Smells Like Betty*

I'm flattered. Too bad I'm/Betty LaBamba is defunct.

Check out Betty LaBamba's signature dress.

Now look at Marquis' homage.

P.S. Merry Go-Broke-Mas

P.P.S. Coming soon are scans from Atomage No.1 and Betty Blog obit for Bettie Page.

P.P.P.S. Kisses and love.

*and her corpse smells like roses and rubber.

Some Stuff

My birthday's coming up! On November 11th I will be twenty-five years old. I'm an old, old woman. If my dear readers feel so inclined, feel free to send me a book from my amazon.com wish list. Used books are fine--I'm not too picky about getting new books.



Also, I've been getting requests about sharing my knowledge of making latex clothing. Yes, I do intend to share, but as the saying goes "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." What I'm saying is that I need something in return, not cash or shoes or clothing but something, that something being books. As a student and artist my funds are stretched rather thin. Receiving books I need--and want--would take some pressure off.

This is how it will go: I will write a tutorial blog post. If I receive a book or two, then I will write another one. If I receive nothing, then I will remove the post. The tutorials will alternate between basic crafting levels, intermediate and pro, and will include all aspects of the craft. My first tutorial will be a compendium of reference books and websites.

By the way, I do have latex sheeting available. Contact bettylabamba[at]hotmail for more info. Please note that if your email is just about general correspondence, it may take awhile for me to send a decent response. I failed basic correspondence in high school. Alas, I'm one of those people.

On hiatus...

Hello Everyone!

Regular readers of this blog are aware that I've single-handedly run a latex clothing label called Betty LaBamba since 2005. After much consideration, I've decided to take a sabbatical, as they say, from manufacturing latex clothing to pursue serious education plans for a future career in the photographic and/or cinematic arts. Right now my goal is to become a cinematographer. To accomplish that, I need to learn a lot of crap fast and eat a lot of metaphorical crap. Hence, I won't have the time to sniff glue eight hours a day, alone, in a basement studio somewhere in fabulous NJ.

As a result of my latex clothing hiatus, I have a special offer to those who ASK beforehand: half off everything in my eBay store. You must ask and you must have PayPal. All items are AS IS. Also, I am offering half off any item of latex clothing in my Etsy.com store. Findings and sheeting are excluded from this half-off deal. (However, I do have an excess of 4D and Radical Rubber latex sheeting that I can't reasonably use up for my personal use.) All inquiries should be directed to bettylabamba [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Cheers & Love,

Geena Maree

Happy Birthday Radical Rubber

This week marks the one year anniversary of upstart latex sheeting manufacturer Radical Rubber. Happy Birthday!

I can't believe it's been a year. I ordered from them quite early on--my order number was fourty-something. Time flies when you got your head up your ass. (Me, not them).

As with most business bee-day celebrations, there's always a big sale with a bunch of special offers. Oh, and are they tempting. For a split-second, I thought about slagging off school and buying a crapload of latex sheeting instead. Subscribe to R.R.'s newsletter to keep yourself current. Here's not the place for me to promote another company without any sort of remuneration.

RIP YSL

Yves Saint Laurent, one of the world's greatest treasures and the only truly unique being in fashion, died June 1st at the age of 71. I thought he would have lived forever. We can go onward without him, but we will always still imitate him.

In his own word's:

Recent political events, the reaction of young people to fashion and the way of life today make the haute couture a relic of the past. I do not want to find myself in the past--or in a stronghold cut off from everything. --YSL in 1968

I did not think that in a profession as free as fashion that one could meet so many people so narrow-minded and reactionary, petty people paralyzed by taboos. But I am also very stimulated by this scandal because I know that which shocks is news. --1971 (In reaction to universally scathing reviews of his spring couture collection.)

