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/ INTERVIEW

THE
BROTHERHOOD
Within the city borders of Amsterdam, a beefy, benign

brotherhood has been holding its own since circa 1950.

Distinguished by their kind smiles, WWII paraphernalia and
heaps of leather attire, the Amsterdam leather community
is still very much alive and kicking. During last months

Amsterdam Leather Pride, French Dutchman Arnaud

Houesnard took the title of Mister Leather Europe. We met up
with him at Hotel V in Amsterdam to have him tell us all about
the past, present and future of Amsterdam leather men, and
were frankly quite surprised the only leather items on him
were a belt and a pair of shoes: My leather jacket is being
repaired at the moment.

I cant really recount the exact moment I got

interested in leather, because the fascination has
always been there. Its like my sexual orientation.
I cant recall a specic point where I said: this is
what ignited it. Arnaud takes a reserved sip of his
gin and tonic. Of course many guys will be able to
recall their rst memories of seeing bikers or guys
in leather and nding that horny. I myself was always into leather at heart. I remember shopping
with my mom as a kid and always hunting for a
pair of affordable leather pants. Whenever I saw a
guy in the streets wearing a leather jacket, he was
instantly more sexy to me.

people were still massively going out and meeting

up in bars. I remember going there for the rst time
and seeing people greeting each other with big
hugs and smiles, looking so happy and so horny
at the same time. It really made a big impression
on me. It showed me more than the dark sexual
atmosphere Id expected. The leather scene is
also very much a community of likeminded people
who enjoy hanging out and having a good time
together.

Arnaud visited his rst leather bar in Cologne,

Germany at the age of 19. Back then, Cologne was
like San Francisco, it was completely crazy: guys
were whistling at each other from windows and
cruising in the streets. I met a French guy during
gay pride there in the beginning of July. At the time,
I was still living in Bonn, which was, well lets say
it wasnt as vibrant. During the week I worked there
and in the weekends I would go to Cologne. This
guy was into leather and took me to all the famous
venues: Cowboy, Chains, Stiefelknecht places
that dont exist nowadays. We are talking about the
nineties, before the Internet took off. Back then,

The leather scene is perhaps the fetish scene

with the biggest history. Its origins date back to the
1950s, just after World War II. Arnaud starts laying
out the history of leather like a thoroughbred storyteller. There are different stories, but in most of
them Tom of Finland is the leader. Hes the benchmark, the one that created all the imagery, the erotica. He has always been the one to follow. Tom is
the most inuential gay artist in history and for the
fetish scene in particular. When guys dress up, in
the back of their minds they always have a drawing
of Tom of Finland. Thats for sure. He was already
drawing before World War II, but in the 1950s he

020

ORIGINS

started drawing leather guys. The story goes that

theyre war veterans who came back from Europe.
Most of them are wearing paraphernalia they stole
from their enemies, the Nazis. In the narrative, the
gay soldiers started spending their war money on
bikes. They were not completely nished with the
fraternity that theyd enjoyed in the army in Europe.
Thats why some of them kept hanging out together, the ones who didnt have a wife and family, and
in doing so they formed the rst groups of bikers,
all wearing leather and trophies from the war. In
the 50s, 60s and 70s, there were tons and tons of
gay motorbike clubs in the USA, dozens of them in
LA alone. It was crazy. They looked like gangs, like
the Hells Angels, but then all-gay.

LEATHER IN
AMSTERDAM
Arnaud admits the leather scene has been a
bit drowsy in Amsterdam for a while, something
he mostly attributes to the surge of online dating
applications in the last decade. The Internet has
destroyed the whole gay horeca business, and
with that a lot of fetish bars and parties. Because
of the multitude of dating apps, many dont feel the
need to go to bars anymore. On top of that, we had
the closing of Cockring in 2010. Also the Eagle and
Argos closed down: all these bars that were at the
center of the Amsterdam fetish scene. Theyve all
reopened now, although not all in the same form.
Cockring is now the Warehouse, and not a fetish
club anymore. Which is logical, the market has
shrunk, so you cant have as many places as before. With new events such as the Mister Leather
Amsterdam competition and a couple of new parties, the scene is stabilizing again.
The size of the scene comes with certain
benets too, according to Arnaud: Its a minority
within a minority. Because there is less choice, you
meet a much wider range of people at one event.
There isnt enough quantity to separate the scene
into smaller compartments. In the mainstream gay
scene, you will have places where younger guys
go, places where guys into sportswear will go, et
cetera. Its true that the leather scene has an image
of attracting mostly older men, but when you take
guys ranging from 20 to 75 and you consider a guy
young when hes between 25 and 35, of course

