FASHION
SEX
appeal
Popular opinion today states
that women should be allowed
to dress however they wish,
provocatively or otherwise.
N
o, it's not your imagination,
clothes really are becoming
more risqué as society evolves.
Underwear deemed as socially
acceptable as outerwear? Check.
Body-con clothing so organ-compressingly-
tight it defi nes every lump and bump with
HD defi nition. Yup. Fabric so sheer, absolutely
nothing is actually left to the imagination
anymore? You get it.
Th e link between style and sexuality is both
obvious and inextricable, not only in terms of
the tension between what is revealed and what
is not, but also because of how thoroughly
these threads are woven into the tapestries of
our identity: a merging of the physical (clothes,
bodies) with the emotional (power, desire, self-
expression). Th roughout history, cultural norms
have clearly dictated the intersection of these
worlds and as society has developed through
time, it has demanded increasingly liberal fashion
trends refl ective of sexual appeal. Arguably, the
progressive shifts in womenswear have been far
more transformative than that of menswear over
the last 100 years. Possibly, an indication of
societies ongoing advancement towards men and
women’s equal rights coupled with the frankly,
simple fact that men enjoy looking at women and
women know it. Let’s take a look back at some of
the pivotal moments in modern fashion history
that have helped defi ne the sexed-up wardrobe
some women wear today and how exactly we
might feel about it.
Historically, women were prescribed what
to wear and even discouraged from having an
opinion on self-expression through fashion.
Curve-defi ning cinched waists from corsetry was
about as sexy as it once got and revealing the
ankle was enough to make the Victorian man
aroused. Fishnet stockings began creeping in
around the turn of the century too, embodying
the fascination with the eroticism of the interplay
of the seen and unseen. As the decades rolled
on, hemlines began to rise and we observed
how the sexual revolution of the sixties (cue the
introduction of birth control), promoted the
mini-skirt to be a staple item in every young
woman’s wardrobe. Clearly, over the course of
the fi rst half of the twentieth century, society felt
most at ease allowing women’s legs to make their
debut fi rst over other bodily parts.
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