It looks like the kinky trend that started in Milan with Jeremy Scott at Moschino, arrived on the Parisian runways as well, or at least it reached Walter Van Beirendonck's.
The theme was probably inspired by the designer's new-found interest in the BDSM world, but you could maybe read between the lines other interpretations such as a genuine provocation against the hypocritical puritanism of certain social media that react with fake indignation (and real censorship) when users post a picture revealing a nipple or a sketch of a nude figure on their accounts.
The show was entitled "The Pig" and it opened with a hooded black raincoat with pig's ears and strategically placed holes (mouth, nipples and crotch) and closed with a similar raincoat, this time in pink latex.
In between there were various designs that borrowed from fetish and work wear: the protective gear of firefighters and fishermen was indeed combined with the pure perversion of a velvet corset-like armour or with body suits criss-crossed with strategical velcro straps.
The knitwear was definitely the most interesting part of the collection, with its clashing colours and graphic patterns in bold shades; the least interesting pieces were instead the body-suits and leggings with pictures of eXXXplicit acts, they were the dirty versions of the fun tops with video screens that made Walter Van Beirendonck cool among young kids in the late '90s.
Workwear was referenced also in the padded ponchos, the boxy pillow-shaped jacket (a new mutation of Cinzia Ruggeri's "Abito Letto"?) and the quilted pants that were transformed in a quirky item thanks to a row of automatic buttons running from ankle to waist.
Tailored suits provided a touch of normcore, while the waders made with classic menswear fabrics reshifted the attention towards the perversions lying under an apparent normality.
This battle of dichotomies was actually inspired by Cyrano de Bergerac's sci-fi 17th century text Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon.
In the volume Cyrano narrates his attempts at trying to reach the Moon: first he crashes back to Earth, but then he manages to reach the outer space and meet bizarre inhabitants with four legs, musical voices, and amazing weapons that cook game for a meal while it's being shot.
Cyrano also reaches out to the Sun, he is tried by birds for all the crimes humanity has committed (but he is eventually saved by a friendly creature) and finally ends up discussing with Tommaso Campanella how sex would work in Utopia.
The designer interpreted some of the themes tackled by Cyrano – sun and moon, light and darkness, morning and night – as manifestations of extremes: his more wearable garments were indeed juxtaposed to the designs in which the kinky component prevailed.
Most designs were accompanied by glasses with an asymmetrical frame that called to mind Pierre Cardin's iconic '60s sunglasses and that evoked the main dichotomic themes of the collection.
The best designs of the entire collection remained the ones in which the Cyrano reference was interpreted in a literal yet striking way - that is the two coats that featured embroideries of the original cover of Cyrano de Bergerac' text.
The emphasis on masks and fetish gear maybe was Van Beirendonck's own interpretation of sex in utopia: while Jeremy Scott embraced the dark side of latex on Moschino's runway, here we had more bold and bright shades that made you think not just at protective and high-visibility gear, but also at practical and functional technicalwear. With a very perverse twist about it, obviously.
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