Turn away now, puritans and prudes. The latest Agent Provocateur campaign has arrived and it’s as provocative as ever. From the brand that brought us Kate Moss’s sexual fantasies, bikes as sex toys and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s steamy LA strip, now comes the ultimate climax. Chanelling the gothic decadence of Hogarth, Caravaggio, Rubens and Delaroche’s Execution of Lady Jane Grey, it is a seething orgiastic scene of girls on top, girls on girls and boys and beasts. Peaches and Daisy Lowe, the bad girls du jour, both star, as does the flame-haired American actress Paz de la Huerta, who holds court over a sacrifice of a topless virgin, accompanied by two male cohorts — David Bailey’s Byronesque son, Fenton, and a 21-year-old albino boy named Alex. It was Alex’s first ever shoot and, according to an insider, “he had quite a surprising day”.

The dark master behind the Agent Provocateur sex show is Vivienne Westwood’s son, Joe Corré. He launched the brand in 1994 with his wife, Serena Rees, but she left him for the Clash’s Paul Simonon in 2006. His close friend Kate Moss recently said, “A lot of people don’t dare do the things they dream about, but [Corré] just goes for it.”

You can spot Corré in the picture, surrounded by his disciple-friends as he presides over the sacrifice. “I feel artistically freer without Serena,” he admits. “This was exhilarating — it’s some of the best work we’ve ever done.” Does he find witches erotic? Of course. “Powerful women are not victims,” he says. “They’re in control, and that is very sexy.”

Inevitably, matters did get out of control. “People got overexcited,” says Corré, naming no names. “Some have an idea of what they think is sexy, but maybe they’ve been watching too much porn.” Meanwhile, the photographer Tim Bret-Day reckons it was a “miracle” it actually happened: “It was a free-for-all. Everybody ran rampage. These girls are so sure about their sexuality, they’re a scary bunch. We never expected Paz to put a knife to someone’s throat.”

And there’s more to come — part II, out in November, sees Alice Dellal swinging from a chandelier and Pixie Geldof and Helena Christensen in a food fight. Take it from us — this is the sanitised version.

www.agentprovocateur.com

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