The Leather Rosary

When I first entered the Kink scene I was immediately introduced to the leather community, most people around me had vests and I was very set on this idea that I needed to earn my leather, that I needed to prove myself to a point where people in my life would buy me a vest. I had found a $10 leather vest at a small town thrift store and gifted it to my first partner and daddy. He wasn't really kinky and he certainly wasn't leather, so when we broke up I took it back. I always felt silly wearing it as it was a men's large and hung on me in a way that showed it wasn't my vest, even when I had added all my pins and patches it always just didn't feel or fit right.

This led me into a pattern of looking for the “right” letter vest, I acquired three or four of them and they were all good but not perfect. I wanted to combine the things about my figure that were masculine as well as the things about my figure that were feminine without feeling ridiculous in either aspect. Finally, on a trip to Calgary to teach at an event, I visited one of the many leather shops they had. Originally I was looking for chaps but saw a vest and it just looked right, so while I collected other things I held onto it. It ended up being the only thing I bought and while it was a little tight in the armpits, after taking it to a leather tailor, it really is the perfect vest for me, it feels like it fits me exactly as I envisioned, its a part of me and I don't feel silly wearing it. I ended up gifting my old leather vests to other members of the community as well as gifting my current property their first vest.

On one side of my vest, I have a M/s flag pin, a purple overdose awareness pin in memorial to a partner of mine who was killed, I have a scalpel for my love of sharps and a tooth for my general love of teeth (I even have teeth tattooed on my hands) and a small rosary.

On the other side, I have my pronoun pin just above my name and then my FetLife tag. Below that I have all my event pins, the only one on that side that is technically incorrect is my Folsom pin. I was able to attend Folsom with some leather people in 2024 but unfortunately, the festival only had pins from past events so I am yet to scrape off the date and attempt to adjust it.

I feel a lot of pride in my leather and in my leather community and I'm so happy to have finally found a vest that truly feels like mine.