What Fetishists Can Teach Us About Consumerism and Desire

"Selecting a pair, purchasing them, their arrival in the mail, the opening of the box, first spying the fresh trainers as she unwraps them. Far from becoming inert upon purchase, the Nike Air Max 95s to which Miss Gold is partial grow only more transgressively powerful when she walks through a pool of piss in a public bathroom. For the fetishist, Fedorova argues, the magic of a chosen item never has to wear off."

"Fetish, as Fedorova describes it, is a realm of sexual attraction orbiting around objects: leather masks that transform their wearers into nonhuman personae, a classic BMW that invites passionate, secretive encounters. A sneaker fetishist named Miss Gold describes the erotic thrill of Nikes, which emanates from the shopping process."

Anastasiia Fedorova's 'Second Skin' explores fetish cultures through personal reportage, examining how sexual attraction orbits around specific objects like leather masks and sneakers. Unlike conventional consumerism where purchased items become inert and disappointing, fetishists maintain the magical power of their chosen objects indefinitely. A sneaker fetishist named Miss Gold experiences sustained erotic thrills from Nike Air Max 95s through both the purchasing process and wearing them in transgressive contexts. Fedorova, drawing from her post-Soviet Russian childhood where branded commodities held spiritual significance, argues that fetishists successfully resist the cycle of desire, purchase, and disappointment that characterizes typical consumer culture. Objects within fetish communities retain their transformative and transcendent qualities rather than losing their appeal after acquisition.

Read at The New Yorker