VIDEO : WATCH: Berlin’s fetish fashion breaks out of the club

Known throughout the world for their extravagance, Berlin’s clubs have fostered a taboo-free style, inspired by fetishism, that makes liberal use of leather and latex with accessories that pinch, poke and squeeze.

“Fetishwear” has its dedicated shops and well-known designers, and takes pride of place in the city’s two big summer festivals: the Technoparade, which took place in July, and Berlin’s pride march, one of the biggest in Europe, on Saturday.

It is during this summer party season that Shaham and his partner Lulu Neel have decided to make their latest pilgrimage to Berlin.

The couple fell in love with the city three years ago when they came across a community of clubbers “just dressing so much better than I had ever seen”, says Lulu.

“I wanted to be dressed like that,” says the young woman, a specialist in 3D digital design by day, who wears a black rope necklace with metal rings to a show organised by upstart clubbing label, The Code.