When Chemistry Is Right, Vinyl and Bubbles Mix

Christina Carey digs her vinyl.

“I love my vinyl pants more than anything,” she says. “They look good on and make you look sexy, and you can dance in them . . . and you don’t sweat too much, as opposed to rubber.”

Carey got the chance to indulge, and show off, her infatuation recently. The twentysomething sales clerk at Chemistry--a vinyl-filled boutique for men and women in the Lab in Costa Mesa--glided happily during a fashion show before the mostly male crowd at Beam, a Saturday night club at Newport Station in the same city. She wore a white, low-cut blouse under Chemistry’s lavender vinyl jacket and black vinyl pants. Chemistry co-worker Jaclyn Brantuk paraded to the heavy beat of house music in a leopard print ensemble--jacket, pants and bra.

The male models were also vinylized. Some wore black vinyl pants from the store’s F8 collection and Chemistry’s silver vinyl jacket from its men’s line, an orange Monorama square-cut jacket and blue cotton shirtprinted with cartoon bubble talk (“Bang!”).

The 15-minute show was interrupted by Cosmic the Kid blasting his customized bubble machine. From the look of the crowd, it was a welcome assault.