You’ve decided to attend your first event at 5710 Cleveland. You’ve registered, looked at the attendee list, and perhaps spent more time than you care to admit checking out a few profiles. Now the event is getting closer, and a new concern has moved to the front of your brain: What the hell am I supposed to wear to a dungeon?
It’s an understandable question because most of what we see about BDSM comes from movies, porn, social media, and carefully staged photographs where everyone seems to own custom leather, expensive boots, and a harness that fits as though someone measured every inch of his torso personally. If you don’t own any of that, you might wonder whether walking into a dungeon wearing jeans and a T-shirt immediately identifies you as the new guy.
The good news is that nobody at 5710 is standing at the door with a clipboard judging your kink fashion credentials. What you wear should depend on the event, what you plan to do, and most importantly, what makes you comfortable enough to walk through the door and enjoy yourself.
Start With the Event Description
Before you start shopping for leather pants or digging through the back of your underwear drawer, read the description for the event you’re attending. Different events at 5710 have different personalities, and sometimes clothing is part of the theme. A particular party might encourage fetishwear, underwear, a specific color, or another style of dress, while another event might be completely casual.
When an event has a specific dress expectation, we’ll tell you. Otherwise, don’t create a complicated dress code in your own head that doesn’t exist. Your first dungeon experience already gives you plenty to think about without worrying whether your belt buckle looks sufficiently kinky.
No, You Do Not Need to Own Leather
Leather has a long history within BDSM and gay culture, and plenty of guys love wearing it. A good harness looks fantastic. Boots can change the way a guy carries himself. Leather pants might make someone feel sexier the moment he puts them on. If leather is your thing, 5710 gives you a place to enjoy it.
But leather is not an admission requirement for kink. You don’t become more experienced because you bought a harness, and you aren’t less interesting because you don’t own one. The man standing beside you in ordinary jeans might have decades of BDSM experience, while the guy dressed head-to-toe in brand-new leather might be attending his first event and hoping nobody notices how nervous he is.
Wear leather because you enjoy wearing leather, not because you think you need a costume to belong in the room.
Yes, You Might Show Up in Jeans and a T-Shirt
For many events, ordinary clothing is a perfectly sensible place to start. You might arrive wearing jeans, shorts, a T-shirt, or a tank top, spend some time getting comfortable, and decide later whether you want to change or remove anything. There is no requirement to make every decision about your level of dress before you leave home.
This approach works especially well for first-time visitors because your comfort level often changes once you’re inside. Something that felt intimidating while you were standing in your bedroom might feel completely ordinary after you’ve spent half an hour talking with people and realizing the room contains bodies, clothing styles, personalities, and experience levels of every kind.
You’re allowed to ease into the environment rather than making your entrance look like the opening number of a leather fashion show.
Underwear Gives You a Lot of Options
Underwear occupies a useful middle ground between fully dressed and naked, which is one reason you’ll see plenty of it at adult events. Boxer briefs, briefs, trunks, jockstraps, and other styles let you show more skin without feeling completely exposed, and they give you plenty of room to express your personality.
This might also be the perfect opportunity to wear something you bought because it looked fantastic online and then realized you had absolutely nowhere to wear it. That pair of briefs you’ve been saving for a mysterious special occasion has finally received its invitation.
The best choice is something you feel good wearing. If you look in the mirror before leaving home and think, “My ass looks pretty damn good in these,” you’ve made a respectable start.
What About Getting Naked?
Depending on the event, you might encounter nudity at 5710, and after you’ve been around it for a while, something interesting often happens. It stops being particularly noteworthy. One guy might be naked while another is wearing a harness and boots, another is in underwear, and someone else is still wearing the same jeans he arrived in. Within the context of the room, everyone simply gets on with the evening.
You never need to get naked because other people are naked. If you’re curious about it, give yourself permission to move at your own pace. Perhaps you start by taking off your shirt and see how you feel. Later you might decide you’re comfortable wearing less, or you might decide you’re perfectly happy exactly as you are.
There is no ceremonial moment when you need to drop your pants and formally introduce your cock to Cleveland. Your clothing choices belong to you, and nobody else gets to decide when you should become more comfortable showing your body.
“I Don’t Have the Body to Wear That”
This thought stops far too many men from wearing something they would otherwise enjoy. They see a harness, jockstrap, singlet, or pair of leather pants they love and immediately decide they need to lose twenty pounds, build more muscle, get rid of their belly, shave something, grow something, or somehow become a different version of themselves before they’re entitled to wear it.
5710 is filled with real people, which means you’ll encounter real bodies. Guys are tall, short, thin, heavy, muscular, soft, hairy, smooth, scarred, tattooed, gray, bald, and everything between. Some men walk through the door already comfortable with their bodies, while others are still figuring out how to stop judging themselves every time they look in a mirror.
