Leather Strait Jacket
When a wrist cuff just isn't enough to do the job
I had the pleasure of obtaining a leather straitjacket system from an adult store in Blackpool that they were working on with the design.
The jacket I found to be pretty tough, the leather is a good quality and the studs fixing the straps are not raised at all giving a smooth strong finish. The straps are nice and thick showing heavy duty quality. The smell of the leather makes a nice perk of this garment and it's fairly heavy in the hands. Once its fitted and the weight is spread more even it feels much lighter. Being leather I would have expected some degree of stiffness in the leather, however, this has been conditioned well and is nice and soft to the touch.
With products like this, I always prefer to see leather stitches rather than studs used as stitches are always stronger with no studs to tarnish over time and makes a stronger connection. However, it does take longer and a different level of skill depending on the person making the item which would maybe add to the cost? The front underbust straps give plenty of room for adjustment.
The rear straps currently give plenty of room for adjustment for medium to larger people. The smaller model used is a size 6-8 and even though on its tightest it was slightly baggy, she found it comfortable and still restricting.
I tried it on a model, size 16-18, the back straps where fine, however, I did find a problem that the strap that was attached to the arms was unable to accommodate the model. I have spoken to the makers since and they have taken the advice to solve this. The arms will instead have a separate belt buckle making it much easier to strap the loops in the middle thus making larger sized people easy to accommodate in the various jacket sizes.
The instrument of torture.
Wearing a straitjacket for a long period of time rather than a few minutes causes pain for those wearing it. This is because blood starts to pool in the elbows since they are not active to keep the blood moving around. To accompany this, the hands become numb from lack of a good circulation.
To make matters worse, bone and muscle stiffness causes upper arms along with the shoulders to give out the excruciating constant pain that builds up causes the wearer to thrash about in vain to try and stretch their arms to relieve the pressure. In the mental asylums, this was often mistaken as anger and signs of madness to improperly trained staff. Because of these factors, the straightjacket was even used in some prisons as a method of punishment.
The leather isn't the choice of straitjackets in general due to cost and it can be damaged easily from abrasion. Canvas or duck cloth tends to be the type of material used in institutions. These type also feature a strap that passes under the groin to ensure the jacket cannot be pulled over the head from wearers struggling.
