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All types of transparency, from the quite innocent to the completely provocative, provide us with varying degrees of attention from others. This is very fashionable, but do we really want to be seen through us?
We shop in boutique aquariums and work in glass-fronted offices. Fashion is like a continuation of this life behind glass: transparent plastic bags that reveal their contents, raincoats made of tulle or film, shoes made of polymers or mesh through which a neat pedicure shines through.
Transparent clothes – as an illusion of complete openness, transparency of intentions: “I am in full view”, “I have nothing to hide.” This is frank sexuality with a sense of security: there is a border between us, albeit barely visible, but quite tangible. Transparency has many meanings: it can expose or veil, openly provoke or only slightly hint. But the main thing is that under transparent clothes you can always see the peculiarity of female sexuality, its desire to be an object of desire, which is so different from the straightforward male desire to possess.
Body worship
The body, almost completely naked, is now shown at any time of the day or night: on the Internet, on movie screens, magazine pages, advertising billboards. And almost as often and only a little less frankly – in real life.
“The cult of the body and health continues to gain strength,” says social psychologist Yulia Fedotova. – As if one of the features of ancient culture is returning. In ancient Greece, clothes played only the role of a cover, the body was still a formative part of the outfit – trained and strong.
More and more women today are consciously shaping, sculpting their bodies, working with a fitness instructor, studying literature, resorting to the services of aesthetic medicine. The body – well-groomed, beautiful, loved – literally bursts out, wants to present itself to the world. Light transparent clothes are becoming one of the ways to demonstrate oneself, while maintaining an important condition – not to violate decorum.
“Such things allow you to follow the accepted rules and at the same time bring airiness, mystery, sophistication to the image of a woman,” adds Valery Malozemov, a specialist in the fashion industry. — This is a sexual game between a woman and a man. Moreover, it is mutual: one is catching up, while the other, meanwhile, is thinking about not running away too quickly.
The thin flowing fabric artfully suggests the female body – and does it with carefully measured chastity.
Tatyana Lebedeva, fashion communications specialist:
“It is possible that, having been transported in a fantastic way in our time, Coco Chanel would not have been delighted. “Maintain the flame, and not let it burn out,” she said about the transparent elements of clothing. Increasingly active since the 90s of the last century, the “transparency virus” in clothes is now intended not only to “keep the flame”, but also embodies something more in the secret desires of the audience.
The modern buyer sees himself as an actor, a creator who himself participates in creating his own style, mixing all possible elements of clothing – expensive and cheap, vintage and the latest trends. And he considers his own body as part of the territory intended to create his own image.
The skin is the largest organ of the body in terms of area, which has a lot of qualities – tactile, visual, olfactory. Why not a territory for creativity, which allows you to control the attention of others, to keep it? And to do this expressively, such a technique as teasing is useful – a trick, a tease, maintaining interest, maintaining a secret, counting on the continuation effect. Therefore, not bare shoulders and a deep neckline, but “transparent black”, not a radical mini, but a deep cut. After all, as the French say, “where the mystery ends, everything ends there.”
Peekaboo
Transparent flowing tunics that outline the body with every breath of wind, chiffon trousers subtly emphasizing the shape of the legs, two colored translucent tops worn on top of each other and giving rise to a play of shades …
“A maiden in transparent clothes, an airy and unearthly creature — it is this Jungian archetype that paradoxically becomes in demand in our pragmatic age,” Yulia Fedotova continues. – And the fact that fashion persistently offers us the image of the Virgin as a standard may indicate the growing infantilism of society. Virgo is neither hormonally nor psychologically ready to create a family, this image does not imply the responsibilities and duties associated with this. Therefore, it is so in demand both in the perception of men, allowing them to experience nostalgia, to take a break from sexual aggression, which is broadcast by frankly revealing (tight-fitting) women’s clothing, and for women, giving them the opportunity to experience a sense of their own fragility, impractical charm.
On the one hand, it is very sexy: the nudity is present, but hidden under the cover, it teases and allows the imagination to run wild. On the other hand, these clothes are fundamentally different from the traditional “seduction outfits”: corsets, tight bodices with a decollete, high heels – spectacular, but uncomfortable. Sheer fabrics allow a woman to look sexy without sacrificing comfort and mobility.
“This also reflects modern social trends,” Yulia Fedotova is sure. “Namely, the increasing reluctance of women, independent and self-sufficient, although unconsciously waiting for worship and patronage from the stronger sex, to refuse their comfort for the sake of seducing men.”
Elena Kikina, fashion brand designer:
“In recent years, the attitude towards “naked fashion” in Europe, in my opinion, has changed somewhat. Perhaps these changes are related to the overabundance of nudity in the European media landscape.
The tendency to display the naked body is often associated with the perception of the woman’s body as her main trump card. Accordingly, this kind of fashion, especially in its poster manifestations, takes root better in societies or social strata with a patriarchal structure, in which a woman is too dependent on a man and operates with her body as capital.
In societies where gender equality is not only formally but actually widespread, where feminism already has a rich history, a more delicate sex appeal in clothes is valued. Moreover, the desire to expose the body is often perceived by the bourgeois public as vulgarity and is attributed to the lower strata of society. Remember, for example, the abundance of female flesh in the video clips of rappers who came from the ghetto. It is also curious that societies with a Protestant tradition are more inclined to ignore the “naked trend” in fashion.
Taking off the covers
Enveloping like a cloud, weightless like air or flowing like water, transparent clothes seem to allow us to appropriate its qualities: we feel ourselves in a halo, in a halo of inexpressible lightness and … purity. But the seeming transparency of intentions can lead to the intricacies of illusions.
The more demonstrable the body becomes, the more importance is attached to its forms, the more deceitful effects multiply: pull-up bras, corrective “anatomical” bodysuits, seamless panties – seamless invisible in the color of a naked body – and even nipple covers designed to create the illusion of sexuality. arousal.
But even if the age of “demographic catastrophes” declares a hunt for men, it is by no means worth considering that all means are good. Indeed, in the depths of their souls, women are driven by a desire for genuine intimacy, and to deceive here means to be deceived.
Lyudmila Norsoyan, fashion theorist:
“Not dressed, not undressed” – a young beauty from folk tales in a witty outfit from a fishing net, one might say, becomes a symbol of the era of female bodies on display. For the first time, young ladies tried translucent clothes on the verge of decency in the era of the Napoleonic Wars – dresses made of the thinnest cambric shamelessly shone through, but skin-colored tights bashfully hid under them.
Indulging the natural instincts of women, already aggravated in the conditions of the demographic catastrophes of the XNUMXth century, modern sellers of fake happiness offer a woman a system of “simple solutions”: a frank demonstration of her own body as the shortest, surest and fastest way to a man’s body.
A well-groomed, beautiful (whether by nature, surgery or sports) body is considered by a modern woman to be her most important life asset. Fashion and the fashion industry just obediently follow her desires, creating transparent sexy clothes regardless of place, time, climate, in the end, contrary to considerations of age, appropriateness and common sense.
Moreover, there is a clear hyper-exploitation of “transparency” by public trade, mass market. While high fashion selectively appeals to the soft eroticism of translucency, street fashion exaggerates this aesthetic, bringing translucent to full transparency, and semi-naked to the limit.