photo by ellie

Sometimes it’s nice to take things slowly, to undress each other as an act of love, to undo every button with unrushed focus. Other times, you just want to rip off each other’s clothes, literally! But this is often impractical. People pay a lot of hard-earned money on their wardrobes, and as much as they’d like to be the kind of people who’ll sacrifice anything for passion, most don’t want to have their outfits ruined during every enthusiastic romp. So here’s an idea: go to a cheap second-hand store and buy yourself (and/or your partner) something you’re okay with only wearing once. You don’t even have to wear it outside the house. It just needs to be worn long enough to be torn off — either worn by you and torn by you (a la Demi Moore in Striptease) or worn by your partner and torn by you (a la the entire bodice-ripper genre). Button-downs are great for the visual effect of the buttons flying, but anything that tears easily will do (nothing worse than a stubborn t-shirt gagging you as you try — and fail — to tear it off like a sexy Incredible Hulk).