Le Boutique Bazaar pops up for the last time this season with April 2’s ‘Wild Spring’ event

Next to our own LIbidex PopUp shops held at our Islington headquarters, our favourite London pop-up fetish/alt-fashion retailing event (with the emphasis on fashion) has to be Le Boutique Bazaar.

Launched in late 2014 as a joint venture between the organisers of Torture Garden and Wasted Chic, these seasonal events started out at McQueen in Shoreditch before relocating to current venue For Your Eyes Only, a large and friendly poledancing club a mere fling of a stripper’s thong from Old Street Station.

LBB events happen just a few times a year, in the main autumn/winter/spring fetish partying seasons, and generally in the run-up to Torture Garden’s biggest events of the year, which tend to create solid demand for impactful new outfit pieces.

Wild Spring, the last Boutique Bazaar of the current season, is due to take place on April 2, just under three weeks before TG’s two Birthday Ball events at Scala (April 21) and Electrowerkz (April 22). As usual, this Sunday afternoon market will house a varied selection of 50-plus ‘kink artisan’ vendors ranging from latex clothing brands to designers of lingerie, corsetry, all manner of kink-influenced accessories from headdresses to harnesswear, and toys.

A favourite destination of stylists, models, performers, fetishistas and fashionistas, LBB is seen by many of its fans as being as much a social event as a shopping opportunity. There’s no dresscode but many visitors do dress-up for it, and even if you’re only there for browsing and chatting, it can make for a very stimulating Sunday afternoon out. It provides an unprecedented opportunity to meet and talk to many designers face-to-face, and many of the vendors are set up to take orders for items that aren’t on their rails, and measure you up for custom pieces.

Last but not least, a recent LBB-related innovation is the online Charmskool Shop. On the Charmskool website and Instagram page, many of the items sold by LBB vendors are available to those who can’t make it to one of the live pop-up events.

instagram.com/leboutiquebazaar

instagram.com/charm.skool.shop