Summer 2021, fashion historian Florence Müller walks the streets of Miami.
She notices with amusement that the women stroll through the city in cropped (short cut) or fully transparent outfits, all revealing micro-swimsuits under their dresses.
Same observation of the fashion journalist, Eugène Rabkin, founder of the magazine stylezeitgeist.com, but in New York this time.
In his article “Sex doesn't sell.
Voyeurism does”, writing for
BOF (The Business of Fashion)
, he recounts that women, after the abandonment of restrictions linked to the pandemic, took to the streets of the Big Apple in various very undressed outfits.
Read alsoMadonna, Kim Kardashian, Chris… Bodies that speak volumes
“'Look but don't touch' is the ethos that permeates fashion's post-pandemic exhibitionist look,” he points out.
Trendsetters quickly seized on this “summer of love” and designers seized on the phenomenon.
In spring-summer 2022, revealing cuts, second-skin dresses or jumpsuits, microskirts, veiled tops that reveal, exposed bras have invaded the ready-to-wear catwalks.
Meanwhile, Mugler's semi-transparent leggings and Nensi Dojaka's lingerie pieces, LVMH 2021 prices, are going like hot cakes.
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The revealed body
“This trend is so strong, underlines Alexandra Van Houtte, founder of the Tagwalk site, a reference fashion search engine, that we have created a special tag (keyword) for spring-summer 2022 called “unveiled body” ( revealed body).
By then including it on spring-summer 2021, we have seen an increase of more than 336% in looks referring to it over the current season.
Which designers have included this concept the most in their collections?
Nensi Dojaka, a young designer of Albanian origin, whose corsets associated with tailoring pieces, dresses with built-in bras crossed by graphic mesh cutouts and bodysuits (seen on Bella Hadid) are literally driving fashion crazy, but also Ludovic de Saint-Sernin, Balmain, Fashion East and Gucci.
Other Tagwalk keywords that have clearly increased over the season: "catsuit" (these tight-fitting combinations that we have seen a lot at Saint Laurent and Marine Serre), "cut out" (cut), "mini", and "bra as top” (bras worn as a top).
At Prada, Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada have also focused on the idea of seduction, of expressing sexuality through clothing, such as these fine knit polo shirts with their classicism jostled by clearly marked breasts.
In summary: the revealed female body is the triumph of the year.
Logical continuation of the health crisis where it was hidden, hindered, folded in on itself?
“Obviously, we have been refocused a lot on our well-being as if a part of our body, the one that interacts, challenges, attracts no longer exists, analyzes Thomas Zylberman, stylist and trendsetter at the Carlin Creative office.
We therefore return to a body language that expresses our desire to reach out to others and rediscover those moments of conviviality and seduction that were absent from our lives during the health crisis.
But the second mainspring of this phenomenon also stems from the fact that a whole generation of girls is discovering that the female body can become a form of unsubmitted empowerment.
They are in the process of reconquering it,
Vanessa Moody, the cover story
In images, in pictures
See the slideshow13 photos
See the slideshow13 photos
The claimed seduction
In this abundance of radiant flesh, of ultra-marked femininity, of noticeable sex appeal, certain disgruntled minds have seen a return to the woman-object, of the one who dresses to attract the opposite sex, as certain major fashion brands suggest. 2000s. Tess, 22, journalist at
Brut
, totally refutes this argument.
“I want to feel free to be sexy, to dress in a tight dress or a mini, if I feel like it, because for me, these are weapons that I control.
Our feminist elders wanted to deny their femininity to put themselves on the same level as men, but we claim our seduction, our sensuality, because it is also what defines us.
I don't want other people telling me what to do with my body, so I'm turning things around.
Putting on make-up, putting on heels, showing me in a bathing suit on Instagram, it's my decision to do it and it doesn't allow anyone to judge me.
We understood that we girls were, no matter what, sexualized.
So, OK, we are, but now according to our own criteria.
We claim our seduction, our sensuality, because it is also what defines us
Tess
Tess is part of this generation that dances twerk – this sensual choreography where you shake your hips and buttocks – in nightclubs without this ultra-sexy movement being an invitation and, even less, an authorization to approach her. .
The famous "Look but don't touch."
“To be a feminist today is to claim our femininity, sometimes even to excess, to reverse the situation, to no longer let men objectify us.
I choose to be sexy but in absolute control, she continues.
It's the
bad bitch
side to Cardi B which means, in fact, I'm the boss.
Sublimated curves
A little flashback: in the summer of 2020, Cardy B released a single called
WAP
(acronym for Wet Ass Pussy) with Megan Thee Stallion with increased “sexpositivity”.