I have said before that the most beautiful makeup of a women is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy. --1978

I'm bored--and angry--with people who just design clothes for the runway. It's a massive deception, and one a lot of people have fallen for. --1979

Classics continue all the time because they have style not "fashion." --1981

People think decadence is debauched. Decadence is simply something very beautiful that is dying. It's a beautiful flower that is dying, and sometimes you have to wait a very long time for another flower to come along. --1986

In many ways, I feel that I have created the wardrobe of the contemporary woman and that I have participated in the transformation of my era. I have done so through clothes, which are certainly less important than music, architecture, painting or many other art forms, but it is nonetheless what I have done. --2002

The above quotes were taken from the Tuesday, June 3rd edition of WWD.

Rubber in Literature: Jean Genet

Look what I found! A very tiny reference to rubber rainwear in Jean Genet's autobiographical novel The Thief's Journal:


When I was being followed on the Rues des Couronnes, the terror that the plainclothesmen caused me was communicated by the ghastly swish of their rubberized raincoats. Every time I hear that sound again, my heart contracts.


[Page 102 of the 1964 Grove Press edition. Same pagination as this newer/shinier paperback edition.]


Jean Genet (1910-1986) was a French writer mainly known for his highly erotic novels and plays on homosexuality, crime, and really cool stuff. If you enjoy reading Sade and Bataille (for the philosophical content, ahem) you will probably love Genet too. Genet was a fantastic prose artist--just get a load of this fabulous disembodied quote, also from The Thief's Journal: "To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance." Nice, huh? I should get that tattooed on my forehead.

The short paragraph quoted above makes me think about the sound of latex rubber and the memories and feelings that resurface. What are your aural rubber memories? The creaking of a heavy corset sliding over a catsuit or the rustling of a long gown, for example, brings up different associations. Rubber is an acoustic fabric, but that trait is often overshadowed by the primary tactile-visual qualities.

S&M Muzak: Spanking to the Oldies

S&M themed music about getting off by getting a beating is not just the domain of goth and punk bands. For example, listen to He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss) by The Crystals--famous for Da Doo Run Run!

A bit of history behind the story from Wiki:

"He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)" is a pop song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and recorded by The Crystals under the guidance of Phil Spector in 1962.
Goffin and King wrote the song after discovering that singer Little Eva was being regularly beaten by her boyfriend. When they inquired why she tolerated such treatment, Eva replied, with complete sincerity, that her boyfriend's actions were motivated by his love for her.

Kinda fucked up, right? But then again, songs glorifying serial killers or about pimping out young ladies' vaginas are a bit screwed up too.

Fresh Meat

We've got some fresh latex meat from Japan on the links list. Latex Adventures in Japan is a relatively new blog written by Rubbergaijin, a foreign student living in Japan. He writes about his quest for a rubber soulmate and the mis/adventures that ensue.


3xL [the mutha of all rubber blogs] posted about L.A. in J. first. When I visited Rubbergaijin's blog, what did I notice? The Rubber Betty Blog was on his blog roll! Awesome.

Miss Rubber World 2008 Report

Betty LaBamba here, bringing you all inside scoop from this year's Miss Rubber World, the world's premier latex/rubber beauty pageant. As you may have known, I was one of the judges for said competition. Wow, I'm big shit, right? All kidding aside, let's get on with the shoe.


My boyfriend and I took photos with a polaroid camera. Why a polaroid? I say, why not? Polaroids just make everything look awesome.


MRW was held at Rebel, formerly the goth/industrial club Batcave, about a block away from Penn Station in NYC. The venue was spacious yet cozy with suitably decadent decor. However, it was a bit too cold for anyone not decked out in head-to-toe rubber, i.e. me.





Here I am in a new dress I made just for the occasion. My inspiration came from photos of little school girl dolls in a Japanese doll magazine. The main color is Radical Rubber's "electric blue," which is essentially a metallic pale blue. The color combo just popped in my mind, and I knew what the dress was going to look like even before I drafted the pattern.


Too bad it was freezing that night because I had to cover up with a cardigan sweater most of the night. Many party-goers stayed away since the weather was dangerously raw and arctic. Also, I had to wear black wool tights underneath my dress instead of latex stockings. Unfortunately, you can see the marks from the tights on the waist area. But that's all right: I still looked fabulous.




A judge's duty is never easy: some one always has to get executed. Oops, I mean...flogged. Yeah.

