Mavo’s Elegantly Luring Toys (for your bedroom)

19 Dec 2007 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Fashion, Features, Japan

Mavo’s Elegantly Luring Toys (for your bedroom)

Safe sex with a playful sense of danger: A condom case shaped like a handgun. From the "Honey Trap" series by MAVO's Masayuki Takahashi. Photo by Muga Miyahara.

“Is this a gun in your pocket?” “You bet, and it is about to shoot neatly packed condoms at you!” This ironic condom toy gun is only one of the thrilling design works MAVO interior designer Masayuki Takahashi is showing with his first product series called “Honey Trap.” For example, it features other intriguing objects, such as a multi-purpose cushion as sex toy or a coffin shaped sanitary box. So for today, PingMag catches up with Masayuki to learn more about sexy design.

Written by Chiemi
Translated by Kevin Mcgue

First, tell us a bit about your “Honey Trap” series!

I had been doing interior design and I naturally started to feel that I would like to try something that I couldn’t express in that medium. I took sex, which is the basis of human life, as my theme, and focused on topics such as “conception,” “sexlessness” and “menstruation.” I designed products that tackle these topics, and created the “Honey Trap” story to help people understand the series. I wanted to create something that would really draw people in, and so I made these works that are not so different from fashion items. The exhibition was held at the JAM HOME MADE & ready made jewellery shop. I like to think of my works as something like jewellery: it is not essential to have them, but you have much more fun when you do have them.


Inside the MAVO exhibition at “JAM HOME MADE & ready made” in November. Photo by Muga Mihara.

Attention! Concealed in her stocking is a pistol, loaded with a condom. Photo by Muga Mihara.

“Honey Trap” is a term that was especially used in the Cold War to describe espionage that used sex as a lure. How do you reinterpret it?

The first work really serves as a prologue for the story told by that whole series: the condom case gun. Rather than simply designing a package for a birth-control device, I was more interested in how that package can be carried by its user. I thought of a handgun as a symbolic icon of protecting one’s self, and put the condom inside that. [See the main image above.]

This handgun is quite exquisitely made, indeed!

I based the design on the Browning 1910 which is known as a sleek and compact handgun. It is used by the character Fujiko Mine from the comic and anime Lupin III.

Next came a series of cushions. The first is “Queen Save the Man,” which features a ballroom mask that is affixed with magnets for easy removal. The title is a word play on the title of the British national anthem, “God Save the Queen.” In this case, women can become a queen-like figure and save men.

The “Queen Save the Man” cushion. The ballroom mask attached to the cushion can be removed and used for plenty of other purposes… Photo by Muga Miyahara.

Who is the woman on the cushion?

That is Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV. She wielded a lot of political power, so we can call her the original honey trap.

The next in the cushion series was “Bride in Black.” I think women are most beautiful as brides and I want them to remember that feeling. So, I designed this cushion where you can place your wrists through lace cuffs, so that the hands appear to be holding a bouquet.

A spiced up cushion you wouldn’t necessarily find on your grandmother’s sofa… Wrists are placed in the black lace sleeves so it appears the person is holding a wedding bouquet. Photo by Muga Miyahara.

The next cushion in the series features a horse whoose tail can be removed and clipped unto lingerie. The tail is connected with a silver ring, which can be slipped over a finger and swung around like a whip.

For creative play! This jet-black horse tail can be removed and used as a horse tail whip. Photo by Muga Miyahara.

Naughty can be nice… The many uses of MAVO’s multi-purpose cushions. Photo by Muga Miyahara.

Since all of your works are in limited editions of one, do you make them yourself by hand?

Basically, I do the designs and then hand them over to professionals. However, I made the mask and whip myself. I wanted to use real horse hair and wig hair for the whip, and I did a lot of research into that. Also, when trimming the tail I wanted to get the length just right, so I clipped it on myself and had a look in the mirror. (Laughs)

OK, now I am imagining you doing that… And the final part of your story would be this rather deluxe sanitary box.

If the first piece, the condom case, is used properly while having some fun with these questions, then eventually the next menstrual cycle will start. I thought of a graveyard for sanitary goods, and so I made a sanitary box shaped like a coffin. Most sanitary boxes are designed to be hidden, but this one can be openly displayed. There is no need to hide it.

MAVO’s deluxe sanitary box comes in a peculiar shape. Photo by Muga Miyahara.

I think a coffin shaped sanitary box with a cross on top is just asking for controversy. How did people react?

The way they reacted really seemed to depend on their nationality. Some seemed rather bothered by it, while others laughed about it - it is a religious difference. For us, crosses are just a part of fashion.


MAVO’s Masayuki Takahashi.

Any plans for further exhibitions?

I would like to have these items produced as products. I would need to change the designs a bit depending on which country they would be sold in, but now I am looking for people who could cooperate to bring these out as products. I hope that anyone who is interested will contact me through my website.

Masayuki Takahashi, thank you! We look forward to see your luring objects in stores around!

