On March 8, 1978, a 21-year-old Adeline Aránega opened Spain’s first sex shop on Carrer d’en Robador in the Raval – and within three months the authorities shut it down for peligrosidad social. She had learned the trade running a shop of the same name in Perpignan, and she didn’t scare easily; it still took until 1982 before the business could legally register at all. Nearly half a century on, Kitsch is still hers, long since settled uptown on Muntaner.
The real revolution came in the nineties, when Aránega rebuilt the place as a juguetería para adultos – bright, open and laid out like any ordinary shop, so that women who would never duck into a back-street sex shop could browse in peace. That idea has aged into the house identity: a woman-owned institution where the advice is as much a part of the stock as anything on the shelves.
And the shelves run deep – some three thousand references, with LELO, Fun Factory, Iroha, Tenga and We-Vibe among the brands – plus lingerie, books and a pelvic-floor sideline taken seriously enough that the shop hosts retreats with specialists. Long known for its sexologist-led shop tours and talks, it also runs a full online store with discreet delivery for anyone not ready for the doorway even now.