Interview / Mister Leather Europe

youre going to have more older guys. Theres

actually lots of active twenty-somethings in the
scene.

MISTER LEATHER
EUROPE
May this year, Arnaud was the second person
to win the Mister Leather Amsterdam competition
during a nale show at The Eagle. We used to
have a Mister Leather Netherlands competition,
which ceased to exist about ten years ago. Some
people, including Michael Roks [Managing director of Eagle Amsterdam ed.] and Pieter Claeys
[Mister Leather Europe 2009 ed.] decided to
revive the event, but turned it into Mister Leather
Amsterdam.
The Mister Leather Europe competition was
supposed to take place in Munich in July, but had
to be cancelled last-minute, so the event had to
nd a new home for 2014. In the end it came down
to Amsterdam or London. The former won the vote
and organized a nale show in Club Church.
A Mister Leather nale show traditionally
consists of several parts: All candidates have to
prepare an act between three and ve minutes but
preferably three. This can be a speech, a dance, a
bondage show, as long as its entertaining, related
to leather and doesnt involve showing genitals.
Arnaud pauses to show me a joyous picture of
his puppy play-act. Secondly, theres always a
set of on-stage questions, so the audience gets a
better impression of the candidates. Usually, there
are also separate private interviews with a judging
panel, which consists of delegates from the
European clubs taking part in the event. However,
seeing that the set-up for Amsterdam was quite
last-minute, we had no time for that this year.
Besides receiving a bunch of free leather gear,
which, seeing the price tag attached to this fetish, is a welcome extra Arnaud seems outright
and honest when he tells me he is mostly participating for the experience it brings him. You get
to travel and meet lots of new people. You get to
understand the dynamics of the European leather
scene, which brings in new ideas we can implement in the Amsterdam scene. From London and

Pauda (Italy) came the inspiration for a regular

leather event with a less sex-oriented, more social agenda. With a group of friends we created
the Club of Amsterdam Leather Men, dedicated to organizing a similar event once every two
months. The ofcal launch was during this years
Leatherpride: C.A.L.M. Social. When discussing
the Amsterdam leather scene with other titleholders, especially the ones from the USA, I noticed
that it revolves very much around sex. Which is
okay, its great, but the relationships are different.
In Amsterdam, the leather scene is mostly a community of fuck buddies, who know each other from
sexual endeavors. What I saw in other European
scenes is that they organize gatherings where
people hang out in leather and just enjoy themselves, get to know each other and do fun stuff.
Its something that Im trying to bring to Amsterdam: more networking, more social relationships.
To start to give people the possibility to talk without
loud house music in the background, so that you
can actually have a decent conversation. To have
a location where there is more light, so people can
actually see each other. Its hard to get to know
a person, if there is always sexual tension in the
background. Via this new event, we want to make
leather less scary for curious people and boost the
idea of solidarity, of brotherhood, that has always
been a fundamental value in the scene.
Perhaps the biggest perk of Arnauds victory
is the fact that he gets to y to Chicago, to
represent Europe at the International Mister
Leather Competition (IML). Its a huge thing. The
contestants are mostly American: theres between
forty and fty competitors, about a dozen of which
are European. Thousands and thousands of
people come to watch the show. Hotels are actually
ghting over who gets to host the event. Its been
about twenty years since a Dutch representative
won IML and about ve since we represented at
all, so its high time!

For those who want to keep track of Arnauds

adventures as Mister Leather Europe 2014,
check out his page on Facebook.

Text Martijn Kamphorst / Photography Ren Zuiderveld

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