The 1970s saw a generation of women liberated in expressing their sexuality, facilitated by the birth control pill and gains by the women’s rights movement. According to Elsa Peretti, the idea of the Whip was very much in the air in New York City in the early years of that decade. Reflecting, she told Time magazine in February 2013, “It was that hot period in New York. Everyone was whipping themselves.” In 1978, Vogue showed the Whip belt wrapped around the neck of model Carole Bouquet. Knotted at the throat, it was worn with an oversized men’s shirt, the collar left unbuttoned. Although Peretti maintained that the concept of the Whip—which she also made into designs meant to be held like an umbrella handle and a cane—was always based in equestrian culture, it’s impossible to ignore the powerful and subversive nature of this design.