Daily News, Jan. 18, 2001

DECADENTLY DELICIOUS
UNRESTRAINED BY CONVENTION, PSYDDE MAKES HIS MARK
Sono Motoyama, Daily News Staff Writer

Not to be confused with the dead Sex Pistol or an edible treat, artist-provocateur Psydde (pronounced "Sid") Delicious is perhaps his own best concoction.

Variously described as "the nicest human being on the face of the planet" and "that little tramp," Psydde arrived in Philadelphia from Bloomsburg, Pa., as an apple-cheeked college student in 1987. A couple of years later, he deep-sixed his birth name (he won't tell what it was) and self-created the man and the myth and the madness that is Psydde today.

Psydde has expanded Philly's horizons while constricting its citizens' rib cages as the co-proprietor of Delicious Corsets, makers of "art to wear." He's also the genial host of a Sunday night party at Fluid nightclub called "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control."

A fellow with an admittedly "small frame," 31-year-old Psydde recently sported a black leather hat with a brim ("my evil cowboy hat," he calls it), multiple piercings (we lost count at seven - and that was in the visible areas of his body only), a shock of hair that has been different colors (including orange) but now is blond, dark slacks and a loose-fitting shirt with sleeves rolled to reveal black leather wrist restraints.

"They make my wrists look bigger," he explained of the cuffs, with a laugh.

Is he into bondage?

"I dabble," he said, and again laughed his soft laugh.

Amy Schmitz, his business partner and longtime friend, guffawed.

Sitting during daylight hours in the diminutive pink and orange Delicious Corsets studio on 12th and Vine, Psydde is extremely accommodating and yes, nice. He does not necessarily seem like the purveyor of fetishistic undergarments and the promoter of underground evenings of debauchery.

In fact, corsets have come way out in the open in recent years. You can see them, of course, in any number of period dramas - check out Gillian Anderson, star of the Edwardian-era movie "House of Mirth," all tied up in a beige-and-black number in the Jan. 22 issue of Us Weekly. And designers from Chloe to Stella McCartney to - naturellement - Gaultier have featured corsets in recent lines. Even the relatively minimalist Helmut Lang has shown corset-inspired fashions of late.

Psydde made his first corsetlike get-up as a student at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science (now Philadelphia University), where he studied woven textiles. Schmitz, who helped him make it, remembers the garment as "a cross between a straitjacket and a corset."

The two started making corsets for customers in 1995 and quit their day jobs four years later - Psydde was working at Ballyhoo Vintage Clothing, which was on North 3rd Street (now it's just on the Web), and Schmitz was at Kinko's. ("I quit my corporate job," Schmitz said.)

As Psydde's boss at Ballyhoo remembers it, when he wasn't selling clothing, Psydde used his time at the store to scope out the vintage corsets that would come through, and to study up on odd obsessions.

"One time he came in with a book all about feet, with Hollywood actresses with their shoe sizes," Greg West said. "He's not really so much into it himself as he is in the idea of it."

(Among Psydde's other fascinations are antique medical implements, of which he has a collection at home. Also at home, he keeps a human brain in a jar.)

"I'm very into cages and entrapments," Psydde said. "I used to describe weaving as fiber bondage."

Corsets, perhaps even more than woven materials, are like cages for the body. "You put your body into it and you're re-creating the shape of your body by creating this [corset]," he said. "You're creating this vessel."

Psydde also notes the distinct erotic fascination that corsets have.

"It's on you and it squeezes you and you're constantly aware of your body," he said. "It's really stimulating that way."
Many people may imagine Scarlett O'Hara and her 181/2-inch waist when they think of corsets ("Try again, Mammy"), and indeed there are her modern-day equivalents. People who are interested in "waist training" want to modify their body's natural shape, gradually cinching the corset tighter and tighter. Both men and women may have this proclivity.

"A lot of times, people will enter into contracts with their partners," Psydde explained. "People will agree to a corseting contract, and you'll discuss with your partner the amount of time you'll be wearing your corset. Your partner is usually the one that will lace you and unlace you."

Psydde and Schmitz say they're not personally into this specialized form of corseting, though they both do occasionally wear corsets.

"I can take 7 inches off my waist now, which, considering I'm not really seriously waist-training, is significant," Schmitz said.