The two previous polaroids show us judges hard at work computating the scores. From left to right: Miss Rubber World 2006 Jess, me, Lady J. I've got the smallest boobs out of all the judges--and probably everyone else in the room. Hah!

This year there were only four contestants. Seven shimmied and shook their rubber-clad bums last year. Even with four, the show lasted well over an hour.


Pictured above is the 2nd runner up Dawn--in the anime catsuit--and 1st runner up Justine. It's a shame that that spectacular catsuit was PVC instead of latex! What also killed me was that there were three prizes total (the title prize, 1st runner up, 2nd runner up) and only four contestants. I felt so bad for the gal in last place. Do you think it was easy for me? I was partly responsible for crushing someone's dreams of rubber-beauty-world-domination. So close and yet so far. If there were five or six contestants, then it wouldn't have been so bad.

There's Miss Rubber World 2008, Steffy, looking especially radiant after her win. She'll be one of the judges for MRW 2009.

And now for some bonus pics.

Rubbertime Andrew, me, and Steffy looking oh-so-adorable.

Here we are again.

Rubbertime Andrew and Steffy: ready to kick rubber ass.

For more party photos, go to the official Miss Rubber World website here.

Suck My Caucus, Iowa. I'd Rather Read Elle Magazine.

Found! in this month's issue of Elle magazine (USA), an artsy fartsy b&w spread. No latex, but plenty of "shiny" and plenty of glamour.

Glistening hair, glistening lips, glistening nail polish; doll-like bow and hat; the model could be male or female.




Same as above but with a biker's jacket and zip-up leather opera gloves. Notice the shimmering lining of the skirt.

Fur fetish: the most politically incorrect of them all. However, this coat's made out of marabou feathers.

Vogue Nippon Post Bonus

Continuing from the Vogue Nippon scanfest...

Two cute but strictly serious pen-and-ink drawings from the horoscope section of said magazine. Illustrations by Miyuki Morimoto. Very 60's!

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Real Doll Tough Love

I got a chance to go the the Japanese market in North Jersey, so I picked up a copy of the November 2007 issue of Vogue Nippon. [Nippon = Japan.] I'm glad I did; it's filled with all sorts of shininess, and the theme is "hard love." There's a few other photo spreads I still have to scan. This spread is called "Tough Love" and features gorgeous dolls dressed in designer clothing. Although no latex appears in the spread, I reproduced it here for those of you into the Rubber Doll lifestyle.

DOMINATRIX: Dolce & Gabbana [above]
MEDIEVAL HARDCORE: Burberry Prorsum [below]

If you appreciate the work I've done the past year on this blog by buying all these magazines (especially those hard-to-get vintage fetish ones) and scanning them, please consider getting me a book on my Amazon.com wishlist. Thanks!
SWEET PUNK: Yves Saint Laurent [above]
BIKER BABE: Junya Wantanabe Comme des Garçons [below]




If you would like bigger versions of these scans (only the first picture will enlarge when you click on it) just let me know, and I'll send them to you. My email is listed on the side navigation bar.

EDIT: The très awesome blog Doll's Realm has posted the full-size versions of these scans. Go here and here to view them.

Poll: What's the best fetish mag ever?

From now on, if the polls aren't too stupid, I'm going to post the results after they close. Anyone remember the "Which Simpson character would you least like to see in latex" poll? Moe won that dubious distinction, I think. I really wish I saved it.

Here are the results from last week's poll, "What's the best fetish magazine ever?"

Out of 16 votes,

00% chose Skin Two
43% chose Marquis/Heavy Rubber
12% chose Secret
31% chose Atomage
12% chose I don't know

Jeez, Skin Two got nothing. Even Secret got votes. I mean, they're all fine magazines, bastions of literary excellence. Oh, shit. I guess I just blew my chances of getting in either of them. Oops. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Can I kid once in a while, or is the "scene" under an iron curtain with a sign saying "No Sarcasm Allowed"?

