When Oscar Isaac kissed his way up Jessica Chastain’s arm at the Venice Film Festival, he awakened a sea of starved onlookers. Those few seconds on the red carpet quenched the public’s thirst, and they suddenly knew what they’d been missing. The moment tapped into a larger conversation about the dearth of true sensuality in popular media: You’d be hard-pressed to come up with anything from the last few decades that resounds with a true sensual nature. There are not too many moments that could compare to the slow-burning fire in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, when Madame Olenska touches Newland Archer’s knee with her fan: “It was the lightest touch, but it thrilled him like a caress,” Wharton writes. Or the high-octane pair in Singin’ in the Rain, with Cyd Charisse’s green fringed dress seductively echoing her movements while she playfully blows smoke in Gene Kelly’s face.
Fashion is the same. Fashion’s overtly body-conscious clothing has lacked the elusive ability to entice. Serena Shahidi, aka glamdemon2004 from TikTok, is a TikTok star who is known for her charming manner and dulcet voice. She says that this lackluster sense of sensuality can simply be attributed to a lack or subtlety. “We’ve forgotten what we actually want to see from other people. Not vulgarity or inhuman body proportions or trendiness or potential for virality, but more nuanced things,” she says. “There’s power in subtlety.”
As a culture, we are far too invested in the naked body as a symbol of sex—when the journey of how we clothe ourselves, and our movements wrapped in fabric, can really be what ignites the senses. A vintage DVF wrap dress is the one piece that stands out in my closet. Simple in its shape and made of slinky silk jersey, its legacy is owed to the effortless way it gently holds the body’s curves. I feel attuned every time it is on me. With no zippers or buttons, there’s a freedom to it that gives me the ability to be bold or gregarious in the face of whatever the night holds. The simple knot at the waist ties the dress together and can be pulled apart with one pull. That is sensuality. It should invite the imagination—suggesting what could happen.
Spring 2022 was all about bringing that vibrant pulse back. Prada was full of body hints, from the bony waists of the dresses, to the tails adorned with miniskirts, which reflected the movement of models’ hips, The collection’s most seductive pieces were sweaters that had the outline of the breast incorporated. This reminded us of how it feels to wear knits over bare skin, especially on cool days. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’s show notes referenced the tension between the clothes and their wearer, pointing out that “their architecture is inherently tied to the body, and therefore to seduction.”
Jonathan Anderson experimented at Loewe with draping, citing Pontormo the Renaissance painter as inspiration. There were dresses held up by the smallest strap that looked like no machine had passed through the fabric for something as crude as a seam—they appeared, instead, as though they’d landed on the body by divine chance. The transparent breastplates of his closing pieces were full of push and pull. This gave the pieces a cheeky nudity that was offset by a high neck with capelike sleeves. This transformed them into sophisticated objects, analog to sculpture (the most intimate of media, because it has so many things to do with touch). And at Versace, the foulard safety pin held together dresses and jackets all at risk—or possibility—of coming undone.
As we’re all overwhelmed with an excess of information, it’s natural that our heads turn for only the most outrageous and salacious things. Overexposure can cause our senses to become dull over time. “Ostentation is not the way to maximize sex appeal or humor or even entertainment. We’ve forgotten about the way clothing feels on our body, the practicality, the personal touches,” Shahidi says. The finer distinctions are often what make life worth living—and definitely what make wearing clothes so pleasurable. If we become accustomed to everything being presented on a platter, our curiosity is lost. Our culture is only focused on what is revealed, when all the intrigue is in what’s hiding. Spring collections were an opportunity to reenergize our senses. Fashion lovers are eager. Liane Wiggins, head of womenswear at Matchesfashion.com, notes that we saw designers “understanding that people want to be in touch with themselves and feel joy once again.” After all, we must get dressed to undress. Why not take your time?
This article appears in the February 2022 issue. ELLE.
Source: elle