We’re All Born Naked: The Body Is AW22’s Biggest Inspiration

You don’t have to look at Maddy’s skimpy togs Euphoria, or Rihanna’s tabloid-grabbing pregnancy lewks, to realise this is truly the season of embracing the body-ody-ody. Designers in Paris, Milan and beyond are looking to the human form to inspire the clothes that’ll grace our backs come autumn. The shows didn’t just feature a load of sensual cut-outs and flesh-baring minidresses, though. Brands are taking nuanced, often surrealist approaches when exploring the body’s physique. We’ve seen modern armour, sci-fi fantasies and wearable art on the catwalks in recent months. Here’s what caught our eye.

Painted For the Gods

Schiaparelli Couture

Alaia Fall 2022 Ready-To-Wear look 38

LaQuan Smith

LaQuan Smith

Maryam Nassir Zadeh

Trompe l’oeil prints of the body reined supreme through the AW22 shows. Pieter Mulier’s sophomore Alaïa outing saw the Belgian designer turn Picasso paintings into gowns. At Y/Project, Glenn Martens adopted Jean Paul Gaultier’s iconic naked torso prints to create thermocoloured tank tops and Balmain combined the Renaissance chiaroscuro with black and white phantom projections of silhouettes. Is X-ray-chic the new naked dress?

At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s AW22 collection was all about crossing borders: between haute couture and sportswear, elegance and athleisure. Pairing dresses with bracers, Dior’s women looked to the future. The opening look – a full-length jumpsuit with applications forming lines that traced the body, resembling wires and diodes – was something that could be worn by the protagonist of Titane. See you in the cyberpunk realm.

In the Marine Serre’s latest collection, astronomical wonders meet corporeal reality. The former LVMH Prize winner presented a series of tight tops and jumpsuits with historic, alchemic symbols and lines exposing the silhouette underneath. Celestial bodies, just now on the catwalk.

Surrealist Codes

Anciela

Syndical Chamber

Balmain

Ludovic de Saint Sernin

If you’ve ever dreamt of dressing a bit like Galatea or Joan of Arc, you’re in luck. At Schiaparelli, Daniel Roseberry brought surrealist fashions to the fore. For his SS22 couture collection, he created armour-like cone bras, paired with metal corsets – prepped and primed to shield you from normcore bros. The designer continued on this fantasy with his ready-to-wear offering: along with the new series of bras, there were gloves with elongated fingers and spiky paddings. Area‘s couture, on the other hand, included metal elements that resemble bone structures. The most bonkers of all, though, was Loewe’s AW22 outing. Jonathan Anderson debuted ballon-like structures resembling mouths, sculpted dresses caught in movement and lip-shaped corsets. Pucker up!

Second Skin

Tom Ford

Loewe

Ludovic de Saint Sernin

Marine Serre

Schiaparelli

Coperni

Go big or go home? This season, designers opted for less and less: sheer fabrics and second-skin level tightness ran wild. Mesh, openwork, lace – choose wisely. In New York, LaQuan Smith showed that there is creativity in scarcity: mesh fabrics were interconnected in knots, and cut-outs formed razor-sharp structures. In Paris, Ludovic de Saint Sernin kept his title of fashion’s sexiest provocateur, offering see-through tops composed of metal pieces, transparent ball gowns and tight leather dresses. There was also Fendi’s youthful see-through frocks, 16Arlington’s turquoise, shiny gowns and Coperni’s barley-there LBDs.

This season emphasised the ambiguity of fashion – transparency may shield you, and a bit of fun can be an armour against the harsh realities of everyday life. After all, you are born naked,  the rest is fantasy.

@10magazine