San Francisco Fetish Ball
On March 18, 2006 I attended the San Francisco Fetish Ball at the Regency Grand Ballroom near downtown. I debuted my new outfit, a latex version of Maskara. To read about the making of the suit, click here. A much fuller account of this evening can be found in the April 2006 issue of The Mask Mailing List. Subscribe today by sending me an e-mail, it's free!
Walking in, I didn't get 10 feet before someone asked to take my photo. Of course I said yes. I wandered around to get my bearings and see if anyone I knew was there already. Pretty much, any time I stopped walking and stood around, another person would ask to take my picture. Nice.
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I knew being in those boots would be painful, so I opted for 10 minutes of walking around, followed by 10 minutes of sitting to give my feet a rest. About 45 minutes after I arrived, the Rubbersisters walked over and I managed to get a quick shot of me and Monica together (at left). Then they disappeared for two hours and I only saw them again just before I left. |
| I was also keeping an eye peeled for Steffy the Rubberdoll who I knew was wearing her Playboy bunny outfit. How hard could it be to spot a six foot girl with rabbit ears? Apparently, pretty hard, I didn't run into her until the last half hour I was there. > > > |  |
The above photos are all of the people wearing female masks at the ball! Even Jacline opted for a hood instead of a mask that evening.
Probably the highlight of the night for me was when I was in a sideroom sitting on the arm of a sofa people watching. A photographer came over to take my photo and I tried to stand to give him a better pose than just sitting on my ass. But he motioned me back down and then took a shot. I handed him my card so he'd know who I was and he gave me his. I looked at the name: Larry Utley. He is a very well-known fetish photographer and I had seen some of his pictures on display at an event the previous Thursday. Holy smokes! I vigorously shook his hand and thanked him.
It was getting around 1:30 AM, I had been there for three hours and wanted to get a taxi and beat the rush at 2. I walked out front and asked one of the security guys to hail a taxi for me. One pulled up but I misjudged where the curb was and nearly fell over. I heard everyone gasping behind me as I almost went down and someone asked if I was okay. I waved them off and clumsily climbed into the back of the cab. Okay, zero points for style. I handed the driver the card for the hotel and we were off.
The Aftermath
Got back to my room and couldn't wait to take my boots off. It almost hurt worse with them off than on. I couldn't even walk to the bathroom in bare feet. When I finally did I had a shock: the right arm of my costume was completely torn. In fact, the whole outfit was much worse for wear, I looked like a superhero who had lost a particularly bad fight. I hoped this had happened at the taxi and quickly checked my last photograph to confirm I hadn't been walking around with the tear at the Ball. It was okay. Here's what it looked like afterwards back in my room:
Not to worry though, a few repairs and everything will be good as new. As for attending the Ball, I pulled it off and I was greatly pleased by the good reaction I had gotten there. It definitely was the kind of event I should be attending to show off my costumes. If anybody sees any photos of me posted online or in magazines, let me know, I'd love to see them!
