I understand the allure of a top design house. When you’ve got a taste for luxury (and the means), why not have it draped over your shoulder, across your chest, or at the hood of your car? But there’s got to be a line drawn somewhere. That line is below the belt.
Let me explain. Last week, architect Irakli Kiziria shared designs for Louis Vuitton-imprinted rubbers, so that those with the highest of champagne tastes no longer need to submit to the indignity of Durex and Trojan’s. Oh, the horrors of proletariat intercourse! Well maybe that wasn’t the point, since the creation came in collaboration with arts collective Design Provocation and was apparently intended for launch on World AIDS Day. Kiziria designed the rubbers to complement the brand’s charity work with foundation amfAR (The Foundation For AIDS Research). Instead, it’s become a strange parody of the lengths people will go for a bit of press.
The condoms are listed at $68 a piece. That’s enough cash to last even the most busy John/Jane/Jingleheimers a good long while (6 12-packs, in fact). And for a project aiming to shed light on an issue most dominant in African countries, where a portion of the population struggles to afford even the cheapest contraceptives, the architect’s intentions have been lost in translation.
If you’re thinking that these fancy-pants-disease-nets have some special, luxury ingredient to warrant the tall price tag, well they don’t. The rubbers are currently unavailable for purchase, most likely because Louis Vuitton has no affiliation to the project or the designer. There appears to be no plans for turning this aspirational (and slightly excessive) dream into a reality, but I’ll be waiting for the inevitable tweet from the King of Excess, Kanye.
Safe sex is one of the cheapest pleasures there is, so excuse me for not understanding why someone would throw their money away on something that will be thrown away after one time. Why not put your cash toward something with a little more staying power?
I’d love to know your reaction! Would you ever buy a luxury condom? What would you think of a guy who did?
image via Design Provocation
