You have had such a long and fruitful career in fashion, what made you pivot into the erotic market?
For 23 years, my wife and I were involved in the fashion industry. We started around 1997, in an era where fashion had the power to tell stories, create, and invite people into its atmosphere. That was what we most loved about the industry. Every time we would stage a show, it was more than just a straight-up runway up and down, we were creating performances. At one point, people lost interest in storytelling, especially from independent fashion houses. And so, because we were smaller, everything was starting to be product-oriented, and to be honest, that’s never what we wanted to do. At one point, we realized that if we can’t change the industry then let us exit gracefully. So, in 2019, we started to inform our staff, our manufacturers, and, eventually, in February 2020, the press. We opened our archives to museums all over the world to purchase the most important runway looks. To end it all, we threw an amazing party on the 28th of February in Paris. One week later, Covid hit, and everything shut down.
How do you think erotic toys can be used as a vehicle for storytelling?
Well, I think their position on the margins is always interesting, you can usually only find them in seedy places, like sex shops. I thought, well, why not bring them into the luxury market? By making them beautiful we can discuss them in entirely different contexts. Why couldn’t you buy a sex toy in a designer store? We want to start collaborating with different brands to allow them to infuse their DNA. Imagine how thrilling it would be to buy a vibrator in a luxurious flagship store. If it’s beautiful and high quality, why should that be wrong? Sex toys are given an unfair connotation. Has a war ever started over a sex toy? To answer your question, can you tell a story through sex toys? I can make up a thousand.
Do you think the lack of beauty in sex toys is representative of the shame people feel over them?
That’s what I mean when I say beauty connects. If something is beautiful, people feel almost obligated to talk about it, something is compelling about it. Instead of having something that looks like a penis, which leaves no room for fantasy, why not offer something immersive? Why should the experience start when using it? Why would the act of opening beautiful packaging and looking at an elegant design not be part of the erotic experience?
Do you think there’s a through line between the way you approach fashion and erotic toys?
When I announced to friends of mine that I had been working on developing sex toys, they were confused at first. But what I explained to them is that it was quite natural, A.F. [Vandevorst] was always inspired by eroticism, fetishism, and sometimes even Shibari. It’s something that can be so beautiful without being marginal, that notion inspired our work. To me, it didn’t feel like a huge leap, from fashion to eroticism. With 23 years of fashion behind me, I am qualified to connect eros and fashion. Even if other sex toy brands try to do something fashionable, they don’t come from the same background.
When did you have the realization that you were the ideal person to bridge the gap between eroticism and luxury?
Before the lockdown, we had a series of offers on the table that, because of the pandemic, all fell through. My wife and I started thinking about second choices. An always wanted to do something with music and video, so she’s DJing right now, while also being in Florence because she’s the Head of Design at Polimoda. She kept asking me what I wanted to do, and when I said that I wanted to do something in eroticism she said, “Oh, you’re crazy.” I just replied, “No, no, just watch me, I will explain later.” After three months, she asked me to join the project, but I felt like I wanted to do something on my own after 23 years. So, together with a business partner, I slowly started to find investors and built it from the ground up.
