Mister Leather Europe, MLE, is a pan-European title contest for leathermen, usually held in October. The European Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs, the ECMC, organizes it, and a different member club hosts it each year. It runs parallel to the better-known North American contest, International Mr. Leather, and it is one of the main leather-title circuits on the continent. The men in it are not open walk-up pageant contestants. They are adult men in the leather community who already hold a local or regional ECMC club leather title. The weekend stays inside motorcycle-club and leather-club networks, not a commercial show, and the club annual meeting is the social spine of the European leather calendar.
The contest is tied to the ECMC Annual General Meeting, the AGM, and the host club rotates. A typical weekend starts Friday with a welcome party, where the contestants are introduced. Saturday afternoon the ECMC clubs meet. Saturday night is the gala dinner and then the MLE contest. Sunday morning ends with a farewell brunch. Gear, speeches, and club politics sit in the same weekend.
Judges, the fetish show, and Chicago
Scoring changes by year and is set by the host club. It usually mixes judges’ scores with some audience vote. In 2013 the host, Leather Friends Italia, published a split: the jury was two thirds, the public one third. The organizing club decides whom to invite as judges. For 2013 the invited list included Mister Leather Europe 2012, the ECMC Secretary, and the presidents of clubs physically present at the AGM. A president could hand the judge’s job only to another person from the same club.
From 2009 through 2011 the contest often ran in two rounds. First an on-stage interview and appearance, for presence and how a man spoke. Then a fetish show, for gear and erotic presentation. Judges and the room could score community representation and leather presentation separately.
MLE sits with International Mr. Leather, International Ms. Leather, and the Leather Archives and Museum as part of the formal title and memory gear of leather culture. For travelers and club members it is a fixed autumn date that changes city every year. ECMC clubs meet face to face, and a European titleholder is sent on to International Mr. Leather in Chicago the following May. Winners are often sponsored to compete there, which is how European club leather hooks into the global title calendar.
