FEMALE-FORGED • 1992 → NOW

More Than a Sex Shop.

For over 30 years, Sh! has fought for women’s pleasure, challenged the status quo and created spaces where people can explore sexuality on their own terms.

We didn't set out to make history.

A space made for women.

Honest advice.

Real pleasure.

No judgement.

Turns out that was radical.

LONDON • BEFORE SH!

Women had desire. What they didn't have was space

London in the late ’80s and early ’90s was a very different place. Section 28. The AIDS crisis. Homophobia. Fear, stigma and warnings.

No internet. No easy answers. And Soho’s sex shops? Dark, sleazy, owned by men, staffed by men and designed for men.

It was into this world that Ky went shopping for a sex toy…

1992:

Sh! is Born

In 1992, Ky Hoyle opened Sh! - the UK’s first sex shop created by women, for women.

The idea was simple: create the kind of place that didn’t exist.

Somewhere women could walk through the door, ask questions, discover what they liked and buy sex toys without entering a male-dominated world to do it.

It was tiny. It was radical.

And it was only the beginning.

It was the most comfortable experience coming into the store and purchasing my first toy!' YELP REVIEW

WE MAY HAVE CAUSED A LITTLE TROUBLE...

1993

The Great Dildo Stand Down

The police had a problem with our dildos.

Apparently, they were too upright.

Sh! had just started making its own non-phallic silicone dildos when the local police paid Ky a visit.

Their advice? Display them lying down. Something about not portraying a penis more than 45° erect.

“They’re not penises.”

A distinction we’d find ourselves making for years to come.

The dildos stayed down. The argument didn’t.

A vintage Hackney Gazette newspaper front page from August 9, 1984, featuring the headline 'Sex shop stoodown!' with multiple columns of text and a small portrait photo of Ky Hoyle, Sh! Women's Store founder

1994

Sh! Goes to Court

Sh! was told to pay £17,500 for a sex-shop licence.

For a bootstrapped little business, that was impossible.

So Ky went to the library — there was no internet — and started reading the law.

A “sex shop” had to sell a significant proportion of “sexual articles.”

But what actually counted as a sexual article?

Sh!’s toys weren’t realistic. A vibrator could look much like an electric toothbrush. Condoms weren’t classed as sexual articles. And what about a wand massager?

“I’ll see you in court.”

Civil-rights lawyer Terry Munyard took the case, challenging the definition itself.

At one point, waving a feather tickler at the magistrate, he asked:

“Is this a sex article, Madam?”

“It could be,” Ky whispered.

The case was thrown out.

Sh! carried on.

1996

Even Our Charity Donation = Trouble

Apparently, money from a women’s sex shop was a step too far.

Sh! customers had raised money through catalogue sales, so Ky called one of the UK’s most prominent breast cancer charities to donate it.

“Where’s the donation from?”

“The UK’s first sex shop for women. It’s been donated by our customers.”

“A SEX SHOP?! …No, sorry. We can’t accept it.”

The charity said no. We found someone who said yes.

P.S. The money found a very willing home at Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

newspaper clipping with headline 'lessons in love' - Sh! launches UK's 1 st educational classes for feamale sexuality

The tabloids had a field day!

1999:

The Sex Eduction We Wish We'd Had

In 1999, Sh! launched what we believe was the UK’s first sex class for women.

The dirty phone calls poured in. So did women - in their droves.

Turns out there was quite an appetite for honest, practical conversations about sex and pleasure.

There still is.

"Wow! I found this course so educational and eye-opening. Becoming Orgasmic Course | SHUSHLIFE.COM

20+ years later, jelly toys containing chemical softeners are still widely sold.
We wish more retailers had followed...

2001:

What the Hell is in a Sex Toy?

PVC “jelly” toys were everywhere — along with growing concerns about the chemical softeners used in them.

Sh! began advising customers to use condoms over PVC toys and pushing for safer alternatives.

When good body-safe silicone finally arrived?

We stopped selling PVC toys altogether.

More than 20 years later, we wish everyone else had too.

Because knowing what goes in your body is part of making an informed choice.

2001-2002:

Pleasure Meets Healthcare

Our first relationship with the NHS was a little bit stealth.

It started with an oncology nurse buying rabbit vibrators herself to help patients with scar tissue. Then came research into vibrators and post-surgery dilation - and the beginnings of Sh! Dilators.

Since then, we’ve worked with hundreds of health professionals.

Pleasure isn’t frivolous. It’s part of health and wellbeing.

'I was told would never feel pleasure again after cancer treatment' SHE CAME TO US.... AND She Did.

2015

Pleasure Can Be Part of Healing

A survivor wrote to us about sex after rape.

It made us realise Sh! could do more.

So, with My Body Back Project, we created Café V — the UK’s first physical support group helping women survivors of rape rebuild positive, pleasurable relationships with their bodies and sex.

Sometimes pleasure is about reclaiming what belongs to you.

"When I found your shop, it felt like a safe place to explore sex again" SURVIVOR, WRITING TO SH!

vaginismus awareness day 15th September - Created by Sh! Women's Store

2017

We Put Vaginismus on the Calendar

For years, women had been coming to Sh! telling us sex hurt, and so many thought they were the only one.

We knew otherwise.

So in 2017, we established 15 September as Vaginismus Awareness Day and created VaginismusAwareness.com.

Painful sex needed a louder conversation.

So we started one.

'I thought I was the only one'

2020

The Doors Closed. Sh! Didn’t.

Covid changed everything.

After nearly 30 years, we made the heartbreaking decision to close our physical shop.

But Sh! wasn’t going anywhere.

We downsized, moved online - and kept making dildos, harnesses and noise.

'Never have so many sex toys been shifted in a Smart car'

1992 → NOW

The Fight Isn’t Over

A lot has changed since 1992.

A lot still needs to.

Women’s bodily autonomy is still contested. LGBTQ+ people are still fighting to live openly and safely. Shame, misinformation and judgement haven’t disappeared — they’ve just found new platforms.

Different decade. Same fight for the right to own our bodies, our identities and our sexuality.

So Sh! is still here.

Still women-owned.
Still independent.
Still making noise.

Shaking Things Up:

Three Decades of Making A Little Noise.

Turns out, doing things differently gets you noticed...

Putting strap-ons on Selfridges walls...

downing-street - Sh! Women's Store — Invitation to Downing Street...

Smuggling in a pressie for the hostess ;)

Heston Jelly - Sh! Women's Store — Making Heston's jelly wobble...

30+ YEARS MAKING HEADLINES

Apparently, People Noticed.

From underground queer press to national newspapers, Sh! has spent more than three decades getting people talking.

VICE

Inside a Secret Lesbian Sex Toy Smuggling Ring

THE BODY

Ky Hoyle Speaks About Founding the UK's First Women's Sex Shop

MY LONDON

'It's not about flogging sex toys, we help women find their sexuality'

Mirror

Woman opens UK's first female sex shop ...

WHAT WE STAND FOR

Pleasure is POWER.

Pleasure isn't frivolous. It's autonomy. Agency. Choice.

OUR BODIES. OUR RULES.

Our pleasure. Our bloody business.

FEMALE-FORGED

Doing it our way since 1992.

MAKE LOVE. MAKE NOISE.

Passion was never meant to be quiet.

FOR EVERY BODY.

All bodies. All loves. All welcome

This Story isn't Finished.

Are you in?

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY