StyleFetish: Worthy of the Hype?

Judging by their extensive range of BDSM furniture, their website & their videos, it would seem StyleFetish Industries are in a league of their own. But are they worthy of the hype? Let’s find out….

Those who follow us know we’re currently ‘between premises’ after selling the former Darlington Dungeon suite a couple of years ago. We had intended to move straight into another place in Stockton, however, there were unanswered questions regarding the commercial/residential status of the venue; lawyers had dragged their feet [aka ‘working’ from home] for eight months on conveyance work… then property prices started to drop suddenly, so we walked away. Our revised plan was to ‘keep our powder dry’ and wait to see what happened with investments and the macro environment.

Would it be advisable in the long term to open another dungeon at all?

Should we open a sauna instead? What about options overseas? How would things change after a General Election?

The only ‘constant’ is we’ve been working at the sharp end of the sex industry for 13+ years, as well as some time before that in sextoy retail…. we’re not letting that experience go to waste. In short, we know what we’re doing. You don’t survive in this business without repeat custom; those guys keep us going, & they come back because we deliver the goods, however, there’s always more to learn. So we’re forever investing in knowledge and equipment. Other’s seem to offer no more than same-old-same-old, and they wonder why they’re short of clients. Personal Services/BDSM ventures HAVE to be run like a business if they’re to grow and prosper. So, we’re always chasing numbers, targets, and trends.

Five years after the start of the plandemic there are still people who shun skin on skin contact, choosing instead to self pleasure via virtual means & Millennials are now five years older meaning they range in age between 28 & 44. The latter group, bless ’em, have always struggled to communicate, or dip their hands in their pockets for anything more than the bare minimum which has to be exclusively ON THEIR TERMS & THEIR TERMS ALONE. In a nutshell if they’re looking for sex and they know they’re likely to blow their load in 15 minutes that’s all they’re willing to pay for. Oh & I forgot to mention….during that 15 minutes they want, nay, DEMAND everything on your ‘likes’ list PLUS a ton of things that aren’t. Needless to say, we don’t bother with them much and yes I know, it’s wrong to generalise, and there are notable exceptions but…. All I’m saying is thirteen years answering 50-70 calls a week from every Tom Dick & Harry you get to notice traits & BEHAVIOURS.

GenZ’s are different… the juries still out, but with them, there’s hope, hope at least for those who engage in sex at all. Countless surveys these days suggest that upwards of thirty per cent refrain from sexual relationships altogether. GROAN. Can you see where this is going? Our golden clients are almost exclusively GenX’ers & Boomers. Men with a ton of real life experience, who still like to live dangerously. It saddens us sometimes…Silent Gens in their eighties or even older, guys who’ve lived wild lives of pure debauchery thru the Seventies & Eighties… wild sex, extended kinky sessions in mediaeval Bavarian castles, orgies, adult cinemas, you name it they’ve done it. Commonly they’re now long retired, in many cases with failing health. Invariably their wives know NOTHING of their hedonistic past. When these men seek our company… it’s not so much active sex its more about keeping fond memories alive. Again, there are notable exceptions, like the ex professional footballer aged 81 who’d never met an escort and never had a bi experience until. Until he met us, with a big hard cock to die for and stamina that would put many a thirty year old to shame. But I digress. Point is, we have to be on the ball when it comes to WHAT PEOPLE WANT. And in recent years, facesitting has become more sought after, high on many guy’s lists of desires. Perhaps too it’s because their appetite’s been whetted after seeing images of Mistress aka Minx baring [almost] all in private galleries.

Mistress can face sit on the bondage bed, but it’s a little precarious. It also means stretching muscles in ways they’re not commonly stretched, risking pulling, and injury. So we decided to look for a PROPER face sitting chair. There was some confusion with definitions and specs because some suppliers offered face sitting chairs which were in fact queening stools while others advertised smother boxes which were more akin to said stools. A good explanation of queening can be found HERE. Smother boxes are a variation of a face sitting chair in that they’re usually boxed in so the sub feels more constrained, his/her senses are heightened, especially if the head is prevented from moving by way of adjustable pads. These pads also act to muffle sound. Another advantage of the box design, is it retains scent. So like all things, it gets a tad complicated. Some dommes are prone to female ejaculation aka squirt, or a combination of juices and piss, so a few manufacturers label their devices ‘piss chairs’.

When we started looking, there were no suppliers offering quality units in the UK. Now that Fetters have all but ceased manufacture of dungeon furniture there’s little real choice if you’re looking for quality. True there’s a crowd with a similar name who have emerged in recent years, but we’re not ones to support businesses who habitually knock off other’s products. That left the big chains, people like UberKinky and SteelToyz, but their lines left a lot to be desired, particularly with regard to value. Items ranged from basic box iron frames at sky high prices, to crude wooden boxes covered in cheap fabric with a toilet seat bolted to the top. Hence the reason we looked further afield, to Germany and the US. We were surprised to find little on offer in the US. StyleFetish in Germany caught our eye though. They looked SERIOUSLY impressive, so much so we bummed them up in our well known NVS e-zine, featuring some of their products and videos. They came across as THE people to go to in the World of Dungeon Furniture. They offer a huge range of equipment, all solidly engineered in appearance at least, so we were excited to touch base with them.

That joy dimmed a little when they took weeks to respond to our inquiry… but hey, we knew they must be IMPORTANT PEOPLE and we were mere minnows (or so they thought). That’s something we’ve picked up on over the years… the disdain many PRIMA DONNA ADULT INDUSTRY SUPPLIERS have for ordinary customers, the bread and butter small orders which probably make up for the bulk of their business in aggregate over the long run. We’ve seen it time & again. If you’re Mistress Fabulous with twenty thousand social subscribers and a Go Fund Me because your cat’s ill or your place has been burgled, OR, if you’re an Adult Industry darling & award winner (on the back of endless self promotion/soliciting for votes etc etc) you get the attention & the network promotion. On the other hand, if you’re an ‘unknown’ to the movers and shakers IN THE INDUSTRY, they don’t take you seriously. Interesting thing is, we’re still here, after 13 years & make our entire living from working in that same industry, furthermore, we’re able to attract custom at rates in excess of many of these ‘celebrity’ service providers. It’s also noteworthy, that increasing numbers of their kind are quitting the game. Mind, hard times always sorts the wheat from the chaff.

StyleFetish did eventually respond, saying ‘they’d been busy in America’ and couldn’t answer emails. RIGHT!
Alarm bells should have rung. Past experiences with the PRIMA DONNAS should have warned us, but they didn’t. Why? Because we were taken, hook, line and sinker by their marketing & product line. Here was a company we felt we could confidently strike up a relationship & do business with, especially since we’re positioning ourselves to BUILD BACK BETTER in the near future. Their bondage bed and electrically adjustable face sitting table looked particularly interesting, on the wish list for sure, but for now, with the constraints of our current playroom, those things would have to wait. We really wanted the face sitting table but space just wouldn’t allow it, so we had to choose between three versions of their more compact face sitting chairs. StyleFetish offered a degree of customisation which we liked too… it meant we could specify powder coating in custom colours, to match our BDSM brand recognised by clients for around 6 years now.

StyleFetish had recently introduced a new product, a true smother box if you will, however, we didn’t think it was best for our needs since the base box was made in timber…not the ideal material if there are fluids flying about. There were three other units of broadly similar design, and after many weeks of deliberation we decided to order the Adjustable Facesitting Seat and Piss Chair 2.0 with additional head collar and seat back.

StyleFetish told us they wouldn’t accept our order unless we were registered with Customs for duty. Long story short, since Brexit, it seems if you’re to import from Germany you need to apply to GovUK for an Economic Operators Registration and Identification number (EORI number). StyleFetish told us we had to pay German Duty, and when we could produce proof we’d paid the extra UK duty upon import & delivery, they’d refund the difference. The application was simple enough, though I wasn’t happy with UK government sticking its nose into what I was importing as ostensibly, a member of Joe Public/a self employed businessman aka ‘therapist’. But hey ho, such is life in increasingly bureaucratic Britain. We told StyleFetish we’d place an order, but tbh, they didn’t really respond until we’d paid the lot up front. I suppose a £600 order didn’t warrant much attention from a MEGA company like them, besides, they’ll undoubtedly get hordes of timewasters and dreamers, just like we do.

