When you describe something as ‘fancy dress’ what do you mean? The whole lot of this fetish wear scene is fancy dress, you wouldn’t see most of your customers walking down market street on a saturday afternoon wearing what they wear on one of your nights.I think you’re trying to make out it’s something it’s not.

Alert! Reply:
By ‘fancy dress’ we mean things like super hero costunes, lycra devil outfits or items of that ilk. I don’t know what you mean by “making it something it is not” - Alert is very clearly defined in what it is trying to be - it is a night that WE would like to attend; that is our guiding principal. It is our night and we will continue to run it the way we feel suits our aspirations for the event. Those plans won’t suit everyone and whilst we listen to and act upon feedback there are some avenues down which we will simply not take the night.

Trying to enforce a satisfactory dresscode for fetish events is not easy. The sad truth of the matter is that these days, guys generally have got into the habit of not making enough effort and if one person gets away with it, even those who take pride in wearing the gear wind up taking the line of least resistance. I’ve done it myself. I was thinking of attending tonight but a sudden expansion of the waistline means that I cannot get into my leather jeans or my chaps and wearing my green army trousers or blue jeans with my leather waistcoat is not acceptable so I shall not be able to attend until the waistline has slimmed. Pity but I’d rather not turn up at all than run the risk of being refused admission.

So what if the workie in dirty jeans is actually a straight bloke from the building site, wanting to come in anc cause hassle? At least of the dress code asks for things a bit out of the ordinary it will help filter out people like that. I’m sure the guys who run Alert have not done this to spite anyone or to stop people coming, but more to ensure the right type of people turn up. I think the dress code adds to the whole event. Nobody is saying that workies are not sexy, or masculine, just in the way they are not saying men in suits are not sexy but a line has to be drawn somewhere and it seems to me to be fair that blue jeans are that line!

good work with the club. Don’t waste time justfying your decisions. Repeat business tells you of its working or not. one minor whinge, I go for the men not the music but a little more than water bottle music would be nice

I really gotta laugh. All we seem to be doing on here is obsessing about ‘clothing’! All I want from my evening out is to meet ‘masculine’ blokes. I thought that’s what Alert was originally all about when it first launched itself. At the end of the day, you can wear as much hi-viz, leather and rubber until you turn blue in the face - but it wont mean you look masculine. Neither will a shaved head. Here’s a couple of examples to consider: Last Friday nite I went to a local straight boozer. It was full of really masculine blokes, yet none of them were wearing leather, rubber or hi-viz. Most of them were in jeans and t-shirts. Also, none of them were sporting skinheads - but instead had fashionable haircuts! And ya know what…..they all still looked as masculine as fuck! Also, I don’t really understand why dirty looking jeans are not acceptable for Workies at Alert. What on earth is all that about? There’s been a group of builders working outside my house for the past 3 months, and all of them are wearing dirty ripped jeans! I can remember when Alert used to be Barracks and having some really good nights there back in 2004. Met lots of normal lookin lads who just wanted a smoke, a beer and they weren’t superficially obsessing over their clothing. What is going on right now? No offence, but if Alert isn’t careful, its going to end up like everywhere else on Canal Street. A venue where ppl are eyeing up ppl based upon what they are wearing, how much it has cost, is it a designer label etc etc. Who really cares??

Alert! Reply:
Eighteen months ago we put the matter of a strict dress code being implemented for Alert! to the vote. The response was overwhelmingly in favour of that. Recent tightening of the code has become necessary, as we have already explained, because no effort was being made by some attendees and to make the whole thing policeable. We have maintained throughout that what we have listed as acceptable is not necessarily everything within a particular fetish, simply those we will allow into Alert! The dress code says nothing about labels, designer or otherwise, simply genres and covers a broad spectrum. There is nothing else like this outside London and our dress code is far less strict than any of the fetish nights down there. In London you have one choice or go away. That would have been the simplest option for us to implement, but we chose to open up the debate. However, if this continues to be the kind of response it attracts we may have to be less democratic in future!