After all, the fashion industry is relentless and exhaustive in its search for the next big thing to storm the runways before trickling down to the masses - the saucier and provocative the better. What could be saucier or more provocative than something that screams sex?

In her book, Fetish: Fashion, Sex & Power, Valerie Steele says that "to understand contemporary fashion, it is crucial to explore fetishism."

Challenge accepted.

Vivienne Westwood

A true original, Westwood -- along with partner and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren -- pioneered the audacious punk style of the 1970s with the PVC and rubber designs originally sold at her shop, Sex. Westwood went on to become a "legitimate" mainstream fashion designer and now ranks among the world's best-known and most recognizable. Her fetish-inspired designs meld the 'now' of the street, with the 'then' of the corseted Victorian aesthetic, creating a look that's very British and very sexy at the same time. (I know that sounds oxymoronic but it's true). Corsets, garters and lingerie displayed as outerwear are mainstays of her collections.

Jean-Paul Gaultier

The so-called "bad boy" of French fashion, Gaultier's love of the corset and bustier became a pop culture phenomenon when he designed the "bullet-cone" corsets that Madonna wore on her Blonde Ambition tour and in her videos. Gaultier also designed the corset-rich clothing for the movie The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. He has also been commissioned to create clothes for fetish-enthusiast Marilyn Manson.

Gianni Versace

The late Gianni Versace was well known for creating women's clothes that highlighted youth and in-your-face-sexiness. "Skin-tight" was a phrase often used to describe his pieces. Skirts were cut extremely high or featured revealing slits. He was an avid proponent of the cat suit, used chain-mail in some of his designs, and never shied away from exhibitionism. Versace's now famous 1992 S&M-inspired collection was something of a watershed moment in the fashion industry and is still talked about today.

Gareth Pugh

It's hard to call Gareth Pugh mainstream. The London Times called him "London Fashion Week's most boundary pushing/radical/freakish designer." Form-fitting PVC coats, chain-mail shrouds and latex skin masks all combine to create a sexed up Barbarella-like futuristic vision. Handbag.com calls his designs "a little bit gothic, a little bit bondage and a whole lot of circus..." Pugh is a brash up-and-comer, a hit with the underground art scene and has had work commissioned by Kylie Minogue.

Many people within fetish communities have complained about the popularization of fetish wear arguing that what used to be their method of self-expression and their "tools" for a particular underground culture have become defanged and are now de rigueur on the catwalks of Milan and Paris. They've got a point.

It's not just the catwalks that have embraced fetish wear. It has grown way bigger than that. It's even reached the White House. In 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice greeted the troops at Wiesbaden Army Airfield wearing what appeared to be a couture version of dominatrix wear. As Robin Givhan, staff writer for the Washington Post described it, "She was wearing a black skirt that hit just above the knee, and it was topped with a black coat that fell to mid-calf." And that's not all. Givhan went on to say "the coat blew open in a rather swashbuckling way to reveal the top of a pair of knee-high boots."

From the torture room to the boardroom, fetish wear is here to stay.