She gets her waist down to 23 inches, she said, which contrasts with her 39-inch hips to produce a stunning hourglass shape.

Extreme as all this might sound, the Delicious Corsets client includes the suburban bridal or prom customer. Psydde and Schmitz sell their wares on the Web and on the road, at specialty fetish shows - but also in the high-end Center City lingerie boutique Coeur.

Though Delicious Corsets lines are named after and inspired by such writers as Anais Nin, Jean Genet and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, these garments could indeed appeal to a spring-fresh bride, a Bryn Mawr teeny-bopper going to her first formal or a Swarthmore mom going to a Halloween ball.

Handmade of raw silk or satin or silk brocade, with steel boning, the corsets are constructed of three layers, and the level of workmanship, in hand appliques, for example, is impressive. Not to mention beautiful.
In jewel colors - one custom line was inspired by the four elements, and another had a circus theme - a Delicious Corset could take the shape of a more modest waist cincher ($250) or a theatrical raiment that covers the bust and has insect wings on the back ($500).

These are definitely not just underwear.

"He's really the only East Coast person to make a specialty out of making custom corsets," said Kali Morgan, whose Fetishes Boutique in Queen Village sells Delicious Corsets. "Their stuff is so unique."

With Morgan, Psydde mixed his daytime and nighttime proclivities. He helped her plan Fetishes Boutique's annual charity ball, "Diabolique," which began in 1997.

"He was my right-hand man," Morgan said. "I realized he was a little party animal and so am I, and it just sort of worked out. He's a little troll - he's great."

At the time, he would discuss his work on "Diabolique" with Avram Hornik, who was the owner of Quarry Street Cafe (now under different ownership) and the bar-restaurant Lucy's Hat Shop.

In November 1998, "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" was born out of these discussions.

"From knowing Psydde, who has such a strong personality and so many people like him, I knew that whatever he did would be good for business," Hornik said.

Lucy's bartender Mark Fichera recalled that the first few months of the party were a little slow until Psydde made an amateur go-go contest the main event. "Then it progressed after that," Fichera said.

"You'd be surprised how many people, given the opportunity, get up and want to take their clothes off. Girls and guys."

Psydde said, "We hired go-go dancers to come in and dance to get the crowd warmed up. Then we would get on the mike and get the contestants up on this little platform on the end of the bar. People got up there and we would make little sashes: 'Cheap Slut of the Night.' You would win your little sash and get your picture taken and get, like, a 40-ounce bottle of beer."

Fichera said, "The great part about 'Fast, Cheap' was the diversity of the crowd. You had punk rock kids drinking next to rave kids drinking next to leather-wearing bikers drinking next to 40-year-old guys in suits. Everyonewas just there for a good time.. . .It was so goofy."

The city's Licenses and Inspection folks were not amused, since Lucy's did not have a license that permitted dancing.
"It got a little too fast, a little cheap and a little too out of control for Lucy's," Hornik said with a laugh.
But Psydde says you shouldn't believe the hype. "As much as I like to call the party 'Fast, Cheap and Out of Control' and talk about how scandalous it is, it's fun but it's not dirty."

The party moved to Fluid, on South 4th Street, last January.

On a recent Sunday, there was Psydde in his evil cowboy hat, working the crowd.
"We're completely and fully licensed for anything we could do at Fluid," Psydde said.
Then a gleam came into his eye.

"Except I have to look into live animals."

Delicious spots:
Delicious Corsets (www.deliciouscorsets.com):
Coeur, 132 S. 17th St., 215-972-0373;
D/s Toychest, 975 (Rear) Broad St., Meriden, Conn., 203-639-0622 or 877-4DS-TOYS,
www.d-s-toychest.com;
Fetishes Boutique, 704 S. 5th St., 215-829-4986.
The "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" party (members.aol.com/fastcheap) is every Sunday at Fluid, 613 S. 4th St. (above the Latest Dish), 10 p.m.-2 a.m., $3 cover charge.
Delicious also has a monthly performance salon, "Hard Liquor Theater," with Ira A. at Bennie's, 1510 South St., usually on the last Monday of the month. The next one is at 8 p.m. Jan. 29, $3 cover charge.
Send e-mail to sono@phillynews.comIllustration

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