On Detroit’s nightlife and subculture map, Noir Leather has a specific spot. The shop has been open since September 1981, owned and run by Keith Howarth, and it became a local landmark quickly. It started as a leather wholesaler, then opened a storefront on 3rd Street in Royal Oak, Michigan, on 17 December 1983. In a city known for cars and Motown rather than dungeon fashion, Noir kept S&M-inspired leather visible. The counter was also a design workshop, an event sponsor, and a nightlife brand inside the Midwest fetish and goth scenes.
Howarth advertised hard, and the brand sat inside the local scene. By the mid-1990s there were four shops: Noir Leather, Vintage Noir, Faith Couture, and Noir Windsor in Canada. The wholesale side hired young punk makers to design and build S&M- and punk-inspired leather: collars, wristbands, boot straps, and belts, plus a gothic jewelry line of necklaces, cross earrings, rosaries, and bracelets. The goods shipped to punk shops in North America, Asia, and Europe. In the same period Howarth staged live fashion shows at Detroit’s State Theatre. Crowds reached 2,500. The fetish runway was a public room.
The multi-store setup has since shrunk to one boutique, at the old Vintage Noir address: 124 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI 48067. It is open six days a week and closed on Tuesdays. Noir Leather still sponsors local fetish events and still hosts the Hellbound fetish parties and erotic fashion shows it is known for. A lot of leather sellers are now just a web cart. This one kept a physical shop next to club life. In the history of BDSM gear it is a regional case: wholesale collars and straps, gothic jewelry worn as everyday scene fashion, and parties that turned a shop into a community hub. Detroit’s fetish map still runs through that Royal Oak counter.