You don’t need to earn the right to wear something sexy. If you like how something feels and wearing it gives you a little more confidence, put it on. If you aren’t ready for that yet, wear something else. Your comfort belongs to you, and nobody needs to rush the process.
Fetishwear Should Be Fun
If you already own fetishwear, an event at 5710 might finally give you somewhere besides your bedroom to enjoy it. Depending on the event, you might see harnesses, leather pants, collars, cuffs, boots, jockstraps, singlets, uniforms, pup gear, or other clothing connected to someone’s interests or identity.
For some people, getting dressed for an event becomes part of the experience. Putting on a favorite harness, polishing a pair of boots, or choosing a particular piece of gear marks the transition from everyday life into a space where they feel freer to express another side of themselves. For somebody else, getting ready means putting on clean jeans and finding his keys.
Neither guy is doing dungeon night incorrectly.
What Someone Wears Does Not Tell You What You’re Allowed to Do
Clothing sometimes communicates personality or interests, but clothing is never consent. A man wearing a jockstrap isn’t inviting everyone in the room to touch his ass. Someone wearing a collar hasn’t agreed to submit to whoever happens to notice it. A naked man hasn’t surrendered his right to decide who touches him, and someone wearing leather isn’t automatically interested in rough play.
If someone catches your attention, introduce yourself and talk to him. If you want to touch him, ask. If you’re interested in playing together, have a conversation about what each of you wants before anything begins. The same expectations apply regardless of whether someone is wearing three layers of clothing or almost none.
One of the sexiest things you can bring to a dungeon is the ability to communicate clearly and respect the answer you receive.
Think About What You Plan to Do
If you expect to participate in a scene, clothing becomes a practical consideration as well as a fashion choice. You want enough freedom of movement for whatever you plan to explore, and you don’t want to spend half the evening fighting with complicated buckles, tight pants, or an outfit that looked incredible while you were standing still but becomes miserable the moment you bend over.
Think about comfort and movement. If you expect to kneel, bend, stretch, or spend time in restraints, choose clothing that works with those activities. If your plans involve massage oils, lubricants, sweat, or anything else potentially messy, you might want to leave your most expensive clothing at home or change before participating.
Looking good matters considerably less once your fabulous outfit becomes the reason nobody can reach the part of you you brought to the dungeon in the first place.
Your Shoes Matter More Than You Think
Footwear tends to get overlooked because everyone is thinking about what happens above the ankles, but a dungeon is a physical environment. People are moving around furniture and equipment, and you might spend a substantial amount of time standing. Wear footwear that feels secure and comfortable enough for the evening you have planned.
Boots are popular and fit naturally into many fetish looks, but you don’t need expensive leather boots to attend. Choose something practical for the event and the activity. If you bought gorgeous new boots three days ago and haven’t broken them in, consider whether you want your strongest sensation of the evening to come from the blisters forming on your heels.
Hygiene Is Part of Your Outfit
What you wear starts with what’s underneath it, and this is one area where everyone benefits from a little effort. Shower before you come. Brush your teeth. Wear clean clothes and clean underwear. Use deodorant, and be considerate with fragrances because strong scents become overwhelming when people are spending time close together.
You don’t need to smell like you’ve been marinated in cologne since Thursday. Clean is sexy all by itself. Good hygiene shows consideration for the people you’re going to meet, especially in an environment where people might be physically close to one another.
Bringing a Change of Clothes Is a Great Idea
If you aren’t sure what you’ll feel comfortable wearing once you arrive, bring a small bag with a few options. You might pack underwear, a jockstrap, a harness, another shirt, basic toiletries, and whatever else makes sense for the event. You then get to make the decision after you’ve seen the space and settled in rather than committing to something while standing at home wondering what everyone else will be wearing.
Your confidence might also move in the opposite direction. Perhaps you arrive convinced you’re going to spend the entire night in a tiny jockstrap, then discover you’d rather keep your jeans on while you get acquainted. There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind. The goal is to feel comfortable enough to enjoy the event, not to prove something with your wardrobe.
The Best Outfit Is the One You Eventually Forget You’re Wearing
This is where we’d like you to end up. After you’ve been at 5710 for a while, we want you talking with people, looking around, asking questions, watching, flirting, learning, and participating if something interests you. We don’t want you spending the entire evening comparing your body or clothing with everyone else in the room.
When you suddenly realize you haven’t thought about what you’re wearing for the past hour because you’ve been too busy enjoying yourself, you chose the right outfit.
Before attending any 5710 event, read the event description and follow any special theme or clothing requirements listed there. Beyond those guidelines, wear something appropriate that helps you feel comfortable walking through the door. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to become more adventurous once you decide what feels right for you.
And if you eventually decide you absolutely hate what you wore, you’re attending one of the few kinds of events where taking some of it off might solve the problem.
Visit www.5710cleveland.com to create your profile, check your dashboard, see upcoming events, register, and see who else plans to attend.