The IAR's going off the air...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Back to School Blues

It's nearing September, and we all know what that means: back to school time. You probably have kids that have to go back (kicking and screaming 'cuz summer fun time's over), or you're the one going back (kicking and screaming 'cuz you don't know how the fuck you're gonna pay off those student loans). The weather is getting colder, the sky is getting darker earlier, and you could have sworn you heard God laughing at you.

The approaching fall is not all that bad, however, considering now's the time of year when all the major US fashion mags put out their fall "biggest issue ever" editions. Ah, 5 lbs and 700+ pages of chic lumpen capitalism! The mailman hates me; I subscribe to all of them--Vogue, Elle, Bazaar, W. I've already "read" through the first 5lbs. Now I just have 15 more pounds of glossy perfume-drenched paper to wade through, mentally and physically . (Is there a patron saint of paper cuts I could pray to?) The good news is that I already found 5 pictures worth scanning and posting for my rubbery fashion conscious readers.

An another note, R.I.P. to Phil Rizzuto, Brooke Astor, Leona Helmsley, and Merv Griffin.

Slow News Week

My dear readers, it's been a slow news week. There's not much to write about and I don't really feel like writing about what can be written about.

In honor of The Simpsons Movie, which everyone except me has probably seen by now, I did one of those avatar "create your own Simpsons character" things the Fox network has been shoving down our throats. (Since the movie site's so flash heavy, I'm not gonna even bother to link to it.) I tried to get it to look as much as my real self as possible. Brown pants? Check. Blue sneakers? Check. Black shirt? Check. A look of frustration and ennui in the eyes? Check. Oh, Like the rubber duck on my shirt? Cute, right? See, I can still manage to sneak in a reference to rubber.

Everyone loves polls!

Blogger recently added a new poll thingamajig, and I fully intend to make use of it. One's already up. Take a look at the navigation strip of crap on your right hand side. Gallup and Zogby got nottin' on me, nottin. Every week I'll make a new ridiculous poll that may or may not have anything to do with rubber. After all, we can't be serious all of the time. Suggestions are certainly welcome.

Where Am I?

I'm sorry I haven't kept up to date with new posts for the past ten days. Life hit pretty hard. My father passed away June 12 and I need grieving space. I don't think I need to get into here about how much I love him and how much he's given me. If you love my Betty LaBamba products, note that without his support I doubt the label would have lasted past the dreaming stage.

In the meanwhile, check out these blogs I recently added to the link list: F&ART, which is mostly fashion, and Swiper's Snake Pit, whom some of you may recognize from the RubberPal forums. You could always re-live the Rubber Betty good times by perusing the archives.

I'll be back to terrorize the blogosphere next week.

Protect Yourself From Infectious Lawyers...

...wear a Betty LaBamba surgical mask. We here at Betty LaBamba care about public safety, your public safety.

Andrew "Tuberculosis is Awesome, dude!" Speaker

Andrew Speaker, now lovingly known as "TB Andy" or "That TB Guy" is in my opinion a fucking asshat personal injury lawyer from Atlanta, GA, who figures he's special and the rules don't apply to him. Somehow he got a "dangerous, extensively drug-resistent" strain of TB, knew he had it, yet took a few plane trips around the world anyway. What a nice, caring, wonderful man. Oh c'mon, TB is nothing--it's just a little cough! It's not like anyone could actually die from it. In fact*, studies show contracting TB is beneficial for AIDS and cancer patients and may even help them recover competely in cases where death is the only option.

*In case some of you humourless twats didn't get it, this is satire, bad satire but satire nonetheless. And my unimportant opinions which constitutes my opinion.

NYC Fetish Model Cyndie Myst in Sunsilk Hair Commercial

My friend and NYC fetish model Cyndie Myst is in a Sunsilk "Get hairapy" commercial. Go here to view it. Click on "Hair Toons" and then on the green boot button. Yup, that's her legs rendered in poppy animation.

Cyndie says: "Believe it or not, that short commercial took about 3 hours. I had to walk this pattern...crack a single tail, over and over. But hey...the annimation is kinda cool. The sound is actually from filming."

Way to go, Cyndie!