Earlier this year in January, the year 2016 was trending amongst Millennials on social media. Thirty-somethings started posting throwbacks to that era: pre-MAGA (ish), pre-Covid-19 pandemic, and pre-AI. Back then, the most we could readily do to alter our appearance online was to put on those flower crown or dog face filters on Snapchat. Today, our many social media feeds—Instagram, TikTok, X, Threads, Twitch, and more—are inundated with chatter around looksmaxxing and with images of uncanny valley AI models. We see a fleeting viral trend followed by another, become acquainted with a new “main character” seemingly every week, and sandwiched in between find clips depicting devastation in foreign countries, sometimes by hand or with the assistance of the United States. The content we consume and its sources are more varied and expansive than ever before, but it all becomes flattened when squeezed into the same quick-hit, horizontal-scroll format. But not in 2016, at least not in the way many Millennials often choose to remember it.
Paris Fashion Week wrapped on Tuesday, putting a bow on a whirlwind four weeks of runway shows across New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Designers mostly eschewed the geopolitical goings on, with a similar “good ole days” nostalgia becoming the driver behind collections that revisited a key theme we had culturally left behind many years ago. Broadly, fashion is putting sex up for sale once more. It’s not that sexuality was entirely out the door, but in the wake of the #MeToo movement in the late 2010s, plus the simultaneous rise of body positivity and a concurrent collective reexamination of gender and sexuality that saw those very terms gain more nuanced definitions, the idea of “sex sells” had mutated to the point in which it fell off the priority list for fashion.
But not this season. With the rise of Ozempic culture, a new, more aggressive Trumpism, and conservative values re-entering the mainstream by way of trends like “trad wife,” sex as we used to know it all those years ago is back on the table.
One of the most discussed collections of the week was that of Duran Lantink of Jean Paul Gaultier, who presented his sophomore effort for the label on Sunday with its eponymous designer sitting in the front row.
Lantink’s debut collection last October went viral online for its gimmicks: A female model wearing a catsuit printed with the image of a male body, penis included, and an array of padded brassieres that distorted the idea of breasts altogether. The primary point of criticism Lantink received was that the make of that collection was not up to par with a storied couture house as is Jean Paul Gaultier. The desire for attention and air of rebellion? Sure, Gaultier was nicknamed the enfant terrible of fashion in his early days, so provocation is part of the brand’s vernacular. But quality is too.
And so Lantink came out of the gate swinging this season. He said backstage that in the making of this collection he studied Gaultier’s signature tailoring—impeccably cut and always inventive. The result of this investigation was one of the most compelling showings of the week: Lantink made a cowboy hat that looped in the back and transformed into a dress vest, and draped pointed folds into the fronts of skirts that made it look like his models were pitching a tent, if you catch my drift. These “boner skirts,” as I’ve decided to call them, may not be the kind of style that flies off the shelves, but in them Lantink showed that, at 39, he’s simultaneously mature and young enough to use clothing to illustrate a contemporary idea of sex. His irreverence was much needed in a week full of repeating ideas, as was the impressive level up of his technique.