However, many suits still retain the original idea of restraint. An article of clothing made from leather, PVC, latex, rubber, spandex, etc., worn during BDSM sexual role-play, which covers the head and usually the face. Today, gimp suits are more an objectification and humiliation tool, meant more to degrade the wearer to a sexual 'toy' as opposed to partner. Although I have no confirmation on this (I wasn't around to watch the conception of the term), it seems most likely that it was termed a 'gimp' suit because it essentially handicapped the user, making them a more classical 'gimp.' I've discussed this terminology before, and that is the best I've ever come up with. The gimp suit was a veritable full body restraint.

The 'gimp suit' originally expanded on this idea, with several latch points for external restraints, stiff fabrics and even stiffer reinforcements, and various other points of restraint. A common theme in a lot of bondage play was the limitation of the submissive's ability to move, whether it be via handcuff, leash, or restrictive clothes such as corsets. It can first be observed in erotic BDSM literature around the described time period.īased on some of these texts, it seems that the original 'gimp suits' were more of a complicated full body restraint than a full body harness/shame-cover as they are more typically viewed today. It does not originate from the Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction. The Gimp suit is usually worn with a special leather bondage hood with eyes holes & zipper mouth, known as the Gimp mask. Gimp suit as a BDSM term is believed to have originated in the late seventies or early eighties, although its original usage differs slightly from what we are familiar with today.

Gimp suit meaning