It feels like only yesterday that fashion weeks in London, Paris and Milan seemed like underwear conventions. From the fur-lined corsetry of Knwls AW22 to the bra-only minimalism of Miu Miu SS22, intimates as daytime staples have basically become the norm — you wouldn’t blink twice at seeing someone virtually naked on your morning commute, so far has it come from the morning-after connotations. But questions about lingerie still … linger!
Is it solely worn to make a wearer feel sexy? Given that it’s everywhere these days, is it even sexy any more? Such considerations seem to have been front of mind for many designers showing their SS23 collections, in which the trend for boudoir garb has broadened in scope. Compared to previous seasons, though, its trajectory has shifted course. Sexy? Not so much. Forget your hot girl summer of yesteryear. Looking consciously not–hot is where it’s at, according to designers riffing on matronly nighties and cover-ups. Frumpy is the new fab.
Not convinced? When in doubt, look to Prada. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons delivered a subversively dowdy collection of sheath baby-doll dresses and nighties that, despite their feminine connotations, took on an eerie tone rooted in rawness and vulnerability. Peppered among them, black satin slip dresses laced and lightly shredded across the neckline, camisoles in gradient silk that looked stained as opposed to dyed, and long, straggling eyelashes. Sure, Mrs Prada is known for making ugly beautiful, but this achieved the opposite. A sheer ivory gown reminiscent of Mia Farrow’s costume in Rosemary’s Baby was paired with so-bad-they’re-good office heels, while clumsy contrasted bras below rendered typically erotic items repulsive.
Elsewhere in Milan, MM6 Maison Margiela followed suit with a similarly gawky collection. Spaghetti-strapped tops were stretched across models’ hips, turned upside down and layered with shrunken knit boleros, again playing with the interior-exterior dichotomy inherent to underwear.
What happens when underwear is worn over items? While classically ‘sexy’ items might draw wandering eyes towards the threshold of cloth meeting skin, these garments blurred the boundaries between the two, a bit like Vaquera’s popular oversized tee with prints of XXL lingerie, and Jean Paul Gaultier’s ‘naked’ bodysuits. It all appeals to a woman unencumbered by demands to exhibit herself and her body, flipping the bird at gendered expectations of what ‘sexy’ means.
These were not isolated examples, with the tendency for stripping garments of their otherwise steamy allure making itself felt across the board this season. Sportmax, for example, toyed with the trend, patchworking pastel-laced slip dresses with softly panelled bodysuits and control briefs.
Meanwhile, Christopher Kane took a scalpel to archetypal lingerie materials and designs for the most uncomfortable rendition of nightwear yet. The latter’s matronly ensembles, in many ways, define this unforeseen shift to all things unsexy. Coloured in the same palette you’d expect of a baby shower, medical two-pieces and skirts were lined with white lacing, redolent of cheap, netted curtains. As for rubber, this was sliced with clinical precision into the shape of a ribcage, complete with miniature buckles that clung onto skirts below. The result? Anatomical underwear both uncomfortably visceral and kinky.
If this newfound interpretation of nightwear is remarkable for anything, it’s the way in which it grapples with an ever-changing understanding of femininity – one that morphs, meanders, regresses and progresses with a world around it. It’s a cliché to say that fashion can be political, especially regarding feminist issues.
However, these collections offered undeniably poignant insights and critique. Be it intentional or implicit, SS23’s designers have spoken, and they’re sick of sexy – or, rather, of sexy as we normally know it. For spring, porridge-y lace reigns supreme, and awkwardly exposed undies are less about conjuring fantasies, and more about ardently rejecting them. Whichever way you read it, it’s reignited an ongoing discourse, and for that, we say, bra(vo).
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Images via Spotlight