Lucy Kumara Moore discuss The Sensual World, a new retail venture exploring our desires and our relationship with our bodies
Lucy Kumara Moore has a unique experience and perception of the idea that ‘sex sells’. Having run Claire de Rouen Books – the beloved bookshop specialising in fashion, art and photography that used to exist above a sex shop in Soho before moving to a space in Bethnal Green – for 12 years, she’s intimately acquainted with what people want when looking to purchase items with erotic intent. A painter, writer and curator, Moore has just launched her latest venture, The Sensual World.
Beginning with a series of invite-only pop-ups with elegant shibari ropes, crystal dildos and expertly crafted earrings depicting group sex scenes on offer, Moore wants to break with convention regarding not only how we speak about sex but also how we shop items designed for physical pleasure. Experiential events like seeing Hackney-born musician John Glacier in concert are also part of the programme she’s putting together. The Sensual World is an evolving idea, she tells AnOther, a new style of concept store that can be as responsive to its customers’ needs as they are to their own.
Following her first pop-up, held above Cabinet Gallery in London’s Vauxhall, Lucy Kumara Moore tells us more about the concept behind The Sensual World.
Lara Johnson-Wheeler: What are your aims with The Sensual World and how would you define it?
Lucy Kumara Moore: The aim of The Sensual World is to celebrate the pursuit of physical pleasure via a series of events, shopping opportunities and an editorial platform. The idea is that the events explore our desires and our relationship with our bodies and the editorial content relates to that exploration. I also plan to create a beautiful online shop where people can buy things that will support their pursuit of physical pleasure, whether that’s through sex or sensory experiences like touch, taste and smell.
LJW: R&M Leathers, Chakrubs and Georgia Kemball are just a few of the brands that you’re offering. What drew you to them, aesthetically speaking?
LKM: I have a really strong aesthetic sense. That has driven my decision-making as much as other criteria. It’s interesting to me that different types of desire, different sexual orientations and even different eras have different aesthetic qualities. That’s something that’s been on my mind in terms of the brands I’ve worked with so far. Quality and functionality are also really important. I worked with To My Ships as well, for the pop-up, which is a new personal care brand with a very captivating scent. Some of the brands I stocked are helmed by friends, like Cicely Travers, who makes Isosceles Lingerie. There’s a parallel with Claire de Rouen, the bookshop that I owned and directed for 12 years. I had certain criteria there, to do with craft and intention and aesthetics, but the books on the shelves were also a reflection of my world and the people I know and the people they know. It created a very beautiful culture of exchange and I want that to be present in this project as well.
LJW: It’s interesting as Claire de Rouen’s messaging also centred femininity and female-identifying individuals. Were you hoping to fill a gap in the market with The Sensual World?
LKM: When I’ve shopped for myself, I haven’t found one website that has brought together beautiful, functional and interesting brands in one space. There are a lot of amazing makers and new brands in the sex retail industry, but there isn’t a website that provides a single platform for them all. I also think that women’s pleasure is a lot less represented by the current retail market. When I say ‘women’s pleasure’, that can mean a lot of things. A lot of women who have sex with men, for example, find their own pleasure amplified by their partner’s; I’m not excluding men here. But there’s less currently available for everyone who is female-identifying.
LJW: What is The Sensual World changing in terms of the relationship people have with purchasing sex products?
LKM: I think the notion of privacy really pertains to this question. Most people, I’d say, want to purchase privately. Sex is probably one of the last truly private things we do – or can be one of those things, if you choose. I think that an online space is perfect for respecting and responding to that tendency that we have. I want the website to have a really full and eclectic offering that caters to as many kinds of tastes as possible, in time. It’s going to launch with quite a small capsule and then it will expand. The in-person pop-ups will be more private. I invite people directly, so it’s my community, but that community will also grow naturally through The Sensual World.
LJW: You’ve named The Sensual World after the Kate Bush song. Is there a spirit and a sense within the song that is emblematic of what you want The Sensual World community to experience?
LKM: Kate Bush’s music and her lyrics, I’ve always found very inspiring. Her use of character and enthusiasm for articulating different perspectives pertains to our relationship with desire. She can also make something extremely prosaic, very sexy. There’s a song on Aerial that, essentially, is about sex, but through a description of a washing machine and hanging up clothes to dry on a washing line: the clothes as this trace of a body. It’s very erotic – this woman doing the laundry. And as a mother of a five-year-old, I aspire to relate to that! Kate Bush also, of course, breaks convention. I think that’s what I’d like to do with The Sensual World.
Find out more about The Sensual World here.
