I know it. You know it. The cat next door knows it. It is something marketing bodies across all industries have used to increase sales and we, without fail, go along with it year in year out. It has been argued as the driving force behind the fashion industry since, well, forever. (I mean, Terry Richardson has been having sex on photoshoots since 100BC...right?) (And how else, beside overt sexuality, could Tom Ford rekindle Gucci's limp and slightly sad looking flame?) Fashion is sex, and sex is fashion. Both are arts and both are beautiful.
One of my favourite images from the Spring shows (and again for Fall) is that of Dolce and Gabbana's finale. Watching 20+ women strut down the runway in corsets is my idea of pure sex. When trying to explain this to my "Wallis Mum" mum i was met with looks of disgust and the typical 'So this is what you spend your time on' "Wallis Mum" comment, and it struck me that-somehow, and beyond my mum's comprehension- Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana had managed to unequivocally combine sex with class.
This idea is cemented through their understanding of their heroine:
'The Dolce & Gabbana woman is strong: she likes herself and knows she is liked. A cosmopolitan woman who has toured the world but who doesn’t forget her roots. A woman who indifferently wears extremely sexy guêpières or bras that can be seen under sheer clothes, contrasting them with the very masculine pinstripe suits complete with tie and white shirt or a men’s vest. She always wears very high heels which, in any case, give her both an extremely feminine and sexy way of walking and unmistakable posture. She loves that so masculine cap imported from Sicily and the rosary of the first Communion which she wears as a necklace. She can indifferently be a manager, wife, mother or lover but she is always - and in whatever case - thoroughly a woman.'
And it is this idea of classy sexuality that makes what the designers do a work of art. Take, for instance the materials that are trending for Fall: leather, sheer and lace. A recipe for a trashy disaster, right? Wrong. The shows manage to portray a fiercely independent woman, a heroine that we as viewers can relate to. One that we can both see in ourselves, and strive to be. This is the magic of fashion.
Images via Style.com, from top: Giambattista Valli Fall10, Givenchy Fall10, Valentino Fall 10, Balmain Fall10
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