Ruff Doggie Styles is one of those companies that has sometimes struck me as slightly kitschy and a little too gimmicky for me to truly respect them the way I would some other leather craftspeople. And yet the Diva Stars Collar is the third product from this company to make it into my collection - and a third success. So maybe it's high time I just go ahead and concede that though they may be a little gimmicky, this company does a great job with leather. Their products are fairly priced, long lasting and best of all almost always adorable.

Their Diva Stars Collar was something that appealed to me immensely for the purposes of feminizing my male identified partner in some fun power exchange play. Nothing says submission quite like a six-foot-something tall guy donning a little pink collar for ya, right? The vibrant magenta shown in the Edenfantasys promotional shots was actually what sold me on this piece, although unfortunately is very untrue to the reality of the collar I received. Nestled in some plastic bagging I found my collar to be a rather washed out shade of salmon, a far cry from the deep rose in the pictures. Initially I was a little bummed out, but the bubblegum gems compliment the soft colors of the lamb's leather, and it grew on me.

This collar is of decent size at about 17" in length, but it does run more toward the medium to small end of the size spectrum. There are only five notches in this as well, which cover a span of about 1.75" in length and do not run to the edge of the collar, but actually fall about 1.5" short of the edge. In other words, the largest conceivable circumference here is actually more like 16" in length. For this reason potential buyers with heavier, thicker frames may want to take a piece of string and hold it comfortably around their neck, then measure the string to see if 16" is enough to accommodate you. My partner has a somewhat husky neck so we had to poke an extra notch in this in order for him to fit comfortably. So do a little self-research first and save yourself the trouble of feeling anything less than perfectly cozy in your leather accessories!

In spite of being so thin (barely a half inch in height!) this slender little piece is fairly sturdy. When I first handled it, I was a little concerned about the durability of the Diva Stars Collar because it's so light weight. I'm not sure if it's the nature of lamb's leather itself, the part of the animal it was taken from or the width of the cut itself, but this is a rather buttery soft and VERY thin collar. If not for the faux gems and metal rivets there would hardly be a bit of weight to this at all. The stitching on this is absolutely stellar; there are two strips of leather laid on top of one another, the top most being stitched all around its edges and the bottom being unstitched. The stitching in the top piece services to secure the folded under edges (for a neater appearance) and the two swatches are held together by glue adhesive. Unfortunately in my case the glue is not adequately holding one end together. Nothing a little super glue can't fix, but I was disappointed that almost right out of the packaging this was occurring.

The opposing end is folded on top of itself and riveted around the buckle. I have minimally modified this buckle to be leash lead compatible and the riveting has stood up fabulously to some light lead pulling - even though this is not its intended use. My only issue with the quality was the adhesive, though this has been an easy fix. The rivets, the buckle itself and the faux gems (held in with clawed rivets) are wonderfully stable and have shown no signs of coming lose. Great news for me as someone that has had atrocious luck with rivets on BDSM items!

Many of us who dig collars also love to leash lead, and sadly this collar is not really intended for that. I would not recommend modifying your Diva Stars Collar in the hopes of seriously dragging your submissive partner around on it. However, I did slightly modify mine to make it leash ready just so that I was able to assert dominance in appearance and give light tugs of reminder. So if you have a "pet" that you want to take for an uneventful walk, or just want to create the look of leading, you may want to take a simple keychain ring or small carabiner and slip it through the buckle. You may then attach the leash to that mediating metal part. The buckle is quite small as you'll see in the video, but you can find an appropriately sized part to help you modify your collar.

Overall I really loved this. It worked wonderfully for my purposes, which were just to femme up my bottoming partner a little and to engage in some light leash leading. If you want something made for hardcore lead play (and for the comfort of the person being led) you may want to look at a solid, padded collar like this sturdy ASLAN number or even a non leather option like the Vegan ASLAN Jaguar collar.

But? If you want a cute, feminine little collar to send a message inside the bedroom and to those in the know on the outside world? This is a great way to go. It's also discreet enough that it could pass for a little Hot Topic choker and the vanilla world would be none the wiser. Only fellow kinksters are likely to pick up on what this is about if you wear it in public, and even then, it looks more like a fashion accessory than a lifestyle accessory!

Really, I don't like this AS much. It's begun to tarnish around the rivets and I can't figure out why for the life of me as I've never cleaned it. It's not a pricey product, so it's not surprising - nor is it a big loss. I still use it for leading from time to time, but I'm on the lookout for a better buy. The Candy Jag Collar is on the list, so we'll see! I'd recommend this as an intro to leading to see if you like it. If you don't? You didn't drop a fortune on the experiment. If you do? You can step it up to a better collar when you feel you need to. Otherwise, this is not a good long term option.