LATELY, Karen Weller has been passing on Starbucks double lattes and dinners on the town. But she could not resist stopping in the other day at Dascha Boudoir Boutique in Washington, to check out the We-Vibe, a compact vibrator, all slippery surfaces and C-shaped curves.
Pearl-trimmed lingerie at Myla in New York.
Was it the plaything’s novel design and faintly louche leopard-spot packaging or the shop’s friendly service that induced her to part with $145 — and the last remnants of fiscal restraint? Ms. Weller could not say, offering simply that the vibrator “just seemed an indulgence worth the price.”
Point-and-shoot cameras, CDs and fancy woven handbags may languish on store shelves. But women like Ms. Weller, a nurse from Frederick, Md., are willing to splurge, spending as much as $100 or more for a pulsing rubber duckie or bath sponge, a vibrating bullet or lipstick tube. Their fascination with such battery-operated novelties is rendering luxury sex toys a thriving sector in an otherwise listless economy.
“The Dow may have taken a nose dive, but our sales have only increased,” said Josie Morales, a partner in Their Toys, a nine-month-old Web site with offices near Palm Beach, Fla. Sales, Ms. Morales said, have increased steadily, by about 10 percent a month, since the site was introduced. “The last time we saw a spike in our business was after 9/11,” said Claire Cavanah, a founder of Babeland, a Web site and store in New York that sells erotic paraphernalia. Since last year, sales of gadgets priced at $80 or more have risen by 50 percent, Ms. Cavanah said. “People are looking for stress relief and a little connection.”
Even in a lingering recession, “sex will always sell,” said Analena Graham, an owner of Dascha, where cone-shaped vibrators and jewel-tone fur ticklers are showcased alongside made-to-order corsets and aromatic oils. “You might tell yourself, ‘I can do without that $400 sweater,’ ” Ms. Graham went on, “ ‘but I would still like to have that rechargeable vibrator.’ ”
Also popular are pulsing cigars that turn into pendants, and pearl wrist restraints that double as necklaces. People are paying as much as $250 for similarly kinky designs, said Robyn Goodman, chief of American operations for Myla, a British-owned boutique chain and Web site. “They don’t feel like they’re getting a bit of smut,” Ms. Goodman said. “They feel like they acquiring a very boudoir-style, high-end luxury.”
Certainly luxury sex toys have attained a kind of winking acceptance, their gradual mainstreaming hardly surprising in a society that does not blush at pole-dancing workout videos. Shoppers seem to like the gadgets’ streamlined shapes, their durability and their sometimes lofty pedigrees. (In the last half-dozen years, design-world luminaries like Marc Newson and Tom Dixon have lent their names and engineering skills to an assortment of sleek upscale vibrators.)
Dr. Judy Kuriansky, the sex therapist, suggested that a heightened interest in sensually appealing devices is partly an outgrowth of a troubled economy. When money is tight, some people withdraw from sex, she said, but many others “will do anything to increase the level of closeness and pleasure.”
Sellers maintain that sex trinkets have not been affected by the recession that has hurt other segments of the multitentacled sex entertainment industry. “Business overall is down by 5 percent or more,” said Tony Lovett, the editor and publisher of Adult Video News, a trade publication. “But if consumers are spending their money on anything, they are spending it on a good-looking quality product.”
Just a couple of years ago, manufacturers predicted that there would be never be a market for a $100 sex toy, Mr. Lovett added. “But they’ve been proven wrong.”
And manufacturers today are catering aggressively to caviar tastes. Lelo (pronounced lay-low), a company based in Sweden, is reporting a run on the Gigi, a rose-colored rechargeable vibrator shaped like an overfed spoon ($109), and the Nea ($89), a palm-size massager billed as “full of toe-curling promise,” shaped much like a wireless computer mouse. Sales of such cleverly made items have climbed by 10 percent since June, said Shaye Saldana, a marketing manager for the company.
Style counts, but retailers will tell you, poker-faced, that in These Difficult Times, people buy sex toys for diversion and solace.
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