Purple Egg, object of desire
Published on 9 December 2022
The “sexual wellness” market is currently in the throes of reinvention, inspiring a young French leatherworker to set up a business selling luxury vibrator pouches.
At last September’s trade fair, one particular stand in the Fashion & Accessories zone was attracting lots of attention: Swedish brand Lelo, a global leader in the sex toy industry, was exhibiting for the very first time. Its stand was positioned alongside Purple Egg, an up-and-coming French luxury leather goods brand. A strange choice? Anything but. On the one hand, contemporary design has flooded the “sexual wellness” market, which is now becoming increasingly high-tech. This innovative sector is helping the new generation embrace the kind of lifestyle that reflects modern-day sexuality, free of all taboos, democratic, inclusive and accessible to one and all. On the other hand, the sector is moving decidedly upscale by unashamedly flirting with the worlds of fashion and luxury. In 2020, comedian Dakota Johnson joined forces with Maude, an up-and-coming “modern intimacy” brand based in the USA. Top model Cara Delevingne did the same with Lora DiCarlo, winner of the robotic innovation award at the world-famous CES technology fair in Las Vegas.
This year, Lelo has signed a collaboration with French Haute-Couture brand On Aura Tout Vu, as well as a global partnership with clothing brand Diesel. Still haven’t got your own little “rabbit”? That’s a real shame, as the sex toy is rapidly becoming the latest fashion accessory. Oh, and we no longer say “sex shop”, but “love store”. It was against this backdrop that French start-up Purple Egg decided to get in on the sexual wellness act, too. Just don’t expect to find any high-tech vibrators in its range. This is a brand that creates accessories in which they can be discretely transported instead, all crafted from full-grain leather and drawing on France’s time-honoured leatherwork traditions. Alban de Villeneuve is only 28 and this is his first-ever business. His story is pretty surprising, as he ended up working in the world of sex toys almost by pure chance...
What sparked the idea of creating leather pouches for sex toys?
I was working for a leather goods firm near Lyons that was a contractor for the luxury fashion industry. I had begun looking into ways of using the leather offcuts that were left over from the products we were creating. When you’re making luxury items, there are always lots of offcuts. I wanted to find an idea that wouldn’t compete with what our clients were already doing, so I started creating products for the hospitality industry. Then COVID hit. The hospitality market took a nosedive as a result of the global pandemic. The sex toy market, on the other hand, boomed. The whole sector totally reinvented itself and modernised its approach in line with the times. Products started becoming more high-tech and design-conscious, following in the footsteps of Apple. I said to myself that with our Made In France expertise, we could easily use our leather offcuts to create covers for these products, as the size was exactly right.
How did you get your business off the ground?
Like everybody does, working out of a garage basement. I already knew someone with the expertise to design the pouches, but I had to buy quite a lot of vibrators in all shapes and sizes so we could create prototypes. I had to go and queue up at a sex shop to collect my order when the shops had just started opening again following the lifting of lockdown. The sales girl said to me “Are you the person who placed an order for 2,000 euros?” I tried to explain my project to her, but I could tell she didn’t believe a word! We sat in my garage trying to figure out possible shapes by folding paper, origami-style. Eventually, we came across the egg shape. We produced our first prototype using an offcut of purple leather, and that’s where our name “Purple Egg” came from.
Where did you go to find funding?
I used my savings to pay for the initial research, and then I managed to secure a grant from the French public investment bank, BPI. I then started putting out feelers to find a sex toy brand that was interested in forming a partnership, and Lelo, which has offices in France, was very quick to respond. My website went live in the summer of 2022. I then exhibited at Maison&Objet in partnership with Lelo and with the help of my business grant. The trade fair gave me the opportunity to make some highly promising connections with some major department stores, and I can now officially announce that our products will be stocked by French department store Printemps for Valentine’s Day. I’m currently trying to raise enough capital to open a prototyping workshop in 2023.
How do you see the company developing?
The idea is to continue designing original shapes and to create pouches that can also be used as evening bags. We have three different egg-shaped pouches, all made from full-grain leather and lined with anti-bacterial velvet. Then there’s a revolver-shaped pouch for longer vibrators that look like guns. The zip runs all the way around the edge following the curves, which is technically pretty impressive. All the little details, the rivets and the edging are all extremely high-end, and we use leather from premium suppliers. The use of sex toys is currently booming, and we’re here to accompany that trend.
By Caroline Tossan
Illustration ©Sarah Bouillaud