Fashion has always been about sex. From codpieces to push-up bras, high heels to hanky codes, what you wear often telegraphs what you want to do when it all comes off. These days, it can even get you off. Jewelry and accessory makers are hard at work blurring the lines between fashion, fetish object, and functioning sex toys—and options are flooding the market.
In large part, this is thanks to Ti Chang. Classically trained and educated in industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Ti successfully brought to market the world’s first crowdfunded sex toy. 2014’s Vesper wasn’t just a vibrator, though it certainly did that job; with its coy chain and delicate sheath of silver or rose gold, it was a necklace chic enough to wear almost anywhere.
“Jewelry can enable the wearer to feel beautiful, respected, and honored, a feeling that is rarely experienced in pleasure products,” says Ti Chang. “The functionality of a vibrator had to be balanced with the wearability of a necklace pendant. I didn’t want to compromise.”