“I see London, I see France” – but after focusing on the Paris runways this week, the nursery rhyme’s traditional ending can be updated to “I see supermodels’ underpants”.
The haute couture shows at Paris Fashion Week, where price tags are more likely to shock than amuse, are usually serious business, but the latest collections from Dior and Schiaparelli offered a titillating update to the recurring trend of underwear as outerwear.
Dior designer Maria Grazia Chiuri fused the structured “La Cigale” silhouettes of the brand’s founder Christian Dior from 1952 with Yves Saint Laurent’s trapeze dresses from 1958. Through the metres of broderie anglaise tamed into submission by seamstresses, the eye was deliberately drawn to bustiers and organza bloomers, presented to onlookers Pamela Anderson, Nicola Coughlan and Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki.
Underpinnings come forward at Dior’s haute couture spring show on Monday in Paris.Credit: Getty Images
At Schiaparelli, designer Daniel Roseberry puts bras and corsetry front and centre in a gold-tinged show of evening wear inspired by the myth of Icarus and targeting the Oscars red carpet. Bras escaped rather than peeked from the plunged necklines of gowns, while Kendall Jenner’s nude underpinnings interrupted her gold bustier and skirt.
Speakers playing George Michael’s Father Figure at Schiaparelli suggest the overexposure is for men, but Australian designer Collette Dinnigan disagrees.
Having launched her career with lingerie, before conquering the Paris runway in the ’90s as the first Australian label invited to show in the fashion capital by the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode (the governing body for the French fashion industry), Dinnigan sees power in bringing what lies beneath to the surface.
“It’s illusional and alluring,” Dinnigan says. “It’s all about giving women confidence. We all start dressing from the inside out.
“The bust and the waist are emphasised, and it creates tension. You can’t always be too ethereal. That’s boring.”
Underwear has been creeping into view in recent menswear seasons, playing peek-a-boo at Dolce & Gabbana in Milan, inspiring shorts at Acne Studios, and front and centre on actor Paul Mescal in boxer shorts at the Gucci show last year. For women, the impact is different.
“The use of underwear as outerwear for women always has subversive connections,” says fashion academic Paola Di Trocchio. “Underwear projects messages of female rebellion and empowerment. Just think back to the work of Vivienne Westwood or Jean Paul Gaultier’s cone bras, worn by Madonna.”
The subversive work of Australian designers Prue Acton and Jenny Bannister from the ’70s can be added to the local history of underwear on view. Museums Victoria’s collection of more than 250 undergarments includes a calico, lace-up bustier by Acton from an “underwear look” range in 1972, and a dress with a black fishnet bodice and skirt by Bannister from 1976.
“The meanings of some garments have changed over time, blurring the lines between underwear and outerwear,” says curator Deb Tout-Smith. “Simple undergarments like camisoles have become acceptable outerwear.
“The T-shirt, originally a man’s undergarment, is now everyday outerwear.”
T-shirts at a Schiaparelli haute couture show? Now, that would have been truly shocking.
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