Good luck, Raffaele: Leather Club Roma is with you at IML2026
There are moments when a sash stops being just a title and becomes a collective story. A story made of people, territories, journeys, nights out, conversations, embraces, laughter, volunteering, and presence. A story that no longer belongs only to the person wearing it, but to the whole community that recognizes itself in that sash.
That is why today Leather Club Roma wants to send its biggest, warmest, and proudest good luck message to Raffaele, Mister Leather Italy 2025, who is currently taking part in International Mister Leather 2026.
Raffaele comes to this appointment carrying much more than a name, a sash, and a national title. He brings with him an intense year as Mister Leather Italy, a journey of personal and community growth, a concrete commitment to his own territory, and a presence that anyone who has had the chance to meet him knows well: solid, direct, authentic, but also ironic, warm, and smiling. In one word: deeply human.
A year as Mister Leather Italy: presence, responsibility, community
Being Mister Leather Italy does not simply mean attending events, wearing the sash, posing for photos, or stepping onto a stage. All of this is certainly part of the role. But it is not its heart.
The heart of the title lies in the ability to be present. To be there when the community comes together, when it grows, when it needs to be represented, when it needs to be defended, when it tries to build new spaces. Being Mister Leather Italy means becoming, for one year, one of the public faces of a culture with deep roots, its own languages, shared values, and a history also made of resistance, care, desire, and belonging.
Raffaele has lived this year with a quality we recognize in him without hesitation: consistency.
Consistency in the way he has worn leather, in the way he has spoken about the community, and in the way he has chosen never to separate leather identity from the dimension of showing up.
From this perspective, he has shown that leather culture is not only about aesthetics: it is relationship, responsibility, commitment. It is the building of bridges between people and territories. It is the ability to open paths where none existed before, or where they were still too narrow.
Leather Club Roma has followed and supported him throughout this year: Raffaele does not arrive at IML as an improvised figure, but with a path behind him and with a way of being in the community that comes from far back and that, in all its simplicity and genuineness, has found in the national title not a point of arrival, but an accelerator.
Campania and Naples as root and promise
One of the most meaningful aspects of Raffaele’s journey is his bond with his territory. His leather identity is not abstract, rootless, or built only around major international events. It is deeply connected to his land.
Campania, with its energy, its complexity, its ability to blend strength and warmth, popular presence and cultural depth, is an integral part of the way Raffaele carries the title. Not as folklore. Not as a simple geographical origin. But as a way of looking at the world.
In a country where fetish and leather communities are often concentrated, at least in the collective imagination, around certain major cities or established circuits, work on the ground is essential. That is where the true ability of a community to grow is measured. And that is where the friendship between Raffaele — and the whole Kinksters Campania group — and Leather Club Roma has become stronger. These are the bonds through which leather culture can speak powerfully even to those who have not yet found their own space, to those who live far from the most visible centers, to those who need a first point of access, a first night out, a first conversation, a first opportunity to feel less alone.
And Raffaele, through his presence, has helped make this strength more visible.
IML2026: an international stage, a collective responsibility
International Mister Leather is one of the most important events in the world for the leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM community. Taking part in IML means entering a space where stories, generations, schools, aesthetics, and different practices meet. It means representing one’s country before a global audience. It means engaging with titleholders from different contexts, each carrying their own community, their own journey, and their own idea of service.
Raffaele will be there as Mister Leather Italy 2025. But, in a sense, he will also be there as a representative of all the people who build leather community in Italy every day: in clubs, associations, informal groups, contests, workshops, prides, journeys, nights out, private conversations, and in the small gestures of care that often do not end up on social media but keep a scene together.
He will also be there for Campania. For the South. For those who have begun to recognize themselves in a culture that once seemed distant and instead can be close, concrete, and accessible. He will be there for those who believe that Italian leather must be plural, rooted, generous, and international without losing its own accent.
Our good luck message
As Leather Club Roma, we are happy and proud to accompany Raffaele in this new stage.
We do so with affection, because Raffaele is part of a network of people who, over the years, have helped make the Italian leather scene more alive, more connected, and more aware.
We do so with esteem, because his year as Mister Leather Italy 2025 has shown what it can mean to carry a title with responsibility: not only to appear, but to be present; not only to represent, but to build; not only to travel, but to create bonds.
We do so with gratitude, because his commitment in Campania speaks to all of us. It reminds us that every territory has the right to its own spaces, its own communities, and its own symbols. It reminds us that leather culture grows when someone decides to turn on a light where there was less visibility before.
And we do so with a smile, because Raffaele brings with him that frank and contagious warmth that makes it easier to feel like a community. That kind of friendliness does not diminish the weight of the role, but makes it more human. It is the ability to be a titleholder without forgetting how to be a companion on the road.
So to Raffaele we say: have a good journey, have a great experience, have a great IML!
Take with you your leather, your story, your Campania, your title, your irony, and your quiet strength. Take with you those who have supported you, those who have cheered for you, those who have watched you grow throughout this year, those who know how much road lies behind every public appearance.
And above all, take with you the certainty that, whatever happens, the most important result is already in the journey: having represented Italian leather with authenticity, generosity, and presence.
Good luck, Raffaele.
Leather Club Roma is with you.
Written by
Gius B.
