Passing through Paris, a Swiss couple came to expand their sadomasochistic wardrobe at the “ready to dare” boutique Métamorph’Ose, located a stone’s throw from the Pompidou Centre. The man is going for a leather thong, the lady is going for a red harness, they will be back for the Christmas holidays, they say. Throughout the day, regulars and newbies of all ages come and go in the elegant cellars of this renowned address. A young woman tries on her first latex dress under the excited gaze of her partner, a dominatrix buys a medium-sized whip for a friend’s 40th birthday, a submissive is groped in front of a silk-lined poodle costume. Martine, the owner of the place, plays dolls with her clients, and her husband, Jean-Pierre, a former executive and foot fetishist, kneels in front of the strollers to offer to massage their toes.
This spring day, on the eve of their retirement, the two partners at number 49 Quincampoix Street are satisfied: their business, started thirty-four years ago, has never gone so well and has found two young buyers.
It must be said that BDSM games (bondage-discipline, domination-submission and sadomasochism) are popular since the success of Fifty Shades of Gray (2012), the first volume of the erotic trilogy by the British Erika Leonard James, made into a film three years later, which featured a young, handsome billionaire, dressed in clubs and handcuffs. “We hesitated to sell the franchise accessory box. [du film] because we thought it was a bit cheaprecalls Martine, who finally relented. The nipple clamps were very refined. »
New momentum, in 2020, when Kim Kardashian wore a Balmain latex jumpsuit for fashion week, a fact recounted in an episode of her reality show. “We saw a whole new population arrive for fashion week and the Cannes Film Festival, sometimes ordering four sizes up to be oversized… Even if that’s not how it’s actually worn.”believes Jean-Pierre.
Reversal of power relations
BDSM prevails on the catwalks, in the cinema (Life according to Annby New Yorker Joanna Arnow, 2024), in the series (Bondingonline on Netflix since 2019); Sex shops no longer relegate straps and gags behind the second curtain of their back room; on Instagram, Alexandre Contart (mr_alexandrecontart), “dominant influencer and romantic dad”relieves your subscribers of the guilt.
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