After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, native San Diegan Mark Baiza spent nearly 10 years looking for the perfect career. Retail, merchandising: jobs he would prefer not to list, let alone remember. He was desperately unsatisfied and fearful he would spend his working years in jobs that were unfulfilling and had little to do with his education, goals and aspirations.

However, as Dorothy reminds us before returning from Oz, we need look no further than our own backyard. Not enjoying his career path either, Mark’s older brother, Max, suggested they begin a mascot company.

Max Baiza has a degree in graphic arts from Pratt College.

“I had a degree in design so we combined our two talents,” Mark said, and five years ago Realms of Enchantment was stitched into being.

Mark and his brother have their workshop in Chula Vista, but like many businesses today, Realms of Enchantment receives most of its orders through their Internet site (visit this article online at www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link). This gives them the opportunity to serve not only Southern California, but the nation and world as well.

Mark and Max began as creators of mascots for high schools and universities, as well as costume providers for Renaissance fairs, costume shops, novelty items for themed parties and, of course, Halloween.

“Not to mention the free costumes I make for my nieces and nephew,” Mark quipped.

Making Furry costumes just fell into their laps. They received an email from a man who asked if the costume could be made with certain features including holes or slits in the crotch.

Many people ask, “What exactly is a Furry?”

Mark, as one of their costume designers, sometimes finds himself acting as their spokesperson. Simply put, Furry Fandom is an appreciation of furry creatures and anthropomorphic animals. Fans, or “Furries,” show this appreciation by attending conventions and seminars, hosting private parties, making costumes, creating art and writing stories.

Just like Mark’s business has flourished online, so has the Furries craze, boasting ever-increasing websites with a plethora of information, art, stories and costume ideas. Furry Fandom garnered national attention when CBS’s crime drama “CSI” did a storyline on Furries in its fourth season, which, according to Mark, was only somewhat accurate after having been “Hollywoodized.”

“At its most basic,” Mark said, “Furry Fandom is just another lifestyle choice.”

The furry lifestyle can consist of, but is not restricted to, believing that one is an animal. The most intense fans don’t just like wolves or foxes or raccoons, they are wolves, foxes or raccoons. They believe their spirit is this animal and that they are stuck in human bodies.

The majority of Mark’s clients are straight or bisexual men. They prefer the cutesy costumes, with many requesting boobs. In costume, these men take on different personas with many of the straight boys wanting to identify as a female furry. The fantasy, for many, is that they are the sex of the costume.

Mark and his brother tailor each costume to the specifications of the client using the best fabrics, faux fur and materials. He gives many costumes hair, breasts and other features that identify the Furry as female. The men want to make it completely obvious they are female Furries.

Of his hundreds of clients, he has made costumes for only five or six females, all of whom did not ask for breasts, preferring a more dominant look to their Furries.

Furries don their costumes and socialize at conventions, small parties and private gatherings. Some of these Furries engage in “fursuit sex” (dry humping in costume) or “plushie sex” (sex with a stuffed animal), while others are satisfied with old-fashioned sex, or “yiffing” as it is called after the mythical noise two (or more) anthropomorphic animals make when having sex with one another. Oral contact is prohibitive due to the heads of the costumes.

“I’ve had requests [for heads with holes – mouths], but the style of mask, the distance the mask is from the face, it’s just not feasible. A hole would jeopardize the integrity of the head,” Mark explained.

Furry Fandom is a fetish, and like all fetishes there is a social as well as private aspect.

“It’s all dress-up. We all do it in some way: leather, drag, couture. … Dressing up is fun and we all do it in some way,” Mark commented. “Far be it for me to pooh-pooh someone’s fantasy.”

And what a fantasy it is. Furry fans have created an entire world that includes religions, manifestos, sexual techniques and appropriate social behavior when involved in role-play.

Realms of Enchantment also makes fetish wear for Adult Babies. “Diapers, bonnets, christening gowns, little sissy dresses. You know, Shirley Temple dresses, frilly with lots of bows and ribbons,” he said.

Again, Mark’s clients for Adult Baby fetish wear are overwhelmingly men. Most are straight and often extremely wealthy and/or powerful.

Many prominent men have a need to relinquish power and in return be dominated and controlled. The Adult Baby fetish is one way of fulfilling that need. By playing the role of an infant, the adult baby gives up all responsibility and all pressure of being grown up and serious. Adult babies have many of the same needs as real babies. Wearing diapers is a major part of the fetish – both for the feeling of helplessness it engenders as well as the physical feeling of the diapers themselves.

“CSI” seems to have hit the pulse of American fetishes doing a storyline in its fifth season about a rich and powerful man who falls to his death while acting out an Adult Baby fantasy. The story was a little more accurate than the Furries story, but again had been given the Hollywood treatment. In spite of this, Mark explained these episodes gave some exposure to two growing fetishes and possibly provided viewers with a starting point should their fantasies be leaning in those directions.

However, many of Mark’s clients don’t want the exposure. He and his brother had to sign wavers of confidentiality. Unable to give names, Mark could only say these clients were rich, powerful and/or well-known, including high-ranking politicians.

“I can’t give names, but you can say high-ranking Republican politicians,” Mark said emphasizing the word Republican.

The price of a furry can run anywhere from $600 to $1,200 and an Adult Baby dress can cost roughly $200.

“I have clients who buy a dress every week. That’s someone’s cocaine habit.”

Again, Mark stressed that these fetishes are fun and considered healthy and stress reducing by the majority of professionals in the mental healthcare community when practiced as one facet of a well-rounded individual’s social activities.

The orders and requests keep coming. On average Mark and his brother complete 20 different costumes a month, and of those roughly five are fetish costumes.

“We are very busy,” Mark said. In fact, he hadn’t realized how many costumes he and his brother had actually made until he saw two of his costumes on MTV.

“I can’t remember the name of the show. I think it was ‘True Life,’ but there he was, Lucy Rabbit, dancing and dry humping another costume we made, a jaguar.”

He smiled broadly. “I love my job!”

Not only does Mark get to be his own boss, but he gets to be creative, constantly designing and making new and different costumes and clothes. Most importantly, he feels he is helping people fulfill a fantasy, a need that in turn gives them great happiness. Without the trusting, confidential relationship between costume designer and fetish fan, many of these individuals would not have an outlet in which to express their fantasies.

“I am very proud of my work,” Mark stated simply. And it shows in his attention to detail, the great praise he and his brother receive from satisfied customers and that he has found his dream job.