Hei, soitinkohan oikeaan numeroon, tai siis että oletko sinä se dildonainen? Kysymys putkahtaa suusta ilman harkintaa. Ehkä yrityksenä on rikkoa jäätä, kun asia on niin kuumottava.
”Kyllä, minä se olen”, Tea Latvala vastaa reippaasti nauraen. Hän on vastannut kysymykseen lukuisia kertoja.
Tea Latvala suunnittelee, valmistuttaa, markkinoi ja myy puisia dildoja eli hieromasauvoja Teatiamo Industries -yrityksensä nimissä.
Sometimes my story is too complicated to start telling it to a complete stranger. But this is how it began – written by Matilda Kivelä:
”There was a door in Miami that I walked past almost every day. It looked so tantalising, yet every time I tried to open it it was locked. For some reason, it kept calling my name and I kept stopping to try its handle to see if it was open. On the day I told my then-boyfriend to pack his bags and leave our shared home, I walked past the door. It was unlocked and a tiny woman was in. She asked me if I knew why the door had been locked until that morning, quickly replying to her own question. “It was locked because you were not ready until now.” It sent chills down my spine.
We started a long process of healing, working on my strengths and weaknesses together. We became friends. Once during a meditation session, she suddenly sprung up, holding her small hands parallel to each other and exclaimed “I see dildos in beautiful wooden boxes!” While it would be poetic to say that it was an epiphany, I was actually confused by her outburst. It kind of made me feel a bit dirty. At that point I had been working in fashion and as an art director for years. Becoming a dildo dealer was not part of my plan.
I flew back to Finland and over that spring, ideas of something of my own started to form. I was suffering from insomnia and when night fell I would build vast empires of ideas and dreams in my mind. It was not long before my thoughts would reach their crystallisation in the form of dildos. I had actually had a name for my brand long before the dildos. It was born over dinner one night, when an Italian couple asked me why I did not have my own brand yet. “Tea, ti amo,” they exclaimed, “it is a perfect name for a brand!” Tea, ti amo – Tea, I love you. The dildos fit the name perfectly. It is the pinnacle of what they symbolise – learning to accept and love yourself.
The shape of the dildos was born organically – I often drew the same form on notepads and pieces of paper when I was on the phone. The shape grew on me little by little and I later refined it to resemble a more clean-cut half-circle. When I lived through difficult nights, I sustained my dreams with the idea that I would one day be able to showcase what I have achieved. I wanted to bring dildos into the realm of aesthetics, out of the grotty sex dens of the 1990s. I wanted to break some of the taboos that still hang over us.
Some people expect me to be some kind of ultra-sexual nymph just because I design sexual objects. Sometimes I get feedback about the way I look – people tell me that I could and should be sexier and expect me to show and tell. My aim is to be a credible designer and businesswoman, so in my mind there should not be a link between my dildos and the way I look. It makes me furious when people tell me I should wear different clothes or let my long hair down – I can be a successful businesswoman even if I’m dressed in lounge wear with my hair up in a tight bun. As a woman, I have to justify my existence no matter what I look like or what I do and it is almost as if I was expected to apologise for what I am. Sorry for being tall, sorry for having long hair that I want to tie up – and sorry for having designed something that I can stick up yours!
In some ways, I feel like I am a pioneer of some sorts. Dildos are not anything new, but it does feel like I have hit some nerve since there has been so much controversy and discussion around my business. I had no idea how many tornadoes I would have to survive when I started. Sometimes, when I look back, it feels like the things I do are guided by something bigger and with hindsight, I can see how everything is connected. It is no longer just about the dildos, but about something bigger – I believe that they will open new doors and ideas, shatter some ceilings and kick through some doors. They already have. It has been a battle, but it feels like I am exactly the right person for this task.”
Tea Latvala is the founder and CEO of TEATIAMO, a startup that blends design and high-end sex toys. Latvala holds a Master of Arts degree from the Helsinki School of Arts, Design and Architecture. From 2007 to 2008, she co-hosted 14 episodes of G-piste (“G-spot” in Finnish), a talk show about sexuality.
Written by Matilda Kivelä
Photo by Bryan Saragosa
Story in NORDIC SPIRITS magazine
It depends on the day and how I feel. For sure, I need a cup of coffee, but before that I read my e-mails on my iPhone and check all my social media accounts to get a picture of what’s going on in the world.
Both of my parents worked in a wood refining factory for almost 20 years. Before I started school, I used to go and sell ice-cream to the factory workers with my sister. I was only five when I started.
