An exposed bra. Clothes wrinkled as if fresh from a midday tryst. A cheeky peek of derriere.
Like the ripe aroma of sweat left over in a disheveled hotel bedroom, the undeniable whiff of sex wafted over the spring 2027 ready-to-wear collections. Of course, as one prominent fashion editor so astutely observed, the spring collections are almost always about sex, in some form or another. You can’t deny nature, after all, when rising temperatures inevitably coax a person to peel off their layers and reveal a titillating glimpse of flesh beneath. But this season made it clear that sex is heavily on designers’ minds across the board. What’s most interesting, however, is not the subject itself, but the distinct ways each major city on the international fashion week circuit interpreted the erotic promise of carnal delights.
No culture is a monolith, and it goes without saying that one person’s kink is another’s turnoff. Still, certain fascinating trends coalesced around the far-flung capitals of Europe and America, reflecting local attitudes toward desirability, romance, and the human body.
New York was mostly all polish and sleek sportswear, but some younger designers shrewdly approached the subject of sex through a different prism. Here, it had a gritty, funky, and even irreverent attitude—embodying that ineffable element of youthful downtown cool. Take Eckhaus Latta, a brand long known for its purveying of bleary knitwear and unwieldy denim, which presented a surprisingly self-assured and undeniably sexy collection. The runway showcased the offhanded ease of a T-shirt with rolled sleeves paired with a diaphanous, translucent skirt floating behind; airy shifts made of filmy see-through layers; all those shoulder-baring sleeveless tops; and the oddball cool of golden netting cut into pants or a sleeveless minidress. It was sexy, sure, but rendered with an insouciant shrug and a disaffected sigh.
Emily Dawn Long, meanwhile, took a more direct and daring approach, cutting her dresses so low in the back that they exposed the upper regions of the body—effectively baring what she charmingly calls "southern cleavage." She also debuted keyhole jeans that pulled off a similar stunt, pushing the boundaries of traditional tailoring. To offset the shock value, however, she edged the revealing peekaboo cutouts in dainty little frills, resulting in a look that was both provocative and a little arch. In a preview of her collection, she shared a sentiment that felt deeply American: that being sexy shouldn’t negate a sense of humor. For those wondering where Dawn Long’s mind was truly at, her popular screen-printed tees offered a clear hint, with one prominent design reading simply, "Take Off Your Clothes."
While New York favored downtown grit and youthful irreverence, the Milanese treated sex almost as an intellectual pursuit. One need only think of Prada’s esoteric and erotic mystique to understand this cerebral approach. Mrs. Prada and her coconspirator, Raf Simons, settled on one of the most provocative garments in a woman’s wardrobe—the skirt, with its tantalizing promise to reveal a little or a lot of leg. Yet, they found a dizzying array of ways to present it: paired with tough-girl leather jackets, reserved librarian sweaters, tomboy plaid shirts left unbuttoned, and, of course, skimpy bras. In other words, the collection served as a meditation not just on the skirt as a standalone garment, but on the innumerable ways a woman can exist in the world. In doing so, it presented a rich panoply of sexiness—nerdy, brazen, demure, and sophisticated—that reflected the many moods and contours of female desire.
Milan also offered Simone Bellotti’s vision at Jil Sander, where a study of minimalist imperfection—featuring creased dresses, askew coats, and slightly disheveled jackets—gently hinted at a postcoital rush. The garments looked as if the wearer had been hurriedly leaving some clandestine liaison, haphazardly buttoning a jacket with no time to smooth away telltale wrinkles. In that way, it brought to mind a subtle, unsavory tension that recalled the classic cinematic works of Michelangelo Antonioni or Federico Fellini, proving that minimalism could carry a deeply suggestive narrative.
If sex is primarily a condition of the mind in Milan, it is very much one of the body in Paris. There, the fashion world received the frank, from-the-hip approach best expressed in Haider Ackermann’s simmering collection for Tom Ford. It was a deadly serious, seductive romp that aligned perfectly with France’s confrontationally blasé approach to le sexe. To put it plainly, the collection was unapologetically horny. It featured all that slick, pettable leather; men in sweaters and underwear that, as they walked past, revealed their fully exposed buttocks; and women in gowns or maillots that were slashed to reveal deep valleys of the torso or miles of leg leading upward to the imagination. It was absurd, it was lewd, it was defiantly gratuitous, and it was 100% Gallic.
No matter how one feels about sex—and chances are most people harbor some distinct opinion on the matter—the spring 2027 collections made it abundantly clear that there will be a tailored way for everyone to indulge when the warm weather finally returns.
