"It's become a fashion phenomenon," said Samantha Thouret, owner of French toy boutique Yoba. "If you haven't got a toy you're uncool."
Though French people have widely been considered the most sexual — a recent poll stated French couples have sex nine times a month, compared to eight in Germany and six in England — only 14 percent owned a sex toy, according to a survey done by condom manufacturer Durex.
But now with trendy boutique owners partly responsible for sex toys' image overhaul, owning a sex toy is not only accepted, it's necessary for social status as well as relationship repair.
Storeowners have taken the "adult" out of adult shop in order to appeal to a stylish image-conscious consumer base. Rather than sharing block space with the city's red-curtained sex shops, entrepreneurs like Thouret chose to open their stores in smarter, high-end locales.
"We are not a sex shop," Passage du Desir owner Patrick Pruvot said. "We don't sell products, we sell ideas, ideas to help couples. A sex toy can help revive a couple that's in a rut."
This is a concept already recognized by several adult boutiques in the U.S., including female-owned shop Babeland, whose sex-education-focused stores provide a sex-positive environment to learn and shop.
"It really takes one store, visionary thinking, to put these things out there to really change the playing field," Carolyn Riccardi, Babeland's New York-based marketing and education coordinator, told XBIZ. "It's a retail shop, and it's important for women and men who come into our stores to know that their experience as consumers is going to be different than what people commonly experience [in adult stores]."
Riccardi said she's noticed many adult stores in countries including France and Germany that have embraced the idea of linking sex education with sex toys, turning their backs on their dirty, dimly lit counterparts.
"They really just want everybody to know that these stores have a different approach to sexuality and that you can really have a great shopping experience and learn a lot while you're there," Riccardi said.
And it's clear that these French storeowners understand the power of the consumer and the importance of offering the right products.
"Consumers have dollars and that's part of their power," Riccardi said. "They are not only looking for portals but looking for ways to reconceive their sexuality and expand and unleash their imagination."
And by offering products ranging from edible underwear to Swarovski crystal-encrusted vibrators, these high-end French sex-toy boutiques are targeting their ideal demographic.
"Demand has changed, become more feminine over the past decade," said Guillaume Bidault, head of the French arm for Dutch sex toy manufacturer Scala — reportedly Europe's largest toy wholesaler. "There's no pornography anymore, no vulgar lingerie; it's girlie, it's fashion. Women are becoming a driving market force."
Riccardi said she hopes U.S. acceptance of sex toys will eventually be comparable to that of Europe, and that stores like Babeland are paving the way slowly but surely.
"The role of Babeland and other similar companies has gotten a lot of that attention and I think we're going to continue to across America," Riccardi said. "I think it's just a matter of time before some states, like Alabama, do change their laws."
Since 1998, adult store owner Sherri Williams has been fighting Alabama's sex-toy ban, challenging the law as an unconstitutional intrusion into the bedroom. The case's final appeal currently is being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
