Sportmax Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear: Eroticism and 1980s Music Icons
A red-lit, elliptical runway at the Triennale design museum was decked in mirrored flooring, setting the tone for a mischievously sensual Sportmax show.
Eroticism has been a recurring theme for Sportmax over the past few seasons. After previous boudoir-inspired parades, fall’s show, titled “Camera Obscura” in a nod to singer Nico’s famed 1985 album of the same name, put reverse thinking at play.
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Insignia of chastised femininity, such as corsetry, military outerwear and white collar workers’ uniforms, including a tie, were turned into tropes of dark-tinged sensuality.
Obi- and corset-like belts cinched the wasp waists, sketching a slender silhouette emphasized by the pointy or squared shoulders of the buttoned-up military-inflected topcoats drawn straight from an ’80s wardrobe.
Corsetry constructions served the purpose of highlighting body shapes without revealing them, on gunmetal gray woolen midi frocks, half-knitted, half-weaved, and strapless jumpsuits, with boudoir-inspired marabou shawls and tinsel cache-coeur casually tossed over.
Vinyl and glossy red leather accents added an even sharper edge on the armhole of body-con knit frocks with see-through panels flashing the belly or in oversized shirts with elongated sleeves peeking from under mannish topcoats.
Press notes mentioned ’80s music icons such as Nico, Debbie Harry, Annie Lennox, Siouxsie Sioux and Grace Jones as the season’s muses, feminist icons in their own right.
One could easily picture the latter artist in a shimmering tech-fabric draped minidress with a panel fanning on one side, or the mini marabou frocks.
Those icons were celebrated with album cover-inspired prints subtly scattered throughout the collection, one reading “create beauty.” There was plenty of it at play here.
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Launch Gallery: Sportmax Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear Collection
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