Pretty soon they queried our colour choice for powder coating. They needed a specific code number, which we supplied straightaway, then heard nothing for a couple of weeks which didn’t matter because they’d told us it took 2-3 weeks to manufacture, then there was the delivery process which takes several days. In the meantime we holidayed on the South Coast, and we’re so glad we did! Its the only summer weather we’ve had, and the nude beach at Studland was pure HEAVEN. Sun sea & dare we say sex, all in abundance. The whole week was wonderful to be honest, with sea temperatures approaching twenty degrees and full sun most days, WOW. We met several guys who’d gone down there at short notice, fed up with northern gloom, Leeds, Manchester & Newcastle folk.

Upon return I emailed StyleFetish to be told the unit was about ready to be delivered. They’d shipped it. Tracking didn’t work; we were unable to trace it via the company they told us they’d used (DPD). It was left to our own UK PARCELFORCE to notify us of receipt of the goods, and a demand for full 20% duty at £121.09. Following payment they arranged delivery, which occurred on August 2nd, a Friday. At long last, we’d got our premium face sitting chair BRAVO!!! And German engineered no less! Opening the box the first thing we found was their General Safety Instructions which listed advice like  ‘Before each usage make sure that the device is in flawless condition and never use it if any defects are visible’ also to ‘Make sure, if needed, that the assembly occurred correctly. If in doubt please contact us. Do not use our products if you are unsure’ and ‘Before usage especially the first, make yourself familiar with our products’. Any complaints had to be made known to them within 3 days of delivery. All this information was enclosed in a sealed poly bag, with the shiny black and silver StyleFetish decal shown in the image above, taking pride & place on top of the bundle. We presumed it was their Mission Statement:

‘THE FUCKIN’ BEST
STYLE FETISH INDUSTRIES
NO TIME FOR BULLSHIT’

Sadly, euphoria turned to disappointment within an hour of delivery. We emailed them: [verbatim]

Good afternoon
Okay, we got an invoice for duty from ParcelForce, not DPD, paid it (more than expected) and we’ve received the chair about an hour ago.

The chair is different to what we ordered from the pictures. There is minor damage to one of the arms, there are no instructions, there is a part we don’t know what it is and can’t see from the pictures on your site because the chair seems to be a combination of the https://stylefetish.de/Verstellbarer-Facesittingsitz-und-Piss-Stuhl-20
and
https://stylefetish.de/Kompakter-Facesittingsitz-und-Leckstuhl-ergonomisch

Can you help please? I’ll send some pictures over via my phone

The images were duly sent. There was minor damage to the metal & the powder coating to one of the arms; it was pretty obviously caused by something/somebody pushing the arm back until it struck the Allen bolt head used to secure the chair support. Another picture showed a stud broken off where the head collar gets fitted, and a third image showed the female half of their ‘click and play’ unit which SHOULD HAVE attached to the head collar mounting point damaged at the point where the stud had severed. The head collar had a swivel fitting… we couldn’t work out how that fitted into the female half of the click & play. There were no pictures to go on since the unit we had in front of us differed from any shown on their site. Nor were there any instructions pertaining to this particular piece.

Their reply came in the form of an auto responder stating the individual was now away on holiday until 12th August, and if it was urgent, to contact another named person within StyleFetish. It WAS mid afternoon, & I knew that on the Continent its early doors on a Friday. So we forwarded the email & the photos to the named person, anticipating a response the following week.

Now, a word about complaints & how to deal with ’em from someone who knows. Back in the day I ran a specialist roofing firm. For twenty years I battled with staff over attention to detail, getting the job right FIRST TIME and the importance of rectifying faults, whether they be real, or perceived (by the customer). Because you see if you don’t put things right pretty sharpish, customer feels disgruntled, short changed even, and naturally enough, he starts to look. He starts to NOTICE other things. He turns his gaze to areas he’d never give a second thought to had the job been a goodun. One thing leads to another. Before you know it he gets his know-it-all neighbour over with a ladder and bingo, you’re presented with a list as long as your arm of ‘faults’ & queries, some valid, most not. In all those years I never had a customer not pay in full, except for one time, when the client took a complaint to the National Federation. It was an eight grand job (back in the Nineties) and he withheld £1500 until his grievances (which I considered unjustified) were addressed. The outcome was decided in my favour by the adjudicator, who turned out to be an ex boffin at Marley. Apparently the Marley Delta style roof had been poorly constructed in the first place with insufficient allowance for head lap on the tiles. The customer couldn’t pay me quick enough after that & the poor soul had to have the whole thing taken off and rebuilt. And let me tell you, it was an architect designed property in Essex with a MONSTER of a roof! I didn’t have this in mind of course when I filed the initial complaint to StyleFetish, but for sure I did a little while later.  Mistress & I examined the chair in minute detail. And we were not happy bunnies, as you’ll see from the following transcript [verbatim]

Dear Sirs

Since yesterday afternoon when we contacted you about damage/imperfections to the chair, we’ve inspected it again this morning, in fine detail. We’ve discovered more. There are unequal measurements on several parts causing the head restraints to be out of symmetry.

