A teacher has quit the classroom to open a BONDAGE shop in genteel Cambridge – and says she expects her best customers to be university dons.
Mother-of-four Jen Ahrell, 42, taught art to secondary school pupils and sang in a church choir in her spare time.
She stunned colleagues when she left teaching to focus on kinky sex education with her own store with partner Kevin Gilbert.
Jen Ahrell and her partner Kev Gilbert at their new fetish and bondage shop in Cambridge
Their shop, named Deviance, will sell everything from whips to gags, masks and nurses’ uniforms and a men’s underwear range.
Jen says raunchy popstars such as Lady Ga Ga, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus are making latex fashion mainstream.
She said: “This is not a sex shop. It’s a high fashion latex store and latex fashion is really popular.
“I would love to think the students will get involved. I can imagine them wearing the latex to one of their balls or something.
A pair of leather pants on show at Jen’s kinky store
“In terms of the professors I think it is quite often the really straight, pleasant people on the exterior who have that racy side to them.
“It is a shop for consenting adults in the privacy of their own home. Couples
need to find something to spice things up a bit.
“Burlesque is really big in Cambridge too. We also want to attract the gay community to the store.”
She added: “I told them at school I was leaving to open a shop but didn’t tell them what it was but I think word has gotten out.
“I know it’s going to be controversial. They have raised their eyebrows at the nearby church too.”
Kevin, 44, said: “I think Cambridge is a great place for this sort of shop because we have so many students – and university dons.
“After all, this sort of thing has been going on here for hundreds of years.”
The store is due to open on Saturday (21/12) in a bid to cash in on Christmas shoppers.
Three months ago it emerged bondage lessons had been booked at Trumpington Village Hall outside Cambridge.
The sessions – offering talks on spanking, flogging and “kink on a budget” – were scrapped when the hall trustees said they had been booked “under false pretences”.
Kevin added: “We didn’t have anything to do with that group.
“I think they should have been honest, although I don’t suppose they would have been allowed there if they had.”