From Madonna to Kim Kardashian at Met Gala, bondage clothing is in trend once again. Here’s why:
Source: Financialexpress.com.
USA – Do you remember Dua Lipa at the Grammy Awards? She was seen walking the red carpet wearing a re-creation of a dress from Gianni Versace’s famous Miss S&M collection. It consisted of a black lace corset top, which was harnessed with several belts. That’s not all, around her neck, she wore layers and layers of gold chains that appeared to almost choke her.
The fashion and fetishism pairing has been around for a while. However, after the Met Gala and the VMAs ceremony, it became more prominent. The comeback is proven by the appearance of Kim Kardashian, wrapped from head to toe in a black cotton Balenciaga “T-shirt.”
In 1992, when Versace first showed its bondage-inspired look on the runway, “it sent the fashion crowd into orbit,” as Tim Blanks said in his video released at the time. People called the collection “aggressively sexual to sell.” Some like it and referred to it as “relevant”.
“While fetish is a fixation on a particular thing, fetish fashion extends that to an obsession over a type of clothing or accessory most likely provocative in nature. The sexual innuendo doesn’t necessarily mean it’s meant to attract, it is internal in the way that type of dressing makes you feel,” Celebrity Stylist Bharat Gupta told financialexpress.com.
Natasha Bothra added, “Fetish fashion is basically making a provocative statement with your outfit. Fetish is directly related to uniqueness and something out of the box, anything that is not worn usually. For example, leather chokers, harnesses, latex accessories and clothing, corsets, gladiator Footwear, etc.”
Anything that adds a sense of sexuality, kinkiness, quirkiness, and representation of freedom can be classified as fetish fashion. For a long time now, fashion has taken references and inspiration from the aesthetic and culture of BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism and masochism). In cinema, we’re now witnessing BDSM fashion in films like The Batman with Catwoman and her latex and leather costumes. Kardashian wore a latex gown and choker to the premiere of her new Hulu show. The Fifty Shades Of Gray franchise and brands like Savage x Fenty and music videos like Megan Thee Stallion’s “Body” — have also contributed to this.
Explaining why people are opting for Fetish Fashion, also known as BDSM fashion, Gupta said, “People have become freer in the way they express themselves through what they wear. People are open to experimenting with their fashion choices and voicing their inner provocation through fashion. An extension can also be a spillover of the pandemic of being bound by rules, this is a reaction to their need to let go.”
Bothra told us, “Who wouldn’t want to feel empowered? Who wouldn’t want to feel free? Or dominating? Designers, celebrities, influencers, and others are getting influenced by the addictive nature of power, persona, control, sensuousness, dominance, Goth and liberating nature fetish fashion engulfs you into.”
For Gupta, Fetish fashion is normal and he has incorporated it while styling celebrities. He said, “There are elements of fetish fashion that I’ve incorporated in certain styling opportunities in an understated way, even in personal styling I’ve used elements in what I wear.”
It is said that in the 1700s — corsets and skirts — were an early sign of fetish fashion, others claim that it appeared during the Second World War, in the UK’s gay community. However, it was not until the 1970s and the arrival of Vivienne Westwood that the fetish, her trademark, was recognized in fashion.