So far, the faults are as follows:
1)Velcro strip on back of head pad not put on straight so missing the circular contact points to a degree
2)The small pieces of box iron uprights which are welded to base to take the head restraint arms…. one is slightly shorter than the other so it causes the two pads to not meet together in symmetry.
3)The powder coating around said small upright box section on one side isn’t smooth, it’s uneven as if something’s rubbed against it before it dried
4)To both head pads, on the back of them, there are open drilled holes partially covered with the fabric, as if they’ve been mis-drilled. I wouldn’t expect this degree of carelessness from a company like yours.
5)As notified yesterday, there is damage to the powder coating to one side of the swing arm, obviously where it’s been pushed back against the retaining nut whilst packing we presume.
6)Head collar: can’t fix it, looks like there’s a fitting broken (brown mess/whatever it is/looks as as if broken off (?) AND there’s what looks like a separate silver/finish piece presuming part of a ball joint we have no idea how to fix, again, it’s showing signs of damage (brown mess/break/whatever (?)
7)The chair we’ve received, has a different resemblance to what we ordered. As it happens, it’s better for our needs and space but all the same, it’s not as shown on your website. Or what we ordered. It appears to be a kind of hybrid of the ‘Compact facesitting seat and leak chair, ergonomic’ (Kompakter Facesittingsitz und Leckstuhl, ergonomisch) and what we ordered which was ‘Adjustable facesitting seat and piss chair 2.0’ (Verstellbarer Facesittingsitz und Piss Stuhl 2.0

So, we’re disappointed with what we’ve received and didn’t expect lack of attention to detail from your company; we perceived you as the ‘Rolls Royce’ of fetish equipment, not least since German Industry has a reputation for high quality. It’s a shame, because with the closure of Fetters in the UK, we (and others) are in the market for many more pieces in the future.

I’m sorry, but we’re hereby REJECTING the piece you’ve sent. Please contact us at your earliest convenience so the matter can be resolved.

Your sincerely

There then followed a couple of weeks of haggling. They grudgingly admitted that the powder coating could be a fault:

Good Morning Mr P*****

The fact that the chair looks different than in the shop is because we have generally improved and optimized this chair.

This is the version of the chair that you received. As we powder coat the parts and bake them in the oven, it is possible that the material may be uneven at weld seams or in places over which we unfortunately have no influence, and that the powder may have slight deviations in places.

We will of course replace the broken click and play coupling, as it looks like a material defect in production, as this breakage has never occurred before.

Was the package damaged?

and….

OK,

as already mentioned, we will send you the broken click and play coupling as a replacement.

I have consulted with our workshop manager and he says that the material did not crystallize properly during production, this is rare but can happen and you cannot see it from the outside.

I would correct the slight damage to the armrest by offering you a new one to replace it.

Basically, we are a manufacturer and make all of our furniture by hand with great attention to detail, so it is of course possible that something like the holes on the back of the upholstery may occur, but this should not happen.

I apologize for that.

Talk about red rag to a bull!

Dear Sirs

Thank you for further response & ongoing dialogue.
However, this statement is patently ABSURD:

“we are a manufacturer and make all of our furniture by hand with great attention to detail, so it is of course possible that something like the holes on the back of the upholstery may occur”

If you had attended to detail you wouldn’t have deemed those parts acceptable. Mis-drilled holes partially covered are what you’d expect from an amateur, not a precision manufacturer.

You also say you’ll send a replacement push/click fitting. But we’re going to have to drill out the broken fitting in the frame and possibly have to retap it.

I’ve been polite in my responses so far, and in the videos, but the sad fact is the piece is SHODDY and a poor reflection on you as a company, a company I might add we’d formerly put on a pedestal AND even highlighted in a positive light on social media and via our well known national blog NEWS VIEWS & SCREWS.

