She waits anxiously at the shuttered black entryway. Leather boots tapping on the ground impatiently for someone to let her inside, she refuses to look back to indulge the staring passers by. If the store banner If the store banner ‘Rambooks’ isn’t explicit enough in revealing what magazines lie shrouded behind the store’s black boarded windows, its big 'webuyanyporn.com' sign in contrasting letters might. Eventually, the door swings open and the woman sinks inside.

Though not all customers who slide their fingers across the sleazy nipple-infested pages of the shop’s shelves are artistically inclined women, most of them are. This time, on a damp November afternoon, the shopper I observe slipping into the store seems familiar, though we’ve never met. She resembles many trendy art kids spotted standing at the back of gigs across Dalston and Nunhead.

“There were more creepy old men than what there are now. I mean not necessarily creepy men, but just wankers, that are coming in to, well, get their dick wet. It has definitely widened up recently. Now it's 65 percent artsy students and 35 percent wankers.”

Kelsey Dykes, who has worked at the bookstore for the past 4 and a half years, states. Kelsey, alongside her Rambooks colleague Daniela Geraci, graduated from Womenswear Design at Central Saint Martins in 2018. Straight out of graduation, they formed 150mg, a deconstructivist-feminist clothing brand, going on to tailor looks for Alexa Demie, Amyl and the Sniffers, Cumgirl8, and Wet Leg. When researching for her final MA project, Kelsey would visit Rambooks repeatedly to dive through their archive; “I was trying to find copies of Atomage. I bugged my [soon-to-be] boss for three months, eventually emailing him about my obsession with a certain costume maker for Atomage. Then, finally, that landed me my job”.

According to Kelsey, she isn't the only fashion creative to visit the bookstore on the hunt for inspiration:

“We’ve gotten Ruby, from R&M Leathers, as well as fashion photographers Anna Sampson and Roxy Lee. Cecil Tulkins, the knitwear designer. Another designer, Sinead O’Dwyer, her wife is a photographer, they’ve come in before. Elis Jaz, the knitwear designer, comes in for research.”

According to Kelsey, if you look hard enough, you can spot where these artists have directly referenced from their books. The content these artists take from is across the stock, rather than from one specific publication. Whether it be Di Petsa referencing watersports, or Amy Hughes, founder of Gut Magazine, referencing Big Boobs. Each customer has their own niche, it all depends on what they're looking for.

Another notable Rambooks customer is Tyrone Lebon, who has taken pictures of Kelsey and Elis Jaz having sex in a tennis-court-sized hammock for DoBeDo Projects. He has also shot for Alaïa, Burberry, Bottega Veneta, Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, and Miu Miu.

Lebon has been working towards getting some of Rambooks’ fetish publications into Marc Jacob’s new Heavn store in SoHo. Heavn is aimed towards a Gen-Z audience, and is reaching unprecedented popularity with its battery of celebrity ad campaigns, featuring Pamela Anderson, Wynona Ryder, Doja Cat, and Bladee. Heavn already stocks vintage press from Climax Books, which curates a selection of Kathy Acker novels, Juergen Teller photobooks, and, primarily, old fetish magazines. All at prices three times higher than those found on eBay.

Though the opportunity to sell books at Marc Jacob’s store could be lucrative for business, Kelsey and her Rambooks accomplices are not so keen on the idea: “We want to spend time and talk to our customers. If the bell rings constantly, then we can’t keep it intimate”. Despite the clout-appeal of having books in such a trendy store, the shop’s team "don’t want to lose that dirty old sex shop feel”. The store does not hope to be curated and branded (unlike Climax Books). Kelsey emphasises that this doesn’t mean Rambooks aims to completely gatekeep their publications: "we’re building up an archive currently. If anyone buys a book, before we let it go, we scan it. We’ve got around 12,000 scans so far; we are building up a catalogue. We also donate to Bishopsgate institution, the Museum of Sex Objects, and the Secretum, as part of the British Museum”. Rambooks has even welcomed a class of students from Kingston University in their store, where they received a lecture from their professor, Helen Wicksted, who teaches art and archaeology.

In recent years, as their artistic clientele has grown, Rambooks strives to balance their role as a media haven for fashion creatives, all while staying true to their underground roots. Though you may not find their 90s latex magazines alongside Kiki boots anytime soon, Rambooks still wants to remain accessible for generations of designers to come, via their upcoming archive. May their dirty old sex magazines forever fuel London’s artists for decades to come. Amen.