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Appeal of being a pure designer
Whether creating high-end collector’s pieces or more affordable items, Zinn says she has never been interested in adopting the classic artisan business model of designer-owner-maker brands.
“It simply does not appeal to me,” she admits. “I prefer to design in a huge array of materials and mediums, without limit. And one cannot be the best at glassmaking, silversmithing, leather crafting, jewellery making, mould making, casting, glass cutting… and invest in machinery and tooling for all that.
“More importantly,” she continues, “doing it at very high levels in each regard requires masters in those fields. So I prefer to choose those who are the very best at what they do and work with them on my vision.
“That’s actually a very hard thing to do. It’s my life’s work. As an artist/creator I personally do what appeals to me. It’s a personal choice more than a business one.
“I style my shoots and loved to paint and take professional photos (for which I studied for four years). But related to the Shiri Zinn brand, I stand by the above modus operandi.
“On my BA fashion course from day one, I instinctively hated pattern-cutting and sewing and instantly knew I must work with those who love doing those things instead. It was that hatred for pattern-cutting that led me to designing jewelled accessories instead!
“So there you go. We must do what we love as we are usually best at that; it takes a lot of hard work and a very special type of talent to orchestrate.
“In fact, it’s like swimming upstream and possibly more difficult in many respects, as it’s much harder to control. There is misery in quality control.”
Glass designs still have prominence
Shiri Zinn has created many other items of ‘functional erotic art’ in the years between her first glass dildos and today’s Tribal range. And glassware still figures strongly in her oeuvre, along with more affordable plastic and silicone items.
Her Limited Edition glass pieces range in price from a glass double dildo at £1,413 through elegant single dildos at £1,248/£1,338 to Dartington Crystal pieces with marabou tail feathers at £984, all created as autographed and numbered collector’s items.
Still things of great beauty, but considerably more affordable, are various glass dildos with or without Swarovski crystal decoration, plus glass butt plugs and glass love eggs, at prices between £144 and £158.
Even less pricey are her Pink Minx and Red Minx designer vibrators which mimic, in
plastics, the look of her Limited Edition Quartz dildos at a fraction of the price — just £108.
But in terms of affordable Pop Art that’s also functional, you can’t beat Zinn’s Cupcake and i-Scream vibrators. Costing just £35 and £51 respectively, these silicone confections are designed to delight the visual senses while also able to deliver a different buzz.
Like all her creations, says Shiri, these last two items were designed to be seen, rather than to provide camouflage for their ‘real’ purpose.
“The ‘safely hidden in plain sight’ thing has never been a Shiri Zinn brand value!” she asserts. “I do not believe in that at all. Pop Art yes, ornamentation and collectors’ items sure, but never ever hidden away in terms of my aspirations or values.
Aiming to change the erotic industry
“I got into the erotic industry to change that, so you could buy a £1,000 whip, a thing of beauty, and put it on your Goddamn mantelpiece after using it.
“My i-Scream and Cupcake have that ethos too, but I wanted to inject some humour into those, a bit like my Minx Vibrator and the limited edition glass version on the stand!
“There’s a big difference between erotic humour and erotic tack,” she continues. “The mainstream industry didn’t really ‘get’ that, so I wanted to improve on it. These are stunning Pop Art pieces and even more beautiful up close.
“It’s great that one can charge the i-Scream on a long-haul flight using the USB port and nobody’ll look twice! That’s the point, but first and foremost, always pleasure and beauty.
“I tested i-Scream for one full year, pre-release, till I got the perfect orgasm. It’s not just ‘cute’ and stunningly realistic.
“The cupcake is very subversive and has a feminist slant all about homemaking and baking — that you won’t ‘get’ if you’re the type of feminist that supports closing down strip clubs in Leeds!”
You can see a selection of these ‘non-Tribal’ pieces in page one’s Other Pieces gallery.
Who is the typical Shiri Zinn customer?
My final question to Shiri Zinn is: who does she consider the typical customer? “Many are dom, sub, switch, trans, etc,” she begins.
Then, against my expectations, she adds that her market is “more men than women by about 30 percent” — something she attributes to her creations making “outstanding gifts”.
“Men seem to buy more ‘gifts’, it seems,” she observes. “However, that would allude to hetero stereotyping, and these babies are loved by the lesbian community too. They are a very important part!
But, she says: “All are welcome. My focus is more on my work than on who likes it!”
Shiri Zinn Origins: ‘It was (more than) 20 years ago today…’
UK-based Shiri Zinn’s one-woman assault on the miserable aesthetics of the erotic toy industry began back in 1998 during her Masters Degree Show at Central Saint Martins Fashion School.
This was several years before ‘designer toy’ brands like Lelo existed (Lelo was launched in Sweden in 2002.)
In an article about her degree show, The Face’s Terry Burgess described her glass dildos as ‘designer sex toys’ and credited Shiri as the concept’s pioneer. Zinn also later appeared in a documentary Terry made for Channel 4.
“I was not just one of the first pioneers of designer sex toys,” she confirms, “but coined this phrase, and got the publicity one gets when one is first. Publicity that, as a postgrad, I’d not have been able to afford otherwise.
“I was first to create designer sex toys in the fashion arena, and got amazing amounts of press in fashion journals like i-D, The Face, Marie Claire, GQ, Arena, Cosmopolitan, Style and The Independent’s Reality, plus The Sunday Times, Time Out and even on Good Morning TV and MTV.”
It was through this early pioneering press coverage that Shiri’s work was spotted by Sam Roddick, creator of Coco de Mer and daughter of human rights campaigner, environmental activist and Body Shop founder Anita Roddick.
“Sam opened her doors in 2001, featuring me in many high-profile full colour press pages,” says Zinn.
“I went to industry B2B shows in Germany and the USA, where from 2003 I exhibited every year for over a decade. These were an ‘afterthought’ but definitely inspired and influenced young erotic brands.
“My work stuck out like a sore thumb — I never felt at home at these shows and still don’t! But my work began to influence the erotic industry as early as 2003, particularly from these shows where I gained a lot of free press attention in AVN, ETO, etc.”
As well as press coverage, her growing profile also led to Shiri being nominated for and winning numerous fashion, fetish and general adult industry awards over the same period.
And she’s back in the awards spotlight right now, having just been nominated for the XBiz Awards’ 2022 Luxury Erotic Brand of the Year, alongside such names as Frederick’s of Hollywood, Kiki de Montparnasse and Lelo.
Tags: Accessories, Bondage, Christmas Gifts, Designers
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