LELO Etherea Silk Cuffs

Date: (20 January 2012)

I'm very much into being restrained, and these look like a classy way to be gently bound; who could resist silk and suede cuffs?

As with all the Lelo toys, they arrive in a nice little box that looks like it should be holding jewellery, and the quality of the cuffs matches that up-market feeling. The advertising image really doesn't do the purple cuffs justice, they are a much more vibrant colour than the picture shows.

The cuffs are well made, with all the seams nicely stitched, and look like they'll last for a while.

One side is wonderfully soft suede, which is begging to be stroked, and the other is soft jacquard silk, which looks amazingly pretty. This is actually where I think Lelo have got things wrong, as they've put the suede on the outside, and the silk on the inside, and because of the way the ribbons are threaded and the suede being a larger curve than the silk, you really can't use the cuffs the other way round. It seems a real shame to hide the pattern of the silk.

The ribbons themselves are thick silk, and hold a knot well while being easy enough to untie, and should take a fair amount of use. Depending on how you're planning to use these cuffs (say to be tied to a bed), they may be a little short, but too much longer and they'd be difficult to use to just bind the wrists together.

I was a bit concerned that having the silk as the inside of the cuffs could lead to some irritation as it can slide over skin while the suede wouldn't, but this seems to have been unfounded, possibly due to how soft the silk is.

The only other thing you might need to watch is if you've got really thin wrists you might hit a point where you can't overlap the cuffs enough; the cuffs are about 18.5 cm long, and will probably overlap about 2.5 cm.

Overall, these are a very nice, classy way to play with some gentle bondage, but I think they would both feel better and look amazing if the silk was on the outside and the suede on the inside.

7.5/10