Can You Guess The Racy Inspiration Behind Eddie Borgo’s J.Crew Line?

by Annie Wazer | 2:25 pm, June 16th, 2011

You read it right: J. Crew and S+M have actually been used in the same sentence. Maybe it’s just us, but the pastel cardigans of J. Crew and the whips and chains of S+M bondage don’t really seem like a match made in merchandise heaven.

And yet, we’re kind of really into Eddie Borgo‘s six-piece, limited edition collection from his runner-up CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award that is very reminiscent of his past S+M-inspired seasonal collections. The pearls mixed in with the spikes, the neutral leathers with tough hardware — he’s found a way to harmoniously mesh the ying and the yang, leaving us to wonder whether J.Crew has more of a dark-side than we thought.

In an interview with Styelist, Borgo revealed his motivation for using hardware in his Spring/Summer 2011 collection,

The SS11 collection was highly inspired by Madonna’s book “Sex” by Fabien Baron, a high fashion interpretation of sexuality and its subcultures. I reconsidered metal fetish hardware by taking bondage cuffs, piercings, padlocks, and latches and making them sophisticated through the use of fine jewelry techniques. This S+M aesthetic is softened with the use of Lapis, Labradorite and Howlite

Well there you go, the epic tale of how J. Crew got freaky with S+M. And if nothing else, the spiked cuffs can protect you from all the golf-cart-hijackers at the country club.

Take a look at Borgo’s capsule collection for J. Crew — available online and in select stores now, for between $38 and $175 — as well as a few pieces from his own collection below. Would you wear it?