It was a brief, handwritten thank-you note from a customer, but it meant the world to Ky Hoyle. It read, 'Thank you. After three children and 20 years of marriage, I've finally had an orgasm!' The letter came at the beginning of Ky's business venture, but she's kept it safe over the past three decades so she stays focused on exactly why she set up her sex shop: 'To help women understand that they have the right to sexual pleasure and showing them how to achieve it.'
'The toys are secondary, explains Ky, who is in her 50s. 'Without sounding too saintly, we're not really about flogging sex toys, we're more about trying to give people permission to explore their sexuality. And women particularly have needed that, especially when we first opened.'
The idea for Sh!, the UK's first women-friendly sex shop, was sparked after Ky's failed trip to buy sex toys in the 1980s. 'It was the most horrible experience,' she recalls. 'Everything was very male-focused, the male fantasy of what women wanted, not what we actually wanted.
Spurred on by the memory of dark and dingy Soho sex shops, with intimidatingly large and graphic toys, and shady men in dirty raincoats, Ky raided her £700 savings to open altogether different premises in London's Hoxton. The emphasis was on women's pleasure, but it was difficult to source stock to reflect this ethos, so the company started making its own - not so successfully at first. 'We made an awful lot of dildos that were little better than dog toys in the early days,' laughs Ky.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2022-Ausgabe von Woman & Home UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2022-Ausgabe von Woman & Home UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Sporting SENSATIONS
Olympian Tessa Sanderson CBE reflects on winning gold and shines a spotlight on some of Team GB's outstanding women
The ROYAL REPORT
One of the many privileges of working alongside the royal family is to see them up close and unvarnished.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF Dame Denise Lewis
The Olympian and BBC pundit, 51, lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband Steve. She has four children.
BRIGHT & breezy
Diana and Andy Irving set out to recreate American East Coast living at their Merseyside home, with spectacular results
Why a slim body MIGHT NOT BE A HEALTHY ONE
This month, our expert Annie Deadman reveals why eating well is essential, no matter what size your clothing labels say
My mother's GIFTS
When Genevieve Kingston's mother learnt she was dying, she found a poignant way to mark her children's milestones
IT'S GOOD to talk
The last six months have seen unprecedented candour from the Royal Family. Emily Andrews asks, is this the end for 'never complain, never explain'?
Sultry southern CHARM
Stretched along Italy's heel, Puglia offers a slice of the Italian good life, with peaceful hotels, indulgent meals and low-key glamour, says Lucy Thackray
FRUITY PUDDINGS
Easy crowd-pleasing desserts that can be made ahead of time
Are weddings OUT OF CONTROL?
You can’t put a price on love, but marriages these days can be eye-wateringly costly, as Christabel Smith discovers