Gay&Night-ZiZo December 2014

201
/ 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 month’s
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 can’t really recount the exact moment I got
interested in leather, because the fascination has
always been there. It’s like my sexual orientation.
I can’t 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.’
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… let’s say
it wasn’t 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 don’t exist nowadays. We are talking about the
nineties, before the Internet took off. Back then,
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 I’d expected. The leather scene is
also very much a community of likeminded people
who enjoy hanging out and having a good time
together.’
ORIGINS
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. He’s the benchmark,
the one that created all the imagery, the erotica.
He has always been the one to follow. Tom is
the most in uential 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. That’s for sure. He was already
drawing before World War II, but in the 1950s he
started drawing leather guys. The story goes that
they’re 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 they’d enjoyed in the army in Europe.
That’s why some of them kept hanging out together,
the ones who didn’t 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 don’t 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. They’ve 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 can’t 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: ‘It’s a minority
within a minority. Because there is less choice, you
meet a much wider range of people at one event.
There isn’t 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. It’s 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 he’s between 25 and 35, of course
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