A leather band is wrapped around the neck and the clasp fixed at the back. Even though a finger’s width of slack is kept, the wearer’s posture changes: the back straightens, the gaze drops, the breathing shallows. Nothing has yet been commanded, and already the order of high and low is tacitly decided. The SM collar is the general term for a neck device that makes a dominant-submissive relationship visible in SM play. Made of leather, synthetic leather, metal, or nylon, often joined to a lead, it combines physical restraint with symbolic control. Through the international leather scene from the 1970s it became established as a core icon of the BDSM community.

As to etymology, English collar is translated directly into Japanese kubiwa (neck-ring), prefixed with “SM” to distinguish it from an everyday collar. In Anglophone BDSM communities it is simply called the collar, with collared and collaring as derived forms implying the relationship the wearer is in. In Japanese it circulated visually through the plates of postwar SM magazines, but the independent term “SM collar” appears to have settled only from the 1990s.

Function and types

As a physical device the SM collar can be understood in three layers: the surface layer of the collar body, the middle layer of the lead (chain, belt, rope), and the deepest layer of the fixing point (suspension ring, restraint device). Bodies are made of leather, synthetic leather, metal, or nylon webbing, ranging from high-quality items lined with fur or soft material to protect the skin to simple leather bands. Clasps include buckle, padlock, magnetic, and sewn types, the latter carrying stronger permanence and symbolism.

Functionally it sorts into types: the restraint collar, joining the neck to a fixing point to limit movement; the guidance collar, by which the dominant controls direction and speed via the lead; the decorative or symbolic collar, carrying no physical restraint and functioning only as a sign of the wearer’s subordinate position; and the insignia collar, designed to indicate a particular relationship or role (pet, princess-slave, property).

Symbolism in international BDSM culture

In Anglophone BDSM communities, putting on and conferring a collar carries ritual meaning. The collaring ceremony functions as an occasion to publicise the establishment of a long-term D/s relationship to the surrounding community. Often discussed by analogy with the marriage rite, it is treated as a social device satisfying three layers: permanence, exclusivity, and public recognition. Gloria Brame and colleagues’ Different Loving (1993), a survey of U.S. BDSM practitioners, reports that roughly half of couples in long-term D/s relationships have experienced some form of collaring ritual. In Japan, customs symbolising the stages of a relationship exist similarly, but the degree of ritualisation tends to be weaker than in the West.

Collar culture in Japan

The collar in Japanese SM culture played a certain visual role in the imagery of postwar SM magazines and photographs, but its symbolic centrality was lower than in the Western leather scene. Japanese SM aesthetics centre on kinbaku, and rope-based bodily restraint and bodily shaping took over the symbolic function of the collar. Even in the literary SM aesthetic after Dan Oniroku’s Flower and Snake (1962), scenes thematising the collar alone are few, and it more often appears as an accessory to the rope costume. Later, from the 1990s into the 2000s, as Western-derived BDSM subculture flowed in, a style centred on the leather collar joined with the domestic disco and club scene and connected to fetish fashion and Gothic-Lolita culture, spreading among younger people. In the same period, within cosplay culture, the collar became a standard accessory for pet-type, slave-type, and Gothic-Lolita character attributes.

Reception psychology and symbolic function

Why does the collar function as a core SM sign? First, the symbolism of the neck itself: the neck is a vital point, and entrusting a vital point to another is in itself a show of ultimate trust and subordination. Second, high visibility: the collar peeks from the collar of clothing, so the fact of wearing it can be displayed to others both consciously and unconsciously; as an SM device easy to carry into everyday space, a collar without a lead can be worn outdoors within a relatively inconspicuous range. Third, the analogy with the dog and pet: the collar is the icon of the kept dog, working as a metaphor placing the wearer outside the norms of human society, actively used in training relationships and serving as the core device of pet-play derivatives.

Derived forms

Posture collars use a tall metal plate to fix the neck and limit head movement, a high-level restraint collar. Bell-fitted collars hang a bell or tag to transmit the wearer’s movement to the dominant by sound. Electric collars carry a micro-current stimulation function, where real-world practice makes safety paramount. Locked collars are key-fitted so the wearer cannot remove them, symbolising the relationship of ownership. Portable collars are slim symbolic collars concealable under clothing.

See also

• BDSM
• SM Culture
• Kinbaku
• Kousoku (Restraint)
• Choukyou (Training)
• Hime-Dorei (Princess-Slave)