You won't see anything as simple as a nude court on the feet of Helen Mirren when she steps onto the red carpet – this much-loved actress is far more au fait with a stripper shoe.  At a recent premiere for her new film, Red 2, Mirren wore stacked Perspex platforms that she acquired for less than £20 in a sex shop, and she’s been known to frequent seedier style outlets for a while, as The Cut reminded us.

Not that Helen Mirren could ever look seedy mind; worn with a tasteful rouched-ivy gown, said shoes looked way more high-end call-girl than Pretty Woman, and she isn't the only one taking the sex-shop mainstream. 

 

Cara Delevingne and Rihanna may not be bastions of everyday style, but both managed to take more extreme elements of an S&M wardrobe – a mask-and-whip combo, and chain chest harness respectively – and appear in public wearing them without looking completely obscene, even, as Cara was, in the company of Royalty. 

Chain-trussed bright young things aside, there are plenty of places the illicit trend is sneaking up in a way normal humans, just like Helen, will actually wear. Among the autumn 2013 collections, Burberry peppered the catwalk with a little latex spice, both in the form of not-so-prim pencil skirts and on the sleeves of their iconic mack, while knee-high leather boots and patent details in Calvin Klein’s structured offering had more than a hint of what lies beyond the frosted window. When two brands not usually known for being overly risqué start dabbling in sexy detail, you know you’ll probably start seeing it in circles whose style may usually be more reserved. 

Indeed, you don’t even need to head to a shop you might be embarrassed to enter to get in on this trend as it’s already being stocked in your standard fashion outlets. While the leather skirt has been a high street staple for a while now, Whistles and ASOS have upped the ante with shiny PVC or zip-detail cracked leather versions and even though Topshop’s buckled leather harness sounds extreme, they do manage to make it look almost normal, styled over a casual T-shirt with jeans.  

As the V&A’s new exhibition, Club to Catwalk opens, exploring an era when fetish-wear first made its way out of the bedroom and onto the party-scene via Vivienne Westwood, and Blitz-era club-wear is making its influence known from the street to Rihanna, it makes sense that everyday style might start to get saucy. 

The question is, are you bringing sexy back?