Fischerspooner’s Casey Spooner Shares His “Nude Philosophy”

If you haven’t been following Casey Spooner on Instagram, you’ve been missing out on some truly terrific looks. The Fischerspooner front man took the men’s shows in Europe by storm with a little help from his partner in crime Violet Chachki, who incidentally had a major runway moment in a luxe tux at Moschino. Spooner wore a denim Charles Jeffrey corset with a single pale pink rose nestled in between his pecs to the Viktor & Rolf show in Paris, turning heads yet again in a velvet Jean Paul Gaultier suit at the Dior ball, which Chachki cheekily styled with some gold jewelry in lieu of an undershirt. The Electroclash pioneer is clearly a boundary-pusher who seems capable of pulling off just about anything when it comes to fashion.

While all of these hunky masc-femme ensembles are undeniably impressive, it’s Spooner’s inclination towards sheer shirts that’s caught our attention lately. Spooner’s been wearing see-through tops for a while now—he says it all started coming together last year, when he rode the New York City subway in a translucent “I Heart New York” Raf Simons shopping bag shirt—but his recent sheer outfits have taken this concept to new heights.

Spooner says he’s always worn body-conscious clothes onstage (“My favorite [onstage] look was always a thong and cape”), but he’s been increasingly incorporating this scantily clad stage persona into his everyday wardrobe. The Acne Studios look, which Spooner wore to the brand’s Fall 2018 Paris Fashion Week show, caught the attention of the fashion blogosphere and for good reason: The outfit is perhaps the pinnacle of this sheer-shirt trend, and ties into the headspace that he’s been cultivating for Fischerspooner’s upcoming album Sir, produced by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe. Spooner describes the monochromatic outfit as “camel slut,” composed of “a very classic camel coat, beautiful high-waisted camel pants, and this sheer nude shirt, which kind of reminds me of vintage Helmut Lang,” Spooner says. “I’m in this space—I’m releasing a record, and it’s a lot about sexuality and so, I’ve cultivated a super sexualized image, a kind of ’70s-porn-star guy.”

Sheer fabrics are tricky to pull off even for the most seasoned fashion risk-takers, and it’s even more unusual to see them incorporated in an otherwise classic menswear look. “That’s why it’s fun to stay in shape—when you have a great body, you can wear anything,” Spooner says. And Spooner really does wear whatever he pleases—think, a belly button–baring shirt with a fur coat or a Ludovic de Saint Sernin gown—though he has struggled with body image issues. “Gay men are tortured by their bodies. There’s a lot of dysmorphia, there’s a lot of anxiety around the male body, so I’ve been working on a nude philosophy,” Spooner says. “I work out, but dysmorphia sets in really quickly. You can really lose perspective and not feel happy with your body, even when you are in shape. I’ve kind of embraced this philosophy that I don’t want a body made out of anxiety, I want a body made out of joy. A lot of times when I’m working out, I literally think, I want muscles made of joy.” Rather than being motivated by negative thoughts, like getting back at an ex, say, Spooner focuses on self-acceptance. “Even though I’m wearing a lot of body-conscious clothes, I don’t feel like I have the perfect body. I just accept the body that I have. I think it’s that acceptance rather than this feeling of perfection that allows me to be free to kind of wear anything. All of a sudden can wear less and feel good because I’ve accepted myself.”