We wanted to work with Dayne on something for our upcoming issue but unfortunately there just wasn’t the right project. I guess that just means we need to get working on the next issue. Anyway Dayne Henderson is a latex designer supreme. He created garments for Lady Gaga and her ArtRave tour and his upcoming SEX line promises to be INSANE. We caught up with him to find out more…

What did you watch on TV when you were growing up?
Power Rangers, Biker Mice from Mars and X-Men, I remember those being firm favourites as a kid. This question got me a little nostalgic so I had a look back and evidently it could be that that’s where it started, biker leathers, skin tight catsuits, masks, fierce women..It’s all there!

Looking at your work now, where do you see your earliest influence?
I was always creative but at 15 a family friend took me to see ‘Taboo’ – Boy George’s musical and that’s where I first came across the late Leigh Bowery played by Julian Clary. I was obsessed and that’s really when I sussed out that clothing and fashion could be an art form and a way of self expression. I then went onto to study fashion design at college and uni.
I have always been drawn to the extreme and the subversive, experimenting a lot with my image and identity when I was younger. I loved to provoke a reaction. As I’ve got older the principle is the same I guess, I just dress others now and not myself.

Do people recount stories of when they wore your clothing? Can you tell us any?
This is part of the fun with latex fashion, for a lot of people their fetish for latex runs deep, on a physiological level and it becomes so much more than an item of clothing.
Part of my ‘thing’ is the concept that my outfits take over the person wearing them allowing a freedom to be what or whoever they choose to be. It’s always great to get models in the gear and see how it makes them react, once you’re in a full catsuit and mask with total anonymity it’s easy to let go…and boy, do they!

Can you drop some names and tell us which major pop names have used your gear on themselves or their dancers?
A few months into launching my brand I was commissioned to design and make headpieces for Lady Gaga and her dancers for the ArtRave world tour. It was insane. It all happened so fast it didn’t sink in until photos from the shows started emerging and there she was with my tentacles on her head.

Latex is traditionally a very sexy material, yet there are very few high fashion designs from latex brands. Why do you think this is? Is that something you are conscious of?
Basic bitches! No, honestly there are quite a lot of latex brands that kick out some really high-end stuff but a lot go under the typical fashion radar because we design for the fetish scene which is a growing but pretty limited market, it’s a skilled and time-consuming method of production so it’s difficult to be wildly creative and commercially viable.
For me, I’m skint, but I get by. A lot of my collections up till now have been for shows at various events on and off the fetish scene and I have taken more of a performance art approach. My concern is not, ‘Will people buy it?’ but instead focusing on making my mark and showing what my brand is about.

What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently working on contradicting my last answer with a ready to wear line SEX. That will debut at Torture Garden, Edinburgh and be available online shortly after. Probably no less wild but less likely to need a safety warning. Then I’m gearing up for something a little more Avant Garde in Berlin later this year.

What’s your favourite piece you have designed so far? Where were you when you came up with the idea?
It’s a full body spotted catsuit with an inflatable neckpiece and mask, it was an image of that outfit I sent to Lady Gaga’s stylist that landed me the opportunity to design for her. My outfits lose their WOW factor to me once I’ve seen them worn a few times. That came out of retirement to be filmed for a TV show recently and it definitely still had it for me.

Traditionally we ask everyone what their favourite Mariah Carey song is and why. But we’d like to know which of your outfits you think she would like to wear and why?
Is my gay card revoked for not being a fan? I could do her a pretty good bondage gag!

Follow Dayne here:
http://www.daynehenderson.com/
Facebook