24 Comments

  1. wow! the condom gun!
    wanna have it!!!

    shiny white sexy thing

    Posted by: horst on December 20th, 2007 at 1:48 am

  2. Would sell well in the UK

    Posted by: Badger on December 20th, 2007 at 3:46 am

  3. Nice stuff with a nice edge…

    Posted by: Tom on December 20th, 2007 at 9:32 am

  4. [...] like a handgun. From the “Honey Trap” series by MAVO’s Masayuki Takahashi. Mavo’s Elegantly Luring Toys (for your bedroom) [Link] [...]

    Posted by: Its Beyond Me » Mavo’s Elegantly Luring Toys (for your bedroom) on December 20th, 2007 at 9:42 am

  5. A very interesting article.
    The comment about the cross being a fashion emblem in Japan (which is then used in a range of designer sex toys) hit the nail on the head.
    Wonder if these products will get taken up for the ‘hotel’ industry here.

    Posted by: Nickb on December 20th, 2007 at 10:27 am

  6. [...] of the story: Shoot the gift safely. Click over for the rest of the interview. More articles:Swiss Army Knife On Steroids Roll High End With [...]

    Posted by: Complex Blog » 'Sexy Design' Is Much Cooler Than 'Interior' on December 21st, 2007 at 7:34 am

  7. I think crosses have a well-established “fashion icon” status in the States; Madonna’s famous use of heavy crosses on multiple necklaces in the 80’s and the use of crosses in variations of “Gothic” fashion are two examples that jump to mind.

    Speaking of Madonna, the photography really reminds me of the infamous “Erotica” video. I think Mavo would be terribly popular here. NYC, at least, eats up stuff like this!

    Posted by: elly on December 22nd, 2007 at 11:17 am

  8. elly I think you are right, but at least when Madonna wore crosses as with most/all of us from the west she had some notion of the meanings, associations etc that go with it, and alot of the usual angst and guilt etc that go hand in hand with those brought up in a christian based society can be found in her lyrics.

    Not to say that nobody has an idea about the cross and it’s ‘meanings’ in Japan but it is simply more of a fashion icon here I think than back home. It has been divorced from it’s origin.

    Posted by: Nickb on December 22nd, 2007 at 6:55 pm

  9. [...] via PingMag [...]

    Posted by: Objetos de Desejo » Porta-Camisinhas Em Forma de Arma on December 22nd, 2007 at 10:58 pm

  10. 精彩。精喜

    Posted by: qingyunying on December 25th, 2007 at 4:56 pm

  11. [...] interior designer Masayuki Takahashi recently designed the ultimate weapon—the condom gun. So next time you’re ready for [...]

    Posted by: Riceplate » Rubber for your lover on December 29th, 2007 at 2:44 am

  12. sorry for this off: lookin for higher resolutin Yuji Moriguchi pics. any idea?
    meghatas@hotmail.com

    Posted by: mopa on January 17th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

  13. [...] Image Via PingMag [...]

    Posted by: theoriginalwinger.com » He Shoots, He Scores! on January 19th, 2008 at 10:50 am

  14. I’m digging the ‘Rubber For Lover’ handgun with clip. Rub her to love her, makes sense.

    Posted by: Siggy on January 22nd, 2008 at 2:19 pm

  15. [...] the nurse’s advice for her patients? practise safe sex, people. carry a condom at all times. and be extra careful around well dressed intelligent [...]

    Posted by: who’s really in charge? ** « gimcrack hospital (PG) on January 23rd, 2008 at 6:58 pm

  16. [...] Yes, this is a condom case shaped like a hand gun. Turn your partner on with a little spontaneous fear. [...]

    Posted by: Finally, They Found A Way To Make Condoms Hot | Phil Nelson on February 26th, 2008 at 8:32 am

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  18. [...] old crinkly bag stuffed into the bottom of your wallet. Gross. This is part of a great collection, the Honey Trap, which is sadly all less good than this particular [...]

    Posted by: Breakfast Links: Megatron, Sex Gun & Fruit Opinions on February 26th, 2008 at 9:22 pm

  19. How could get a grip on those items?

    Posted by: Splinta on February 29th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

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  21. Heheh, I would like to waltz in my dorm mate’s room, and shoot a condom at him when he has his girlfriend over.

    Posted by: Anonymous on August 19th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

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  23. [...] “Is this a gun in your pocket?” “You bet, and it is about to shoot neatly packed condoms at you!” This ironic condom toy gun is only one of the thrilling design works MAVO interior designer Masayuki Takahashi is showing with his first product series called “Honey Trap.” For example, it features other intriguing objects, such as a multi-purpose cushion as sex toy or a coffin shaped sanitary box. Read the full story>>> [...]

    Posted by: Kevin Mcgue - Tokyo-Based Journalist & Filmmaker » Mavo’s Elegantly Luring Toys (for your bedroom) on March 3rd, 2009 at 11:33 pm

  24. [...] to find other options to add a hint of gang warfare-type exhilaration to wooing your woman. Enter Masayuki Takahashi’s Condom Gun, a clever prophylactic carrying case that allows you to load rolled-up condoms into a fake [...]

    Posted by: Up your street cred with some BAMF-inspired products » North by Northwestern on March 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

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