Richardson Cozies Up With Leather Daddies and S&M Subculture

Following references to Afghan war rugs for its second drop of the Fall/Winter 2020 season, Richardson pays pays homage to one of New York City’s most iconic gay bars, Spike: a landmark of leather, butch and S&M subculture throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

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The collection maintains the rebellious naughtiness of the bar itself — most notably via a black leather riding crop and pairs of fingerless gloves in white and black. But there’s also some less-overtly-kinky fare. The garments include a T-shirt and black satin bomber jacket embellished with Spike’s logo, a black waterproof trench with embroidered Richardson branding, and a Richardson hoodie with vinyl logos on the chest and right sleeve.

Other accessories of note include a tri-fold wallet crafted in basket-weave embossed leather and heavy gauge chrome ring engraved with Richardson’s motto: “lude ferox corde lude communica,” or “Play Hard, Play Nice, Communicate.”

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Richardson’s Spike-inspired drop will be available to shop online and at U.S. outposts on October 29, and at Richardson Tokyo on October 31.

Leather keeps “cropping” up these days, recently inspiring John Lawrence Sullivan’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection which took notes from Robert Mapplethorpe’s portraits of the subculture for elegant menswear.