Nasty Pig: Leather-Bar Menswear from a West 23rd Street Apartment

Nasty Pig is an American men’s fashion brand based in New York City, founded in 1994 by creative director Frederick Kearney and CEO David Lauterstein. The name comes from their dog, Piggy. Part of the point was the stigma of the HIV/AIDS epidemic: assertive queer masculinity instead of shame. They started by selling re:vision goggles with refractive lenses. Profits from Club Kids paid for sewing and selling out of an apartment on West 23rd Street. The later flagship is on West 19th Street in Chelsea, not that apartment.

The look still comes off leather bars and gym floors. Early goods included bondage harnesses and straps, rubber jockstraps, bedding, and silk neckties with the logo hidden in the weave. Press descriptions put punk attitude, street graffiti, and high-tech materials together as masculine sportswear with an open fetish edge, tied to a raunchy sexual subculture. The motto is “fun clothing that gets you laid.” The primary market is gay men who want a masculine cut and are sure of their own sexuality. The clothes also move through wider queer and fetish fashion.

Rubber that can leave the dungeon

The practical problem was fetish gear that could not be worn, packed, or washed outside a dungeon. Ross Forman, writing for ChicagoPride, said the brand became known for machine-washable Nasty Pig Rubber. Ordinary rubber is hard to care for and stays stuck in private space. Nasty Pig Playsheets and the rubber goods could travel and go in a machine. Before the look spread further, it was the brand younger New York fetish scenes reached for.

The company has been described as the first sportswear firm in its industry to sell branded jockstraps. The NP Jean stretch-denim line became a bestseller and carried pig-play energy into clothes people wear on an ordinary day. Harness shapes, rubber, and jockstraps moved from International Mr. Leather booths into daily dress without losing the subculture mark.

The closet store, Inc. 5000, and a commercial cable would not keep

The first shop, called re:vision, was about 72 square feet, closet-sized. Early retail clients were the Leatherman and Mr. S in San Francisco. Heavy placement at Chicago’s International Mr. Leather, the annual fetish and leather conference and contest, pushed the name nationally. In 2013 Nasty Pig ranked number 3,060 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing U.S. companies. That year’s video lookbook used Juliana Huxtable and other gay nightlife figures.

In 2015 Time Warner Cable executives called the 30-second “Give/Receive” ad too hot for television. It was scheduled for Cartoon Network, Lifetime, Logo TV, and TBS. What actually aired was four runs on Logo in New York markets, and then it was pulled. The brand kept going. It advertised during American Horror Story: Freak Show in Los Angeles and New York, and in 2015 ran its first national campaign during RuPaul’s Drag Race. James Franco, Lady Gaga, and Madonna have worn the clothes. Nasty Pig and Versace outfitted Olly Alexander.

Shred of Hope, and safer-sex guidance in 2020

In 2013 Nasty Pig launched Shred of Hope, an auction of “shredder” T-shirts designed by celebrities including Dustin Lance Black and Adam Lambert. The proceeds went to New York City’s Ali Forney Center, described in the material as the largest LGBT community center in the U.S. The auction also tied the merchandise to funding for an LGBTQ youth shelter.

In 2020, during COVID-19, CEO David Lauterstein was praised by Queerty, Slate, and PinkNews. He helped the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene update its “Safer Sex and COVID-19” guidelines with more specific advice on dating and sex during the pandemic. Crain’s New York Business put him on its 2020 list of notable LGBTQ leaders.

From the roughly 72-square-foot re:vision shop to the flagship on West 19th Street in Chelsea, fetish clothing moved into mainstream menswear without the dungeon being bleached out of it. Machine-washable rubber, branded jockstraps, and stretch jeans solved wearing problems. Ads such as Give/Receive kept testing how much explicit queer sexual swagger mainstream cable would leave on the air. The Advocate summed the arc up as a $50 investment that grew into a global clothing name, with leather subculture still visible on the street.