Bon Ton (brothel)

Last updated
Bon Ton
Company typePrivate
Industry Sex industry
Headquarters New Zealand
Number of locations
1 agency
Area served
Queenstown
Key people
Jennifer Souness
Products Escort Agency
Services Sexual services
OwnerJennifer Souness
Website www.bonton.co.nz

Bon Ton is a high-end escort agency chain in New Zealand. [1] It initially operated two escort agencies - one in the capital city Wellington and a second in the nation's largest city Auckland. It now operates in Queenstown. [2] [3] Bon Ton is a French term which means "good taste". [4] The luxury escort agency is owned by Jennifer Souness, [5] a former model who modeled for various European fashion labels. [3]

In a feature story on prostitution in New Zealand, the BBC News Online described Bon Ton as "an ideal showcase for New Zealand-style liberalisation". [1] The escort agency is characterized by quality rooms resembling luxury suites and a professionally maintained office. [1] Louise Jolliffe writing in The Wellington Guide asserted that Bon Ton looks closer to "a luxury lodge than a brothel". [3]

All the women working at Bon Ton have other occupations and work as escorts on a part-time basis. According to the BBC News Online, the escorts working at Bon Ton say they find the work environment respectful. [1]

Bon Ton bills itself as "a boutique agency for a select clientele" and states that it intends "to provide a tasteful and discreet haven for gentlemen to enjoy the attentions of elegant, beautifully groomed, intelligent women". [4] The website of the escort agency makes invitation calls to potential clients to come into what is described as a "safe and secret oasis where the outside world melts away". [6]

The Bon Ton website publishes biographies of their escorts. As per the requirement by the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, Bon Ton has a safe sex policy that requires customers to wear condoms. [7] [1] [5]

Two members of the United Kingdom-based Women's Institute (WI), who visited various brothels throughout the world to check their quality and were featured in a BBC documentary titled The WI And The Search For The Perfect Brothel , voted Bon Ton the world's best. [8] [9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Selling sex legally in New Zealand". BBC News Online . 17 March 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  2. "Official Website of Bon Ton" . Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Jolliffe, Louise (Autumn 2009). "Thoroughly Modern Madam" (PDF). The Wellington Guide (24): 28–33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-05-26.
  4. 1 2 "Brothel sues banker over bill". Stuff.co.nz . 1 January 2009. Archived from the original on February 23, 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  5. 1 2 "School's cash went on sex and high living". The Dominion Post . 16 November 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  6. Jane Warren (5 November 2011). "SHOULD PROSTITUTION BE LEGALISED?". Daily Express . Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  7. Tracey Tyler (29 September 2010). "Legalized brothels 'fantastic' for New Zealand, prostitutes say". Toronto Star . Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  8. PAUL EASTON (20 February 2010). "Legal prostitution hot topic at Oxford debate". Stuff.co.nz . Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  9. "NZ brothels get thumbs up from UK grannies". The New Zealand Herald . 30 July 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2012.