London’s best sex shops

The list of celebrities who’ve been pictured in Atsuko Kudo’s multi-award-winning couture latex is a long one – think Rihanna, Miley, Kim K, Kate Moss, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga (who wore her rubber outfit to meet the Queen), and many others. The rubber clothing specialists are known for their fine filigree details, custom leopard and lace prints, striking colourways, and their perfect tailoring. Vacuum-pack yourself in AK, don one of their signature cat ear hairbands, and you’re guaranteed to be feline sexy. 

Join the rubber band at latex fashion specialists Breathless, where owner and designer Dolenta Debarna (who used to work with Katherine Hamnett) offers top quality made-to-measure and fitting services, ensuring every item hugs you in a perfect racy embrace, while also directing customers to the best parties in town to show off their highly polished purchases. Breathless don’t just work in standard styles, but boasts collections including military costumes and caps, retro-influenced cute, flared babydoll dresses, tailored jackets and waistcoats, leopard-print catsuits and a selection of truly magnificent corseted gowns. Rubber for (almost) every occasion!

Traditionally for cisgender gay men and still doing a roaring trade in jockstraps, cock rings and prostate massagers, Clonezone now also stocks vaginal and clitoral toys, as well as revolutionary trans masturbator The Buck Off. The shop is part of a new wave of conscious and inclusive sex shops, and, whether you visit the Soho or Earl’s Court branch, you’ll find it staffed by queer people and always supporting LGBTQ+ causes and events.

Just as deluxe chocolates often boast that they contain a high percentage of cocoa, deluxe sex lives may boast that they incorporate an indulgent amount of Coco de Mer. Named after the enormous, bum-shaped seeds of rare variety of exotic palm tree, this is London’s most glamorous, upmarket erotic emporium. Here, you’ll find everything you need to spice things up in the bedroom, made from the finest materials. We’re talking sterling silver nipple shields, gold-gilded clamps, leather reins, and harnesses to transform your partner into the dressiest of dressage ponies and love eggs made from rose quartz and jade.

Fetish Freak are specialists in men’s made-to-measure latex and leather. Their prices are fair, even if their breeches, chaps, harnesses and body bags (yup, leather body bags, for those who like to completely hide inside hide) are as indecent as they get; custom-crafted items can cost less than some other places charge for off-the-peg stock. They also have a huge range of accessories and sex toys that covers basically everything you need to get your freak on – from inflatable dildos and horse bit gags, to nipple clamps and ball stretchers.

The flagship outlet of the UK’s largest gay lifestyle superstore, Prowler Soho stocks all the good-time goodies you’d expect, in fantastic abundance. There’s a veritable apothecary of poppers; a vast collection of male sex toys, many with an appealingly manly aesthetic, including inflatable anal dongs and robust cock rings that look like one of the Mario Bros’ pipes; plus a huge array of jockstraps, super-snug boxers and more banana hammocks than you’d find at a fruit-themed beach resort.

Agent Provocateur’s trademark baby pink boxes are to undies what a turquoise Tiffany package is to jewellery. Expect hyperventilation: from her, when she receives it; from you, when she puts it on. Originally founded by Vivienne Westwood’s son Joseph Corré and his then wife, in addition to bras, knickers and sizzling scraps of saucy silk, Agent Provocateur sell cutting-edge swimwear in distinctive strappy styles that tend to give rise to distinctive, strappy tan lines to match, yet still have lines of ladies queuing to buy them because they look hotter than the equatorial sun.

Previously known as Honour, Skin Two is home to a wide range of kinky clothing, toys and equipment designed to suit all budgets and tastes. Stop by the shop and you'll find an abundance of very affordable yet gloriously deplorable goodies that'll make you want to strip down to your skin right away. Refreshingly for a store not exclusively aimed at gay guys, there’s plenty of fetish wear for men (on the upstairs floor) as well as women and a great range of plus-size items, too. There are catsuits, costumes, wigs, uniforms, lingerie… a veritable cornucopia of sexy accessories.

Handmade latex mastery for Masters, Mistresses, fetishistas, fashionistas, kinksters, and hijinx-sters. Designer Robin Archer and his team are known all across the globe for their brilliantly made, imaginatively conceived haute-couture rubber clothing and have increasingly collaborated with high fashion houses in recent years. Giles Deacon called upon them to create a series of tie-dye latex dresses, for example, and they also worked with Loewe to transfer archive silk scarf patterns onto stunning rubber shirts. Hot and haute. 

If Warren G and friends shop at Regulation, we can only wonder what exactly they’re mounting, as the fetish and gay lifestyle store stocks the UK’s widest range of Square Peg silicone ass toys. They specialise in tailored latex and leather clothing handmade in London, plus a seemingly infinite variety of innovative and darkly imaginative sex equipment, carrying a tonne of brands well known to the discriminating pervert. Staff are friendly and well informed, and, if you’re lucky enough to still be in the world of academia, you can take advantage of a generous 15 percent student discount.

Liberation carries a wide range of off-the-peg clothing for women and men that’s ready to wear if you’re ready to dare, or commission something custom-made after trying on items to see what flatters and flaunts. Celebrity customers include Julian Clary and Lady Gaga, and Libidex has also worked with fashion houses, including Vivienne Westwood, Dolce & Gabbana and the late Alexander McQueen. Don’t worry if you’re not part of the fashion elite, though – the store’s staff have a warm welcome ready for everyone who sets foot through the doors.

Sh! is a sex shop truly worth shouting about. When it opened in 1992, it was the first ever ‘women only’ erotic boutique, designed to give ladies a welcoming, safe place to shop for intimate items and get sound sexual advice. Thirty years later, Sh! might have had to shut up shop during the pandemic, but it’s still pushing boundaries and championing female pleasure. It hosts regular events across London, with erotic book readings, tutorials and pop-ups all frequently appearing on its calendar.

Le Boutique Bazaar is a regular pop-up shopping and social afternoon, co-produced by world-famous fetish club Torture Garden, along with the team behind the popular Wasted Chic fashion sales. Each event gathers together a changing roster of more than 40 of London’s most intriguing unusual, underground and erotic clothing and accessory designers, all in one place (usually swanky lounge bar McQueen, in Shoreditch). There are deals on cocktails so you can sip tipples while choosing one-off diamante covers for your nipples, and DJs encouraging you to have a bop after investing in a rubber top…or bottom.

London Alternative Market is a monthly fetish shopping and kinky community event. Whatever floats your boat - be it adult baby scenarios, bondage, medical play, cross-dressing, or if you’re simply a curious newbie working out which way you’re wired – at LAM, you’ll never feel like the black sheep of the family. An extremely friendly, down-to-earth affair, every outing of LAM features a variety of exhibitors – often small businesses run by kinksters who’ve identified a gap in the wide-ranging fetish market and developed an innovative product or line to fill it.