The ultra suggestive clip triggers a tidal wave on the web (25.5 million views in 24 hours and a direct start of the song in number one sales worldwide) and above all provokes a burning debate.
“This generation of female rappers, like Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and the others, have transformed the codes of female submission into veritable flamethrowers.
She completely reversed the roles”, analyzes Thomas Zylberman.
Same speech from the influencer, model and actress, Emily Ratajkowski, who tells in her book My Body (released in January) how the provocative display of her anatomy is a form of feminist emancipation.
So, free to feel sexy?
Even when you don't have Emily Ratajkowski's more than perfect figure?
The answer is yes.
It is also the great feminist conquest of this new
body conscious
, which owes as much to the Kardashian girls and their very plump buttocks as to the fashion designers who parade "plus size" models, such as the top model Paloma at Coperni or at Chloe.
Body conscious
?
The term means conscious of one's body and it appeared at the end of the 1970s with the invention of new elastic fibers allowing silhouettes to be molded in the interests of perfection.
Its worthy representatives?
Mugler in a fantasy version and Alaïa in a sublimated version.
But today, the
bodycon,
as it is now called, reflects more the desire to assume without complex, to affirm its femininity in a garment that follows all the curves as accurately as possible to highlight them.
A multiple femininity
“Designers today ask themselves a lot of questions about femininity, continues Thomas Zylberman, and express it in a very diverse way.
There have been all kinds of sexy bodies on the catwalks.
That of Ludovic de Saint-Sernin, who questions the notion of gender, that of Stella McCartney, more sporty, or that of the new Mugler or Esther Manas, who play much more inclusiveness.
A body that is by no means passive but toned, humanist, feminist.
Exit the first degree, therefore, which made the female anatomy an object of seduction à la Victoria's Secret, this brand of lingerie, whose legendary fashion show was recently canceled following the scandals aroused by its retrograde vision.
Designers today ask themselves a lot of questions about femininity and express it in a very diverse way.
Thomas Zylberman
The sublimation of feminine curves in the post-MeToo era no longer has quite the same taste.
“I think hyper femininity and the
bodycon
are different concepts today.
In the 1990s, they were tools for adhering to a certain cultural standard of beauty, skinny, tall, young.
Today, the culture has changed, our notion of beauty is more open.
What is so important to me at Mugler is to bring sexiness to all those who want it, says Casey Cadwallader, artistic director of the label.
I strive to make my clothes fit different body types, hoping that all shapes and sizes can enjoy it.
Our lycra bodysuits and leggings are very successful because they are spectacular and daring, but at the same time cover the whole body, while visually lengthening it.
Listen: the editorial staff podcast
A new vision of the female body to which Nicolas di Felice, artistic director of Courrèges also adheres.
“What's great today, he says, is that fashion is no longer limited to stereotypes.
It may be a reaction to the patriarchal society, but we feel that women want to break free and simply be beautiful and sexy for themselves.
It's very inspiring,” adds the man whose openwork vinyl Courrèges microdresses were a hit in all sizes.
The analysis of Florence Müller, fashion historian
“Reclaiming your body as an object of seduction?
It's a fad that often happens after a wave of feminist struggles, as is the case today.
I clearly see a parallel there with the end of the 1970s, when Chantal Thomass, in particular, relaunched the traditional lingerie of the fifties pin-up by playing the second degree on the notion of the female object.
What it meant was that many battles had been fought – the right to the pill, abortion, the right to own one's body – and that women could now move on.
Namely, re-accepting the attributes of their sex and highlighting all the assets of their femininity, the hips, the buttocks, the breasts.
Added to this glamorous revival in the 1980s were bodysuits and tight-fitting underpants.
This fashion of the revealed body, of which Alaïa was the king, is making a strong comeback today.
Take the new wave of music stars, from Rihanna to Rosalía to Miley Cyrus, for example: they are ultra
powerful
and show their bodies – even if not perfect – in dominatrix mode.
As if, after the last generation of post-MeToo feminist struggles, women could once again allow themselves to be real women”.
Self-awareness
An inclusive
body conscious
, therefore, of which Azzedine Alaïa was the master in the matter and which Pieter Mulier, the brand's new artistic director, is also honoring for spring-summer.
“This return to body awareness is a great moment for the house, he analyzes.
First, because it is pushed by these new generations who dare everything and communicate with their bodies in a very visual way, and also because it pays homage to the work of Azzedine Alaïa, who drew for all women in order to give them strength.
He wanted them to take ownership of their bodies and use it in all its beauty.
A
neo-body conscious
which falls perfectly in this post-pandemic air giving back to women all their power of seduction without subjection.
A new wave feminism that encourages them to consider their body as a means of action instead of minimizing it, to highlight their personality.
The weaker sex, stronger than ever?