Sex is back in fashion. After last summer's obsession with cottagecore-style prairie dresses, hiking-ready wear, and of course, the increasingly blurry definition of pajamas you can get away with wearing outside, fashion is finally heading towards unadulterated, hedonistic, sexy styles.
Clothes always get skimpier in the summer but this is more than our regular seasonal undressing. Everywhere you look brands are putting out overtly sexed-up clothing. Take Sandy Liang, a designer known best for her fleece and oversized dresses, recently released a top with a cut-out designed to show underboob, alongside a skort intentionally made too short, and a range of skirts with built-in thong accents.
Elsewhere, Ludovic de Saint Sernin just released its E-BOY SEASON 2 collection, which features, among other things, a sparkly tartan jockstrap, a myriad of crop tops and halters, and jeans with a lace-up front running all the way down to the crotch. While Telfar, Dion Lee, and Maximilian Davis have perfected the allure of the cut-out tank top.
But it's not just the clothes, "make-out marketing" is emerging with Jacquemus and Diesel recently putting out spring advertising campaigns that revolve around couples hooking up — and looking hot in the brand's new collections. This isn't the first time brands have used sex to sell clothes — remember Eckhaus Latta's 2017 campaign which featured couples having real-life sex? — but as our EIC Thom Bettridge put it, these campaigns are prescient in predicting "how the current state of seclusion is bound to soon erupt into a volcano of carnal indulgence."
Indeed, fashion's return to sex makes sense. We've all spent the last year cooped up in our rooms, and let's be real, wearing the same pair of ratty track pants over and over again ad nauseam. This summer, we have a hope of being physically close to people again, and what better way to celebrate that than showing off some skin?
Below, we've rounded up some of the best pieces that will have you looking hot this summer.
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