In conclusion we’re not prepared to accept anything less than all the defective parts replaced.

Yours

We’d even sent them videos highlighting ALL faults. That alone took five hours of our time. We asked to speak to the engine driver but the ‘oily rag’ told us he was a very busy man and the earliest he could speak to us would be Wednesday afternoon, two – three days hence. They never looked at the videos, the excuse being their security system didn’t permit video links to be opened. We ended up sending them via WhatsApp to ‘the boss’ whose name we never did find out. The boss left us a voice message and so it went on, and on. We dug our heels in. Their explanation regarding sending a different unit to what was pictured I deemed to be fairly standard. What wasn’t fairly standard was that the new redesigned piece didn’t function properly. StyleFetish would have none of it though. They were THE FUCKIN’ BEST and who was I to criticise design? We could see that the uprights which support the seat were meant to be tightened by the Allen bolts, clamping the smaller box iron within the slightly larger section which holds it. The Allen keys turn clockwise on both left and right uprights which is what you’d expect. HOWEVER, on our unit, the uprights and the bigger section of box were ever so slightly misaligned and a poor fit. So when turning the right hand key clockwise, it in turn moved the head restraint to the right, with the inverse happening on the other side. Consequently the head pads weren’t aligning. I showed StyleFetish this on a video, but they dismissed it.

We told them that nothing short of full replacement was acceptable. In truth, every single component bar the head collar had a fault or blemish. They told me that they have a large range of equipment with several interchangeable parts, hence the reason for the holes being partially visible on the reverse of the pads. REALLY? Well most car manufacturers use standard parts to a degree across ranges & brands but you don’t see extraneous holes visible on the same part which might fit, for example a Dodge Nitro or a Jeep Compass do you? (the two being basically the same apart from the body).

We got worn down by it all, and though I didn’t let on, I was done with them. I even considered abandoning the chair & looking for an alternative. Interestingly I stumbled on a new manufacturer in Derby, making high quality pieces including some for export to the US. Initially I thought HE was knocking off US furniture, because I only found him through working backwards from an American retailer’s website. His site SEO wasn’t very good. I reached out to him. He turned out to be a diamond of a guy, & I thought I’d take the StyleFetish bits to him, & have them redesigned (he’s a CAD & draughtsman by trade) taking into account my observations regarding the misalignment of the head pads.

Eventually StyleFetish told us they’d replace the entire subframe, but nothing else. The replacement got delivered about a fortnight later, and it was pretty much first class. I told them if the original had been of the same standard we would likely have overlooked the other minor defects. (Similar to the roofing customers). That said, I still don’t accept common parts should have superfluous holes/mouldings uncapped or not concealed. At least the head restraints meet properly now… but in my view they’re leaving themselves no room for even the smallest error with this design. Unless it’s perfectly square and tight, there’s no chance the head pads will meet in symmetry. But I suppose most customers won’t be so pernickety, its the way of the world. Fortunately the subframe we have now is built to very tight tolerances so it works as it should. Even with the replacement sub frame though they forgot to fit the Velcro for the head pad so I had to heat the three pieces on the old one with a hair drier and transfer them. While doing that, I noticed holes meant for adjustment of the arms had no fittings to secure the arms. I’d missed this on the first frame, because the holes WEREN’T tapped, so that was yet ANOTHER fault. I’ve since sourced Allen fittings for adjustment myself from a local trade outlet.

As for the click and play fitting, they supplied a replacement female half only. I’d realised that the male half was missing by now… but they never sent one. Quite why they’d send half a fitting is beyond me, but hey ho! I drew this to their attention. They told me I could order it.

So there you have it my friends. Our experience of StyleFetish Industries. As you can imagine, I’ve tried since to find the opinions of others by way of reviews. Un(?)surprisingly I can’t find any, even if I search in German, but I DID FIND reference from one source saying StyleFetish reviews were either very good or very bad with nothing in between. So when all’s said and done, are they…..

‘THE FUCKIN’ WORST
STYLE FETISH INDUSTRIES
NO TIME FOR CUSTOMERS?’

You be the judge!

POSTSCRIPT: Did they send us the refund of the duty? WHAT DO YOU THINK…… ? 🫤🫤🫤