Summer Shoot

During the summer it's usually at least a little bit warmer than during the winter here in Sweden. So this time of the year it feels completely ok to do photo shoots with less clothes on than three layers of fur coats. One sunny day I got together with photographer Peter Nilsson to do a shoot, and here is the result!

Photo: Peter Nilsson

More From Cato Lein

You've seen pictures from photographer Cato Lein here before, and a while ago he shot me again. Just like the time before, we used my apartment as location, and here is the result!

To see more of Cato Lein's photos, you can always follow him on Facebook here, or on Instagram, where he is @catolein_

Fyodor Pavlov

Photo: Adrian Buckmaster

Russian born artist Fyodor Pavlov's (pictured above) art "inhabits a palace of old-world aestheticism with a cock-shaped summerhouse". His preferred media is watercolor and ink, and his illustrations depict subjects from the Edwardian Era and the Jazz Age, to muses of our current day, creating art that brings new life to the past. From dandies and fancy ladies, to burlesque dancers and erotic scenes his illustrations has a distinct emphasis on detail.

Pavlov also produces and co-direct the flag ship branch of Dr Sketchy's in New York - where he now lives with his creative partner and spouse Lewd Alfred Douglas and their very spoiled cat... Here is an assortment of his lovely art.

To see more of Pavlov's art, please visit his web site here, or his Facebook page here!

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Le Chabanais

In Paris, on 12 Rue Chabanais, close to Le Louvre, lies a very normal office building. What many people don't know though, is that this building once was Europe's most profitable maison close. or brothel, as it's called in English. It was called Le Chabanais, and was opened by Madame Kelly in 1878.

This luxurious house of erotic play was very lavishly decorated, with themed rooms such as Japanese, Moorish, Indian, Chinese etc. The Japanese Room even won the price for Best Design at the prestigious 1910 Paris World Fair!

And then there was the King's Room, that included a decadent, gilded royal bed and large mirrors placed both on the walls and the ceiling. This is where the future King of England, Edward VII, used to have some fun when he visited Le Chabanais.

Here the future King was known as Bertie though, and in "his" room, there was an ornate copper tub where he took champagne baths with the prostitutes, and a love seat, where he could enjoy two girls at the same time...

Other famous guests of Le Chabanais were Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - who painted 16 tableaux for the house - and the poet Guy de Maupassant, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and Marlene Dietrich. Sometimes the French government included a visit to Le Chabanais as part of the program for foreign guests of state. In the official program it was disguised as visit with the President of the Senate though...

During the WWII German occupation of France, twenty top brothels in Paris, including Le Chabanais, were reserved by the Wehrmacht for German officers and collaborating Frenchmen. During this time the brothels flourished, and even Hermann Göring visited Le Chabanais. In 1946 the legal brothels were closed by law. Their collaboration with the Germans was part of the reason...

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Pornography!

I feel this blog needs some more porn! Or...well...antique porn that is! I love these really old photos of naked/half naked women, taken during a time when showing too much leg - i e your calves - was seen as provocative. These images look so soft and innocent, but still sexy and beautiful. No fake tans, spread-your-legs, or bleached anal parts. Just soft femininity. Hope you like these photos. They were taken between 1915 and 1930.

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Dita von Teese - Erotique

If you follow Miss von Teese, you might have noticed she has now released her fourth perfume. But for the ones of you that didn't know, here it is, and it's called Erotique...

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As Dita's perfumes are nowhere to be found in Sweden, and I still haven't come across them while traveling, I haven't gotten the pleasure of trying any of her perfumes yet. But about the scent of the newest one - Erotique - Dita says herself; "Erotique is an aphrodisiac accomplishment, an elixir of alchemy inspired by a time when perfume meant something different than it does now. With it's heady melange of opposites, Erotique's poetic contrast of leather accords and burnt embers with rare voluptuous rose is not for the faint of heart; it is intoxicating, animalistic and carnal, potent weaponry for a Maestra of the erotic arts." I would love to try both this one and her other perfumes some day... Here is also a video with some behind the scenes clips from the photo shoot done to create the promo pictures for the perfume:

Fräulein Kink

Just a few years ago sex toys was something you hid in your darkest drawer, and didn't discuss in public. Today though, companies that produce these kind of pleasure gizmos pop up everywhere! Even the pharmacies in Sweden sell these things, and for a while they had ads up everywhere on how to cure for example a headache or stress - with a sex toy! It does relieve stress you know...One of these companies is called "Fräulein Kink". On their web site it states that "Fräulein Kink was created to inspire adventure, lust, and sexual exploration. The current collections of female erotic fashion accessories are versatile and can be worn inside or out of the bedroom."

I found a really cool photo series displaying Fräulein Kink's accessories. The photos were taken by Damien Vignaux, and here are some of them!

These pictures are dark, haunting, and almost a bit nightmarish. If you go to Fräulein Kink's web site you get a completely different view of their products though! There everything is shown in a much lighter, more feminine, boudoir-like way. Not as intimidating as in the pictures above. And, yes, a few of those things I could actually imagine wearing as accessories even outside of the bedroom...