MASCULIN: Vesper : ceci est un sextoy →

Un vibromasseur caché dans un élégant pendentif

Crave, une start-up de San Francisco a mis au point un vibromasseur plaqué-or, qui, porté autour du cou, ressemble à un élégant pendentif. Le Vesper est disponible en trois coloris : argenté, or rose ou plaqué-or 24 carats. Il est déjà en phase de production et devrait être disponible dès septembre.

Avant cela, la cofondatrice de Crave, Ti Chang, a mis au point sa propre gamme de sextoys appelée Incoqnito. Elle s’est associée par la suite avec l’entrepreneur Michael Topolovac sur le projet Crave, pour lequel elle chapeaute l’équipe de designers.

Mode, fonctionnalité… et plaisir

« Afin de continuer à élever et repenser ce que devrait être un sextoy, je me suis inspirée de l’idée de faire se rencontrer mode et fonctionnalité, a-t-elle confié. Il était important que ce produit soit à la fois élégant et fonctionnel. »

On peut déjà le précommander au prix de 49 dollars (version argent) avec gravure personnalisée offerte. Mais il faudra débourser 129 dollars pour le pendentif plaqué-or 24 carats, auxquels s’ajouteront 35 dollars de frais de port (livraison internationale). Soit une somme totale avoisinant les 130 euros.

OZY: NOW PEOPLE ARE WEARING VIBRATORS TO PARTIES →

You don’t ever have to tell anybody you’re wearing a vibrator to dinner. But if you want to, you can now flaunt it. 

Vibrators and other sex toys for women have in recent years veered away from straightforward penis-shaped apparatuses and toward more creative and ambiguous designs. But now a growing number of innovators are driving a particularly bold revolution: sex toys, and vibrators in particular, as jewelry.

Sex-toy subscription box startup Unbound started selling accessories that double as sexual stimulation — like nipple clamps you can also wear as earrings — in 2016. Now, it’s going a step further with the just-released Palma ring that sells for $128. It comes in silver or gold, looks like a pretty standard metal statement ring you might buy at a stylish but inexpensive shop, and is also a three-speed vibrator. It took two years to develop due to having to fit the circuit board of a vibrator into a ring a person could comfortably wear.

The gold standard in this genre is Crave’s Vesper, a $69 necklace that looks like a minimalist shaft in silver or gold — but is actually a high-powered sex toy. At first glance, there’s something titillating in the fact that it doesn’t really look like a vibrator unless you know it is. Screaming O’s vibrating thongs — which cost $25 — are controlled by a ring you wear on your finger.

SILHOUETTE DONNA: Sex toys pensati dalle donne, per le donne →

I sex toys di nuova generazione sono studiati per il piacere femminile: minimal, silenziosi, eco-friendly, puntano sulla sicurezza e sulla discrezione

Il coniglietto che aveva rivoluzionato la vita di Charlotte in Sex and the city è pronto per la pensione: i nuovi sex toys creati dalle donne sono minimal, silenziosi ed eco-friendly.

La forma fallica è stata abbandonata in favore di un design funzionale, studiato appositamente per il piacere femminile da una nuova generazione di brillanti imprenditrici.

La rivincita del design

Le fondatrici delle nuove compagnie female-friendly descrivono spesso il loro primo impatto con i sexy shop come un’esperienza “confusa e imbarazzante”. Ti Chang, la co-fondatrice di CRAVE, ricorda di essere rimasta perplessa di fronte ai colori violenti e alle forme esagerate dei prodotti, tra l’altro non sempre realizzati con materiali sicuri. Un’opinione condivisa da Polly Rodriguez, fondatrice di Unbound e dell’associazione Women of Sex Tech, che ha iniziato a progettare sex toys con l’idea che dovessero essere complementari ai genitali e non una loro imitazione, scelta che invece finisce con il banalizzare il ruolo chiave del design.

DIE PRESSE: Warum Sextoys immer tragbarer werden

Dildos und Vibratoren positionieren sich als feministische Lifestyleprodukte und gelangen als Schmuck getarnt in die Öffentlichkeit.

"Sollte ich überraschend sterben, geh in meine Wohnung und räume die erste Schublade aus dem linken Nachtkästchen aus. Keine Fragen. Meine Mutter darf das nicht sehen. Danke." So kann der Letzte Wille in einer engen Freundschaft auch ausfallen. Ein aufgelegter Running Gag. Dahinter aber steht die eiserne Wahrheit des Sexspielzeugs: Sein Habitat ist geheim. Das liegt auch daran, dass die Dinger seltsam aussehen.

Bisher wurde Sexspielzeug (für Frauen) gern in den lustigsten Farben verkauft. Damit man sie auch bei geschlossener Jalousie gut finden kann? Möglich. Es gab vibrierende Enten für die Badewanne, hoppelnde Häschen fürs Bett, eine App mit Fernsteuerung für - ja, wen eigentlich. Und irgendwann kam die Frage auf: Ist das erotisch? Ist das zeitgemäß? Ist infantil gleich feminin? Soll Humor darüber hinweghelfen, dass weibliche Masturbation kein Thema ist, über das man spricht? Die Zeiten ändern sich.

Die geheimen Gefährten bekommen aktuell zwei Neuerungen: ein stilistisches Makeover und mehr Sichtbarkeit. Eine Reihe von Marken haben es sich zum Ziel gemacht, das Design ihrer erotischen Produkte und in weiterer Folge auch die Haltung der Gesellschaft zu ändern. Sextoys werden hochwertiger gestaltet, teilweise sogar als tragbare Accessoires neu positioniert und auf diese Weise wohl automatisch zum Gesprächsthema. Das folgende Spielzeug ist bereit für mehr Tageslicht:

Die aus Taiwan stammende und in Großbritannien arbeitende Künstlerin Wan Tsengan setzt sich mit ihrem Sextoy-Startup Wisp für die weibliche Lust ein. Bei ihrem "sinnlichen Spielzeug" aus u.a. Amethyst und Rosenquarz geht es nicht um den Orgasmus auf Knopfdruck. Tsengang will sanfte Erregung erzeugen. Die Ringe, Halsketten und Ohrringe stimulieren die erogenen Zonen, an denen sie sitzen und setzen dabei einen speziellen Duft frei.

Crave wurde von der Industriedesignerin Ti Chang ins Leben gerufen, um den Vibrator neu zu erfinden. Das stilvolle Modell "Vesper" kann als Halskette getragen werden. Es wird aus Edelstahl gefertigt, ist in Silber, Gold oder Roségold (optional mit Gravur) erhältlich und hat vier Geschwindigkeiten und zwei Modi (pulsierend und konstant) - beide sollen flüsterleise sein.

FASHIONISTA: SEX TOYS ARE GETTING A HIGH-FASHION MAKEOVER →

Wearables are transforming the formerly secretive products as we know them.

As early as a few years ago, getting a vibrator would hardly be described as a pleasant experience. Most likely, it was done in secret — at some small store with tinted windows on a side street or on a gaudy website. Once the product was safely taken home, it would be kept in a drawer or closet, hidden from view until it was time to be used. It might not be that you were ashamed of it, but it's not something you'd keep around for people to see. Because let's be honest: Sex toys are not exactly the most beautiful pieces to keep around in plain sight.

Recently, however, there have been a slew of brands that are looking to transform not only the experience of buying the products, but also the way they're viewed in society. The solution? Wearable sexual products that have a high design quotient, making the owners want to show them off and wear them in public — and in the process, perhaps start some long overdue conversations about the nature of the adult toy industry, especially the way it's marketed to women. From high-end silver massage rings to vibrators in the form of lockets, check out a few of the brands transforming sex toys as we know them.

Started by industrial designer Ti Chang, Crave wants to reinvent the vibrator by making it sleek, well-designed, and stylish. From a wearable option to wear around your neck like a necklace to discreet gold items that can be displayed around the house, Crave's purpose is to take the shame out of sexual objects — especially because of their stigma in society.

"Pleasure for women has had a terrible history of male suppression," says Chang. "Guilt and shame are too often part of the experience of pleasure for women, due to these cultural taboos. But there is no reason why a vibrator should not be as well-designed as a camera or cell phone. After all, if anything deserves good design, it's the things we bring to bed with us."

She's particularly proud of the necklace she's created. Called the Vesper, it's a slim, chic vibrator that you can delicately wear on a neck chain. Made of stainless steel, it comes in a silver, gold or rose gold finish (with optional engraving), and has two speeds designed with both discreteness and quietness in mind.

"It's quite statement-making, and that was the point," elaborates Chang. "It's so that women wouldn't be ashamed to wear it in public. Then, if they're asked about it, they can either explain what it is, or they can just say it's a piece of jewelry. But the point is to give them that choice, and hopefully start conversations around why they'd be embarrassed in the first place. It's quite empowering."