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 fashion observer so astutely noted, 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. What’s most interesting, however, is not the subject itself, but the ways each 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, revealing distinct regional philosophies regarding romance, liberation, and the human body.
New York was mostly all polish and sleek sportswear, but some younger designers shrewdly approached the subject of sex with a fresh perspective. Through their prism, it had a gritty, funky, and even irreverent attitude, capturing that ineffable element of youthful downtown cool. Take Eckhaus Latta—purveyor of bleary knitwear and unwieldy denim—which presented a surprisingly self-assured and undeniably sexy collection. Look at 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 that felt entirely authentic to contemporary New York fashion.
Emily Dawn Long, meanwhile, took a more direct and playful approach, cutting her dresses so low in the back that they exposed the upper regions of the lower back and anatomy—colloquially and charmingly referred to by the designer as "southern cleavage." She also utilized keyhole jeans that pulled off a similar stunt. To offset the exposure, however, she edged the revealing peekaboo in dainty little frills, resulting in a look that was both provocative and a little arch. In a preview of her collection, Long shared a sentiment that felt deeply American: that being sexy shouldn’t negate a sense of humor. If you really want to know where Dawn Long’s mind is at, one only needs to consider her popular screen-printed tees, one of which boldly reads Take Off Your Clothes.
While American designers toyed with irony and youthful grit, the Milanese treated sex almost as an intellectual pursuit. One need only think of Prada’s esoteric and erotic mystique. While Miuccia Prada and her creative collaborator 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—they found a dizzying array of ways to present it. They paired skirts 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 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—reflecting the many moods and contours of female desire.
Milan also hosted Simone Bellotti’s presentation for Jil Sander, where a study of minimalist imperfection—featuring creased dresses, askew coats, and slightly misaligned jackets—gently hinted at a postcoital rush. The garments evoked the imagery of hurriedly leaving some clandestine liaison, haphazardly buttoning a jacket with no time to smooth away the sordid wrinkles of the afternoon. In that way, the collection brought to mind an unsavory tension that recalled the classic cinematic works of Michelangelo Antonioni or Federico Fellini, anchoring high fashion in moody narrative storytelling.
If sex is primarily a condition of the mind in Milan, it is very much one of the body in Paris. There, audiences 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 squarely with France’s confrontationally blasé approach to le sexe. It was, in a word, horny. The runway featured slick, pettable leather; men in sweaters and underwear that, as they walked past, revealed their fully exposed buttocks; and women in gowns or maillots slashed to reveal deep valleys of torso or miles of leg leading upward. It was absurd, lewd, defiantly gratuitous, and 100% Gallic in its uninhibited embrace of raw physical attraction.
No matter how a wearer feels about sex—and chances are most people harbor some distinct opinion on the matter—the spring 2027 collections ensure there will be a tailored way to indulge when the warm weather finally returns.
