Tapping the underground’s most coveted erotic art forms: Shunga and Shibari.
Source: Hypebae.com.
UK – LONDON – Chinese-American designer Chet Lo presents his sex-infused Spring Summer 2024 collection at London Fashion Week.
Inciting his very own sexual liberation, Lo’s presentation is a love letter to the most repressed aspect of himself. Similar to most people raised in restrictive societies, Lo’s environment was purely sex-negative, with Western ideals of beauty furthering the cognitive dissonance.
“At the time, Western media inundated our culture with a narrow, white, heteronormative ideal of beauty and sexuality, making those who didn’t fit into this minuscule box to feel othered. Simultaneously, Lo was indoctrinated to believe sexual desires were ‘dirty,’ ‘impure’ and a ‘taboo,’ leading him to feel a sense of shame in his natural sexual urges. These factors left Lo feeling desexualised, struggling to feel at home in himself. While representation in the media has since dramatically improved, its impact left Lo with a painful residue.”
To unbox his repressed sexuality, Lo taps BDSM and sex-positive art throughout the collection. More specifically, Lo pulls inspiration from Japanese erotic art called Shunga, as well as Shibari, Japanese rope bondage. On the arms and chests of models, thin rope in both black and red colorways exudes a sensuous essence and perfectly complements the iconic Chet Lo texture. The placement of the rope is most intentional, “symbolising the internal restriction and tension Lo once felt growing up.”
As Lo shared in his exclusive press release, “In the Japanese art form of Shunga, which reached its crescendo in the Edo period, sexual pleasure was celebrated and normalized, and it wasn’t uncommon to see same-sex partners basking in acts of love.” To honor its sex-positive roots, Lo makes a statement with Shunga art printed on trousers and satin devour tops.
Take a close look at the erotic collection above.
In other news, Parisian sex-positive brand Carne Bollente gets hot and heavy in new fashion campaign.
