis for customers.  

But the studio space brought me to another question. With screen printed pieces hanging on the wall, a huge mural-come-collage of grinning customers in their frilly, colourful latex and a work-in-progress in hot pink on the cutting table. Latex has historically been black on black on black, as Amy mentioned in our conversation, and some kink spaces were also very serious – you had to wear the right things and attend the right events, how did this material become such a space for expression for them?

“I do love some black, tight latex now. But when I first started, there was either black, tight latex or there was Soft Skin Latex (side note: I love Gemma's work at Soft Skin. She is the most incredible artist. The quality of her work is also astounding) but they weren't right for how I felt at the time – which was not very serious. Now there are so many more small brands, and even big queer events now too, that are a lot more colourful. And I think that's really nice because it's still accepting the serious black, which there is a space for, but also created more space for silly, colourful, queer joy.”

If you aren’t a latex lover you may not know, this is a whole different ball park to sewing. There is no un picking a stitch if you make a mistake, or leaving some seam allowance for adjustments. Latex is known for ripping, every cut is final, ‘seams’ are created through contact adhesive and cannot be changed – there’s actually no sewing involved at all. So how do you go about learning this niche skill? Amy makes it sound very casual, but it takes a certain type of energy to dive headfirst into learning a specialist skill from scratch.

“Oh I just got on Facebook. There's loads of Facebook groups, Also Youtube tutorials, I basically just taught myself. My prop-making background gave me a huge advantage, I’ve always been good with my hands, I see things very 3D. Which helps with the pattern making as well, because I draft all my own patterns. And often if it's something I don't understand how to make, I'll buy a pattern and then adapt it to what I want.”

On this note I asked whether Aimless Gallery had always been based in Hackney (it has been a London based brand for the last 11 years FYI), but on Amy’s mention of a brief hiatus to Margate we fell into a diversion covering the Trans Club in Margate, the local politics surrounding Tracy Emin and the salty stench of the shell grotto there. Amy’s demeanour is one of those friendly one that immediately makes you feel accepted and comfortable, and we diverted into plenty of other chats throughout the interview to this credit. Not to mention the interruptions by Spot to kindly request a pat, show off her new toys, or ask for something new from the toy basket. It was a laid back morning that made it clear that people are truly at the heart of Amy’s work.

“I’m very in the queer scene and now significantly more in the lesbian scene, I would say  - It's always been so supportive. But I wouldn’t really say I’m in the fashion scene.

I like making clothes, and I love fashion, but I've never really got into the fashion scene. My work's a bit too silly and most of my work's commission-based. People will come to me and say ‘Oh Amy I want a pink ball-head with anime art on it’, people come to me with their concept and then I create my version of that idea – I very rarely design my own ideas.

I've been invited to a few fashion things, I just never go. I don't know why.. fashion feels quite intimidating to me in a different way.”

It’s interesting to think about the communities that feel supportive and welcoming, versus the ones that feel intimidating – perhaps if it feels intimidating and unwelcoming to outsiders, it isn’t really a community at all. But then, maybe trying to define every single social group into categories is part of the problem, because it makes us feel like if we don’t check all the criteria, we don’t make the cut. Amy doesn’t seem like one to worry about meeting other peoples criteria, so we dug into the idea of being a ‘fashion brand’ a little deeper.

“I think it's something I'd be interested to do more of, but I just don't at the moment. I don't really know where Aimless Gallery intersects with fashion, especially 'cause I actually, more and more, I question why I'm doing this - because ultimately I don't think we should be consuming any more things.

There’s this hard line between owning a brand when you don't believe in buying things anymore. And I’m saying that as someone who still buys things myself. But this started because of my political messaging as well and right now my politics lean towards consuming less – but making instead.

I'm not planning on stopping Aimless Gallery, but I do think about how much we should be making and consuming. Often latex isn’t something you wear every day which makes the ‘cost per wear’ hard to think about -  but I think that buying things that you love is important, and latex can represent the parts of ourselves which we're taught are not okay and are taboo. Especially with the current political environment, wearing stuff that shows you’re proud of yourself and who you are is so important.”

Looking through pieces in their studio myself and our photographer Appoline fawned over a latex dress with a union jack on it and the words ‘NOT PROUD TO BE BRITISH’, whilst Amy mentioned wishing they could make more explicitly political work. I had to ask at that point – ‘isn’t all latexwear political? I think all your clothes feel very explicit in that’

“I guess all of it is political. Being out there as yourself is a desperately political act at this point, we’re being told to make ourselves physically smaller, to fit into these boxes, and with the rise of the far right…to be yourself is defiance. From choosing to wear small fashion brands, to choosing the colours you wear, the fits you choose to wear, what parts of your body you choose to accentuate or not accentuate. There’s politics in all of it.

