How #MeToo has changed the aesthetic of fashion, less porn-chic, but still carnal

Article originally published March 1, 2021.

We thought we would forget these images the day after Valentine’s Day, but no, they remain engraved in the retinas. In recent weeks, several fashion brands have shown love in advertising campaigns. You will tell me nothing extraordinary … Only in times of pandemics, where social distancing is fundamental, showing physical contact and drooling kisses almost seems sulphurous (I, lacking? No!).

Public displays of affection, an exciting new ban

Since this type of public manifestation of affection goes against the barrier gestures in force today, it is evident to us as a prohibited stimulant, the sociologist of fashion Élodie Nowinski for Madmoizelle decodes in this sense:

“The health and social context makes these images even more surprising and moving, because many of us lack tenderness right now. Luxury is often linked to rarity and what is rare today is shared intimacy. “

The Kooples has always highlighted couples, but this campaign with Vincent Cassel and Tina Kunakey resonates differently: more contact, tenderness, sensuality … Same thing for the more anonymous couples featured in the Paco Rabanne, Jacquemus or Diesel campaigns. .

The sociologist of fashion, who heads the faculty of creative industries in Glasgow, Scotland, even believes that the image of sex in fashion advertising has lost its luster:

” Today, it’s almost easier to find a hookup than a romantic partner., with many dating apps. Especially since with confinements and curfews, starting a romance becomes complicated, while pornographic images have never been so accessible. And masturbation is doing well, as sex toy sales are booming! Relying less on sex than on tenderness, these brands arouse even more desire. “

A post #MeToo aesthetic, which breaks away from porno-chic

These languid new fashion campaigns are surely erotic, but above all romantic. And it may sound corny, but showing kisses instead of fucking will against the porn-chic that reigned supreme from the 90s until the end of the 2000s – in the fashion industry and beyond.

The porno-chic aesthetic was popularized by the publisher of rowing Paris at the time, Carine Roitfeld, and one of the most prominent artistic directors of the time, Tom Ford (who rightly relaunched Gucci making the Florentine maison ultra sexy, before applying the same recipe with less success to Saint Laurent).

#MeToo seems to have heralded the end of the era of chic porn in fashion images, continues Élodie Nowinski:

“The porno-chic was based on harsh lighting, often flashes and a lot of nudity amplified by suggestive poses. Women were often objectified there. Filming was done very from above, like in porn, to insinuate a form of domination through this vertical staging. From being used, the porn-chic aesthetic has lost its shock value, and it would be harder to overcome it from #MeToo.

These new campaigns, shot much more horizontally, show people of all shapes, genders and sexualities, in loving symbiosis, rather than traditional cisteronormal bodies with faces deformed by orgasm. This is what seems refreshing and desirable to us today. “

In the fall of 2020, a Saint Laurent campaign using porn-chic codes also sparked several complaints filed with the ethics jury. Further proof that this type of image no longer passes after #MeToo! Far from being mundane, kisses are therefore becoming sold like asses.