International Mr. Leather — known everywhere in the scene simply as IML — is the oldest continuously operating international leather and fetish event in the world, held in Chicago every Memorial Day weekend since 1979. It grew out of the Mr. Gold Coast contest run at Chuck Renslow's Gold Coast leather bar in Chicago in the 1970s; when the contest outgrew the bar, Renslow and his partner, the artist Dom Orejudos, moved it to a larger venue and renamed it. Nearly fifty years later it remains the anchor event of the international leather community, and the title it awards is the most recognised in the leather world.

The weekend is built around the contest itself, in which titleholders from leather clubs, bars, and communities around the world compete across several rounds before a final held in a full-size Chicago theatre. Since 1993 the International Mr. Bootblack competition has run the same weekend, and the two titles are awarded together. Contestants arrive from dozens of countries — by 2025 more than 2,200 competitors from 28 countries had taken part — which is what gives the contest its claim to be genuinely international rather than an American event with foreign guests.

Around the contest sits everything that makes IML a destination rather than a competition. The Leather Market runs across multiple days and is the largest gathering of leather, rubber, and fetish gear vendors in the world, drawing thousands of visitors who come for the market alone — custom leatherwork, bootmakers, rubber and latex houses, harness makers, toy manufacturers, and small independent makers who exhibit nowhere else. Alongside it run speaker sessions, educational workshops, community meetings, socials, and a full calendar of themed dance parties, while the city's leather and gay bars in the Loop, Boystown, and Andersonville programme their own events across the same weekend.

IML is where the leather community's traditions, protocols, and history are kept alive and passed on, and it functions as a reunion as much as a contest. Guests have used the Congress Plaza Hotel as the host property since 2015, with contest rounds staged at larger Chicago theatres. Browse our EroticAdvisor guide for edition dates, host hotel and contest venue details, and Chicago fetish and leather venue listings.

EventInternational Mr. Leather (IML)TypeLeather & Fetish Contest / Community WeekendFrequencyAnnual — Memorial Day weekend, late MayCityChicago, Illinois, USAHost hotelCongress Plaza Hotel (since 2015)Founded1979, by Chuck Renslow and Dom OrejudosOrganiserInternational Mr. Leather / International Mr. Bootblack (IMLBB)Also awardsInternational Mr. Bootblack (since 1993)Websiteinternationalmrleather.com