Latex Fetishwear Retailer Gets Booted From Bushwick Space by Religious Landlords
A commercial retail space yanked Claudia Rothchild's lease just before she, owner of Klawtex, was due to sign it. The owners cited their religious beliefs when rescinding the deal. Claudia Rothschild runs an honest business. So what if she makes her money selling costumes and fetishwear made entirely of latex?
Photo Credit: Anna Fischer via Compfight cc Not precisely Klawtex, but you get the idea.
The development she planned to work out of, the Shops at the Loom, bills itself as "an electic mix of local off-beat stores." Sounds an awful lot like "a place to sell tokens of Bushwick to the nouveau riche of Nassau County," but we'll take them on their word.
Rothchild told DNAinfo that "the broker called me and said, 'There seems to be a concern with one of the three owners that your store, and you, are too sexual for the space.'" They must be worried she might track sexual in from outside, or maybe leaves smudges of sexual on the drywall.
The theory put forward over why Rothchild got the boot? She was, uh, rubbing up against the owners' traditional sexual mores. "They believe it's violating their religious beliefs," she claims.
And yet, a salon catering to fetish models is allowed to be there, and the chabad down the street doesn't seem to care.
(It also strikes me as odd that the proprietors found Klawtex more vulgar than the Loom's Brooklyn Yarn Cafe. Is this just a matter of taste?)
If any readers have some insight into why Klawtex might be out in the cold, get in touch.
Send your story tips to the author, Raillan Brooks.