Those politics do change, based on the context of who you are and where you’re wearing something, but also where your clothes have come from.”

This is where Apolline lowered her camera to sit on the sofa with us and add.. ‘I read somewhere that we have enough clothes to cloth the next six generations. And actually have been so aware of greenwashing recently, like brands will say clothes are made somewhere but actually that doesn’t mean the whole garment was made there.”

With her recommendation to watch what sounds like a shocking expose on Zara we discussed their process of ripping looks from the runways and turning them out into fast fashion within 9 days, changing a few tiny details to avoid getting in trouble for the intellectual theft. Which prompted us to ask Amy if they had ever been ripped off.

“Not by fast fashion brands no. I will say in the age of the internet, I think there’s no way for us not to be inspired by everyone else. And I think you can very easily accidentally copy someone from just subconsciously scrolling by them. I’m very for the idea of naming our sources on the internet. It fosters creativity, and intimacy, and helps you discover new people. We see so many images unattributed to anyone and its really bad, we should research to know where our sources are coming from.

I think the internet makes us so lonely. Especially as someone that lives alone, you can end up spending so much time alone and feel like you've got your socialization through being on the internet. But it really lacks, like, a sense of community, I think we should share the things that we're inspired by to help make those online connections more real.”

It’s true, we see so many images a day we barely even remember what they were, let alone who made them (if it was a person, not AI), sometimes ideas are bound to look similar. But With Aimless Gallery having such a clear identity I was interested what inspired Amy.

“Leigh Bowery - going to that exhibition at the Tate, I already knew a lot of his work, but I was like, "Oh, you're a bit of me." Or, in actual fact, I'm a bit of you, our whole scene is.

I like being outdoors, which sounds really weird. But I think being outdoors and enjoying, the colors and the sights and the smells. There's something really inspiring about it.

The other thing I think is very inspiring is just talking to your friends. In the last year, I made loads of new friends, friends that have given me different insights about different things that they're interested in. I think it's really a joy.

I think I also pull a lot of inspiration from, revolutionary things, like other trans people, also sex workers A lot of my friends are sex workers, and I think they have these great creative ideas, because they're forced into hardship - I think a lot of the backbone of queer art comes from trans people and sex workers.”  

But back to the questions I came in with… Aimless Gallery has always donated to Trans+ charities. A form of brand responsibility we see demanded on social media in regards to big brands, but don’t see smaller brands able to commit themselves to very often. Amy made the choice to begin these donations during COVID,  a very different set of circumstances to today, but they continue to make them whenever they make profit. 

“For the first three years, I did not pay myself a penny. I had other jobs and donated it all, then it got to the point where I was like, "I'm working a full-time job alongside my other jobs, I cannot do this anymore. I am so burnt out." So I started paying myself.

At that time in my life when it started, I was feeling so lost and so, I felt so lucky to be alive because of COVID and getting out of this relationship that I then just wanted to give back.

I've just always found that sort of thing really important. I felt very blessed with the way I grew up.  I didn't grow up with loads of money but I grew up okay. I've always felt like it was really important to do things for other people, to help other people that didn't have as much as you. It also, it helped me realize I was trans, which is quite nice - it was really like, "Wow, donating to all these people's gender-affirming GoFundMe’s.. was the call coming from inside the house?"”

Finding yourself through helping others is pretty magical. And its something the wider Queer community is amazing at fostering. So on this light hearted, joyful note we got onto the projects that have brought Amy the most joy.

“I made this pig mask, which I really loved.

 I made someone a bra for their wedding, that's like a friend of a friend, and I thought that was just really nice. Like, there was something very sweet about someone wanting to wear my work to their wedding.

The Buzzball is maybe my favourite, to be fair. It's just so silly and I feel like it never got the recognition it deserves!”

It’s one of our favourites too, honestly iconic.

Amy feels lucky to continue having orders roll in and support them, whilst also getting to create their own creative version of clients ideas. And we kind of left feeling lucky we got to talk to Amy, that’s the thing about being around people who are totally authentic - they make you feel seen and able to be authentic too. So you made it to the bottom of this interview and want to experience a little of that raw, queer, silly joy here’s a hot tip from Amy… 

 “I am low-key planning a fifth birthday party for Aimless Gallery. It will be soon. I think it's gonna be a fundraiser of some type - I haven't planned it yet but it will be happening!”

All photos by Apolline Grane.

Find Aimless Gallery Latex on Instagram.