FASHIONING THE BODY

If there ever was a time when the body was the actual protagonist of fashion, it is now. We look to the runways to dissect this anatomical obsession

- NIDA NAEEM

The claim that the body ever fell out of focus in this business seems to contradict the very raison d’être of clothes; yet conceptual storytelling and marketability have often trumped corporeal considerations in many contemporary collections showcased on international runways.

However, recent seasons have been full of designers investigating how clothes interact with and connote the body. A decade-long obsession with oversized everything has given way to second-skin-like styles, see-through garbs, extreme corsetry, and even a crotch pocket or two. The execution feels crisp and distinctly current – instead of falling back on stale male gaze-y tropes of sexual appeal, designers are approaching the cutting table with humour and subversion.

BARE IT ALL

Fashion showgoers are overexposed to flesh, especially in the West. Nobody bats an eye at an exposed nipple on the runway – but naked dressing is a delicate dance of conceal and reveal that strives to offer something beyond mere titillation. And naked dressing continues on this trajectory, from having emerged in 2023 as a reference to certain stars’ sheer red carpet dresses to becoming a full-blown trend coming into 2024.

Spring/Summer 2024 runways witnessed naked dressing in myriad iterations, from Alaïa’s translucent latex skirts with visible thongs underneath to Adeam’s gauzy corset tops worn with sporty knits and fingerless gloves. The range of designers tapping into naked dressing is very wide, resulting in spins on the trend that span from Parisian chic to athleisure-oriented.