Five years after Saint Laurent sent chic sheer blouses down the runway at the beginning of the sexual revolution in 1966, he dropped his pants and posed naked for an advertisement for the release of his first perfume.
Galliano’s first collection for Givenchy successfully used sheer techniques to echo women’s liberation from corsets and control in the 1800s. Gaultier played with male and female nudity with cheeky trompe l’oeil prints in 1996, recently revived in collaborations with Y/Project and Lotta Volkova.
Fashion statements: Coco Chanel (left) in one of her suits in 1929, Jean Paul Gaultier’s nude “body morph” shirt reimagined in 2022, Pamela Anderson at the Jacquemus menswear show in Paris in January.Credit: Getty Images
But moments of true liberation – where less clothing has meant much more – have come from women.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Coco Chanel’s loosened women’s corsetry and girdles. Chanel’s use of jersey, previously reserved for men’s underwear, encouraged freedom of movement, but it was her popularisation of pockets that continues to have an impact on women’s lives.
“She designed for herself,” co-curator Miren Arzalluz said at the opening of the Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto exhibition at the NGV in 2021. “We always talk about pockets which she introduced early on.
“Being relaxed in public was a privilege of men, so this was radical in itself.”
Saint Laurent sent leg-baring mini skirts down the runway in 1959, followed by André Courrèges in 1964, but two years later, British designer Mary Quant made them the uniform of the swinging ’60s.
Like Chanel, Quant was designing for herself out of practicality, focusing on female desire for freedom rather than any male desires for a generous glimpse of thigh.
“I liked my skirts short because I wanted to run and catch the bus to get to work,” Quant said in 2014. “It was that feeling of freedom and liberation.”
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Male designers have made efforts to flatten the fashion playing field with shows featuring male nudity, most famously Rick Owens’ 2015 collection of “flesh flash” robes with peek-a-boo holes revealing penises. But these robes have not featured on the red carpet.
Ye had the choice to join Censori in the nude, but made sure that all eyes were on his wife, without completely leaving the picture.
Censori’s education and career suggest an intelligent woman, but a display of independence rather than Ye by her side might have saved this look.
In January, Ye posted on social media a photo of a naked Pamela Anderson from 2008, after they worked together on the music video for his 2006 single Touch The Sky.
Rather than exploiting her body, he should pay attention to how the former Baywatch star has escaped expectations surrounding nudity and make-up, reclaiming her image and championing a truly independent style.
When Anderson makes these truly powerful fashion statements, fully clothed, she is on her own, without a man in the picture. This is the message that should last as long as Chanel’s pockets.
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