French musician Serge Gainsbourg’s lyrics in the song “Le Poinçonneur des lilas”, written in 1958, seem to describe the surprise décolletés of the 2022 summer season… Cut-out anytime, anywhere Get ready to meet.
Do not think that fashion is turning to perforated designs by making fabric economy after the pandemic. The décolletés opened in unexpected parts of the body beyond ordinary spaces show what kind of aesthetics the art of cutting, nourished by creativity, achieves.
The word décolleté, once confined to denoting sexuality in the neck or back area, has been around for several seasons, and most of all, this summer season, daring much more, reveals different parts of the body and invites the fashion lover to a game that is as daring as it is surprising.
The new season, which wants to “revenge” the modest fashion of the pandemic period, in which sexy pieces are put in the background and sports and comfortable pieces stand out, brings romance, desire and passion to the runways again with decoupled and “cool” designs.
The cut-out trend, which emerged in the 1960s, considered the most libertarian period of fashion, attracting attention in crochet designs and the space-themed dresses of the futurist names of the time, Pierre Cardin and Andre Courreges , entered the fashion’s radar again in the 2010s, starting from the 2021 collections. started to invade wardrobes with a spectacular comeback.
Vittoria Ceretti
, that the cut-out trend, which attracts much more attention in 2022 fashion shows compared to the 2021 summer season, will not come and go. We can also understand the season from their collections.
Well, do the geometric and asymmetrical spaces opened on the back, shoulders, both sides of the waist region, the navel region, wherever you can think of, only imply a “perfect body”?
Cut-out is an important touchstone in the steps taken in body diversity, and beyond being considered a trend, it can also turn into a chance for designers to keep their promises about inclusivity.
DARE YOU?
If we take a tour between the collections, we can definitely say that Balmain is one of the brands that add the sexiest interpretation to the cut-out trend. When the attractiveness of black is combined with a low-shouldered dress that exposes the navel in a hexagonal shape, and the fabric is used very little, it is a design that takes courage to wear. The cut-out interpretation, where the navel is bare in various geometric forms, is one of the most daring versions of this trend.
Christian Cowan, one of the brands that commented the cut-out the most this season, also plays various decollete games in the belly area. Roberto Cavalli’s black dresses with a low-cut neckline or just showing the skin on the chest line and revealing the waist area with a triangle form are some of the most striking and sexiest looks of the cut-out.
Saint Laurent envisions a very liberal and brave wardrobe with one shoulder and overlapping lozenge-shaped decollete for women.
Courreges’ white cut-out dress with criss-cross straps and metallic touches; It pays homage to Andre Courreges’s 1960s space-inspired designs in white and silver tones.
Burberry presents the cut-out in a very unique and unexpected form with circular holes in the chest and hips. While Rick Owens approaches the cut-out with an experimental point of view, Nina Ricci adds a more modest touch with her decollete covered with fabric and color contrasts.
A LITTLE SERIOUS PLEASE
Surprise cuts on the chest, shoulders and waist areas are definitely the sexiest interpretation of this trend. You can apply the cut-out trend with more casual pieces that you can wear day and night, as well as very “cool”, “breathing” designs that you can use at night parties and parties.
With crop-tops that can be complemented with jeans or skirts, the cut-out trend can take on a more sophisticated and serious attitude, especially with bras that can be hidden under a blazer.
Power suits combined with bras in Fendi and Versace give the cut-out a feminine, stylish and strong stance.
CUT-OUT AND SIZE POSITION
What do you see when you look at cut-out designs from Balmain to Valli, from PatBo to Stella McCartney, and the bodies that wear them in fashion shows ? ? Perfect bodies, bodies that do not “hang” from gaps, but fit perfectly into those holes, ideal dimensions embraced by daring pieces…
Spring/Summer 2022 season, which is far behind in large size diversity compared to racial diversity, cut-out pieces in fashion shows Instead of dressing them on models with different body sizes, she took the easy way out and designed it for thin models.
Although cut-out designs were prominent in plus size models in Drome, Ester Manas and Christian Siriano fashion shows, it was observed that strong brands using this trend avoided diversity and preferred uniform bodies.
KAROLINE VITTO
Whatever the size of the body, cut-out designs that reveal lines are mostly carried by thin models, as these images risk being taken as role models and idealized. contrary to the diversity philosophy he claims.
Whereas, brands can normalize these appearances by bringing cut-out parts together with bodies of different sizes and giving freedom to folds, protrusions and (so-called) “excesses”, and can get a closer to diversity by destroying the perfect body image.
Therefore, the reconciliation of different body types with cut-out designs that exalt the body much more than other clothes; It can play an important role in helping brands pass the diversity test.
Living in London, Michaela Stark and Karoline Vitto challenge all kinds of beauty standards by putting the female body at the center of their design philosophy. Both artists/designers like to explore the relationship between sexuality, fetish and body.
Finally; It is worth mentioning the names of Karoline Vitto, Sinead O’Dwyer and Michaela Stark, who declared that “every body is beautiful”, who fought against the beauty norms that have been acclaimed for years with the cut-out designs worn by curvy models in different sizes. These three designers, who also play an important role in the body affirmation movement, contribute to the inclusiveness of fashion by interpreting the cut-out trend, which we are accustomed to seeing, not on the thin and “attractive” bodies that most brands put on the podium this season, but on ordinary bodies.
We hope that cut-out, beyond being a passing trend, a style game, an aesthetic interpretation, is one of the tasks that fashion performs in the field of diversity and inclusion, and can liberate all bodies more. ..
Text: Selin Milosyan
Photos: GETTY IMAGES TURKEY, IMAXTREE.CO
ELLE Turkey, taken from April 2022 issue.