Two years ago, I had dinner with my ex-boyfriend and an Italian couple. They asked me why I didn’t have a brand of my own, and they said the words Tea ti amo out loud for the first time. It means Tea, I love you. I actually thought it was brilliant, because the brand is all about loving yourself.
The company mission is to bring sexy back in the daylight and build a retail chain where Victoria’s Secret meets Apple on a store level. TEATIAMO aims to break boundaries in sex toy industry.
At this point, where many of the the bigger companies are crumbling down, creative entrepreneurship is all we really have left. I believe that small businesses have a great opportunity to shine and take over.
I am not a person who misses things. Of course, I think about my friends and family, but we live in a very interactive and global time, which makes it very easy to communicate all around the world.
Pohojammaa (Pohjanmaa, the region in Finland known in English as Ostrobothnia). Although I’ve lived abroad and travel quite a lot, my roots are very deeply in Pohojammaa. There is just this certain unique force and spirit that is unbreakable. Pohojammaa is something that will always be tattooed on my heart, maybe literally one day.
I don’t think I recognise the word typical. All in all, I have chosen quite an interesting path as a dildo dealer and designer, which makes my days not typical at all. I would say that the only routine I’ll have is when I’ll start writing my report to Tekes.
The most challenging aspect is to come across as a professional businesswoman in Finland. The sex toy industry and sex in general are still taboos, although we live in 2017. Due to the nature of the business I have chosen, many people here think that they can approach me with a personal sexual innuendo. They want to put me in a certain category and associate me with porn stars or someone who is here to ‘show and tell’ the products. I get a lot of feedback from men commenting on my looks and not paying attention to the business side of it. Many men think that I want to listen to their personal sexual experiences and become their therapist, although I have neither interest nor competence in that sector. But for sure, you can imagine that when you start to design dildos from wood, it is not the easiest path to choose. There have been so many challenges people don’t see or understand, however I know I am the best at what I have chosen to do. There is no one who could have done this any better so far.
I see myself as a very successful entrepreneur. I have TEATIAMO retail stores in major cities around the world and I employ hundreds of people. I am also looking for a CEO to take over my duties. I have one home base in Finland, one in the US and one in Italy. I have a ridiculously handsome and loving husband and maybe a few children. In 10 years, when my picture is on the cover of Time magazine, I hear people saying that ‘oh my god, that crazy bitch made it’.
Nämä seksilelut kehtaa jättää yöpöydälle lojumaan. Seksilelun ei ole pakko näyttää avaruusoliolta tai lastenhuoneesta karanneelta. Valitsimme 13 tyylikästä seksilelua, joita ei tarvitse piilottaa yöpöydän laatikkoon.
No nyt on ehtaa suomalaista designia! Tea Latvalan perustama Teatiamo valmistaa dildoja luonnonmateriaaleista, esimerkiksi koivusta ja lepästä. Yritys sai alkunsa Latvalan halusta suunnitella tyylikäs seksilelu, jota kelpaa säilyttää vaikka kirjahyllyssä.
Yllättävä Suomi-design leviää maailmalle: ”Tikuista ei ole pelkoa, jos ei ole halko hanurissa jo valmiiksi”
Teatiamo-brändillä toimiva suomalainen design-yritys markkinoi puusta valmistettuja dildojaan eli masturbointivälineitään nyt Yhdysvaltain sekä Kiinan ja Singaporen markkinoille, yhtiö kertoo tiedotteessaan.
Tiedotteen mukaan yhdysvaltalainen Good Vibes -ketju on ottanut Teatiamon luksusdildoja myyntiin pariin lippulaivamyymäläänsä. Puudildoja on myös lähetetty näytille Kiinaan ja Singaporeen.
Teatiamon verkkokaupassa puudildon hinta vaihtelee 189 eurosta 239 euroon. Puudildoja varmistetaan neljästä eri puulajista: koivusta, tervalepästä, pyökistä ja pähkinäpuusta.
Dildot valmistetaan puusepäntehtaalla, ja niiden pinta viimeistellään myrkyttömällä akryylilakalla, mikä tekee puun pinnasta sileän ja lasimaisen. ”Tikuista ei ole pelkoa, jos ei ole halko hanurissa jo valmiiksi”, sanoo Teatiamon perustaja ja dildojen suunnittelija Tea Latvala.
Latvala on pyrkinyt suunnittelussaan siihen, että jokainen suunniteltu tuote sopii pidettäväksi esillä esimerkiksi kirjahyllyssä tai pöydällä henkilökohtaisen käytön lisäksi. Latvalan mukaan “kaikki riippuu lopulta käyttäjän omasta design-mausta, mutta myös rohkeudesta”.