Life's no drag for Chris

It’s a long way from panel beating to making fetish costumes via drag performance, but that’s the journey Chris Davis has been on

I’ve always wanted to be female, so I think the drag queen stuff is in my blood. I came out officially as a drag queen when the fetish scene took off in 1984.

I used to organise fetish parties and drag queen events. I’d perform with my drag partner, Brian. Our performances were more gothic than usual, but they were fun.

I’d make the stage clothes myself – I had no machining skills, my skills were all self-taught. Bizarrely, most of my creations got pinched on a regular basis. I remember thinking: “If people are nicking them, there has got to be a market for them!”

I used to work in the car industry, but when my eyesight deteriorated I had to give it up, so I decided to train as a fashion designer. It was during the six years training where I met my current partner, Fiona. She revived my interest in the fetish scene so we put our heads together and we started what is now Wicked Waists.

Before we set up in business, we had four years together of playing with each other’s designs and sketches so even now I’ve lost my sight completely, I know that when I describe a design to her, her sketch will be exactly what I had in mind. I make up the patterns, cut steel boning for corsets and Fiona does the machine stitching.  

Despite my lack of sight, I can touch a garment and know almost exactly what it looks like, just by running my hands over it. I get a sense of fabric, texture and the shape quite easily.

The hardest thing about starting our business was getting regular customers. We’ve now got quite a few who have been with us now for four years.

There’s a good mix of male and female customers, and people from all over the world. We’ve taken orders from America, Russia, Sweden and there is a lot of interest from Germany!

Because we are based in Chatham, near Dickensian Rochester, we do a lot of authentic Victorian and Regency costumes as well as really crazy stuff that you wouldn’t get in the high street. We’ve made satin-quilted leather dresses, restrictive “hobble” skirts, PVC fetish garments and Chinese-style dresses.  

Everything at Wicked Waists is made to order and designed by either the customer or myself.

At the moment, we’re working on what I call the “Grim Reaper” outfit made for a 6ft guy who wears 18” platform boots. It’s a straight coat with a corset crafted into it and a 6ft zip running all the way down to the floor. Even the hood has chains rather than cords. We had to source the fabric (Supergloss PVC) from Korea and the double-ended chrome plated zip was from Japan! It’s a work of art, like all our creations. We’re really proud of them all.

• Chris Davis was talking to Annie Makoff

Chris Davis: career path
* 1989 – Panel beater for R.B Hammonds
* 1992 – set up American Auto Repairs as a restoration specialist
* 1996 – trained as a fashion designer (holds a BA (Hons) Fashion Technology)
* 2005-present – set up Wicked Waists with partner Fiona Bucknor.