Wild in Secret - WISBedroom Double Or Nothing Bondage Sash

Rating: 4/5
Impressions: Gorgeous and oh-so-versatile. They're like the world's most sensuous Waldorf toys for adults!
Price: $72/sash from Wild in Secret

I've always been a bondage traditionalist, or perhaps a bondage purist, you could say. Restraints to me mean leather--black leather, to be precise, although I do own a lovely pair of red leather wrist restraints--and buckles. Or maybe it's not just that I feel like bondage isn't bondage without leather, maybe my brother is right and I just have a fetish for leather and buckles (incidentally, he told me this when I was about 9 years old, if my memory is accurate, so I've been this way for a looooong time, probably my whole life, come to think of it). Considering the fact that I'm hopelessly drawn to any item of clothing combining the two, he's probably right.

Either way, it was a break from the usual when I fell in love with WIS' gorgeous silk bondage sashes and decided that I needed them in my collection, even if they weren't what I would normally choose in the way of restraints. Not only are they made from (gorgeous) silk charmeuse but there's no buckles or fasteners of any kind. They're freeform, completely open to interpretation and the limits of their user's creativity. They can be anything from a blindfold to gentle wrist restraints to a luxurious obi-like waist sash. They're like Waldorf toys for adults (and I'm an eternal child at heart, so maybe that's what drew me to them...that and my love for the feel of pure silk against bare skin).

Kudos to WIS for creating something so beautiful (and versatile). While the plain, one-color sashes are beautiful, the two-color Double Or Nothings are downright gorgeous. I picked the red/black combination (one of my favorite color pairings, incidentally) and it's just beautiful. It almost seemed like a crime to take them out of their box (whoever packed them gets a round of applause from me; there's no way I'm going to be able to refold them so nicely) and use them, knowing that they were going to get wrinkled and rumpled, but there's no point in owning them if they just sit in their box and look beautiful.

There's something about leather restraints that makes me feel down and dirty (a feeling I like quite a bit, to be perfectly honest), but not with the Bondage Sashes. They make me feel classy...sophisticated, even. They make me want to put on the pencil skirt that makes me feel so deliciously sexy, a pair of peep-toe pumps--maybe even a string of pearls--and let myself be tied up, gently but securely. A far cry from my normal preferences, but there's something about these sashes that touch a part of me that's just now starting to make itself known. The part that loves soft, silky things and feeling sexy in a slim-fitting skirt and heels, not the leather-loving tomboy with the scars on her knees who likes rough treatment and spends most of her life barefoot or in beat up Birkenstocks.

For my inaugural use of these little beauties, I cheated a bit and used them in combination with my usual leather restraints--leather suspension restraints on my wrists and hands and a Double or Nothing wrapped, figure-eight-style, around my forearms (strictly speaking, I didn't need the bondage sash to restrain me even further, but I liked the combination of leather and silk...plus it was a nice transition from only leather to only silk).

First, maybe I should point out the differences between my gorgeous new silk restraints and your standard leather bondage cuffs, because it's a whole new ball-game when it comes to using the Bondage Sash and there was some trial and error involved in adopting to the change in material and style.

The main difference is in material. Leather tends to grip itself and hold tight without much issue, but silk charmeuse, (as anyone who has experienced the hedonistic joy of wearing it knows) flows. The very thing that makes it feel so wonderful against my skin works against me when I try to use these the way I would normally use leather restraints. Because the silk is so...silky, it tends to slip over itself, which means that knots and wraps tend to loosen easily (rather than gripping itself and staying taut like leather would). That wouldn't be an issue at all if I were using it as a simple blindfold or waist sash or if it was being used to tie my wrists--with a simple bow--to the headboard of our bed. But it didn't quite work out perfectly the way we were using it. A minor quibble, really; more an issue of learning what you can and can't effectively use these for than anything (and how to compensate for the difference in grip between leather and silk).

The other difference is the very thing that makes the Bondage Sashes so versatile: their lack of buckles, clasps or any other sort of closure. Where your run of the mill leather wrist or ankle cuff generally has a buckle closure and a design that keeps the wearer from easily being able to pull their hand or foot out, the Bondage Sashes' combination of slipperiness combined with the way that silk expands and loosens when it's been warmed by body heat means they're easier to slip off in the heat of the moment. Where leather is generally stiffer and more binding, the silk is softer and more gentle.

That's not to say that they're a poor restraint, because they're not. They're just different than what I'm used to, which means that we need to keep the differences in mind and compensate for them.

Differences and teething pains aside, I genuinely have to say that I love these. The difference in sensation is, in my humble opinion, the best part. Leather feels strong and dirty while the silk feels luxurious and pampering. It's a change in mindset, at least for me. Granted, the leather mindset is generally the one that I'm after in situations involving bondage (only because bondage to me is about submitting and being dominated, which lends itself more to the traditional leather restraint than to the pampering of silk), but every now and then I want to feel beautiful and worshiped and those are the times when the Bondage Sashes are just what I need.

The thing I love the most about these, though, is the versatility. The Bondage Sash is as at home outside the bedroom as in (it can be a belt/waist sash, a hair wrap/tie, even a scarf if you were so inclined, as long as you didn't mind the "Bondage Sash" script written on the center of one side of the sash) and I'm already brainstorming ways to use mine.

(Buy Double or Nothing Bondage Sashes from Wild in Secret)