CONTOURS DE FORCE
The body is back. That’s the news from the spring/summer 2022 runways – all that skin hidden away by lockdown tracksuits has been re-exposed, with legs stretching out beneath minis at Dior, navels winking above low-slung waistbands at Miu Miu and miles of midriff revealed by bras, crop tops and peekaboo cut-outs spotted everywhere from Loewe to Michael Kors. Transparency is a theme; so too fabrics that cling to every curve, and tailored ensembles enunciating a robust hourglass silhouette. Designed at a moment when it seemed society might be putting Covid in the rear-view mirror, these collections feel optimistic: go out and play, they say. Show yourself.
In some ways, this is a standard fashion move. The last time catwalks united in proposing what are often referred to as ‘bodycon’ looks – short for ‘body conscious’ – was in the mid-noughties, as Europe and the United States emerged from 9/11 and Iraq-invasion doldrums. Back then, the designers leading the charge were men – notably, an exciting new London-based talent named Christopher Kane. This time, women across the world are making the boldest statements, from Donatella Versace to Supriya Lele and from Sarah Burton to Anifa Mvuemba. But it’s not only the talent behind the trend that has changed: it’s the women embracing it. On the runways and on the streets, new looks can be seen on all kinds of physiques, in a celebration of flesh that feels wildly free – and a far cry from previous iterations of body consciousness, which seemed to invoke an anxious awareness of whether or not one’s body was ‘good’ enough to display. Now the coin has flipped, and fashion is at last catching up to a new generation’s understanding that every body is a good body: whatever its age, whatever its gender, whatever its abilities, whatever its shape.
“I experienced my body as a hindrance,” recalls Ariel Nicholson. “I didn’t want to be seen”
“I think of it as body confidence,” says Lele, describing the attitude that has drawn a broad range of customers to her label, quadrupling its direct sales over the past two years. “There’s a sense of, ‘Screw it, I’m wearing this.’ People want joy and relief and fun. I mean, I wear
