As fashion and porn flirt with each other
Pictures of Newton and Guy Burden. Young Brooke Shields, intriguing by the statement that between her and her jeans Calvin Klein "nothing." Sadomasochistic aesthetics in the works of Thierry Mugler. Tom Ford's porn and fashion porn by Terry Richardson. Girls in advertising campaigns American Apparel, finally. To remember how closely sex and fashion are connected, this associative series can be continued indefinitely.
However, a couple of years ago, the profile press was filled with analytics, convincingly proving that the context has changed. For the generation, which is usually denoted by the vague term "millennialy", sex as a marketing ploy stopped working (we wrote about it here). The theme of activism and the struggle for social and social changes turned out to be a new consumer trigger: a call for freedom, equality and fraternity sells a new collection much more effectively than diligently oiled bodies and distorted face spasms of passion. And even Tom Ford, the main adherent of the concept of "sex sells", now confidentially tells journalists that he is tired of all this and is looking for inspiration solely in emotions and romance.
But let's take a closer look at what is happening in a step away from the fashionable front scene littered with activist slogans. A year and a half ago, the application for gay-dating of Grindr (we’ll clarify in brackets: Grindr has a strong reputation for finding one-night sex for uncomplicated sex) carried out a live broadcast of the J.W.Anderson men's collection Autumn-Winter 2016/17. Six months later, in the framework of the Fashion Week in New York, the Hood By Air fashion show was held in the spring-summer 2017 season - the last one at the moment in the brand's history - Pornhub, an official sponsor and partner. And shortly before this, Hood By Air presented another project related to the entertainment industry for adults, this time in the format of a photo album. Commissioned by Shane Oliver, the HBA ideologue, South African photographer Peter Hugo went to the capital of Jamaica, Kingston, to film local male pornstars in things from the archives of the brand.
At first glance, these few episodes from the life of two fashion brands are just coincidence and coincidence. Well, or a tribute to the era of media average: it is logical to assume that both Anderson and Oliver are just having fun and, scandalizing the public, are trying to draw attention to their own creativity. Moreover, both designers specialize in the subject of vague gender boundaries and standards, and Oliver does not flirt with the porn theme for the first time: in the summer of 2016, the next men's HBA collection was shown in the real Marais sex club in Paris.
However, everything turned out to be much more interesting. First, this year Pornhub continued to participate in fashion weeks: as part of the New York Fashion Week, which ended just a month ago, the presentation of the Richardson x Pornhub capsule collection was held. Its creator is Andrew Richardson, a former employee of Calvin Klein and Valentino, who managed to work as a stylist on the set for Madonna’s book "Sex". In the late 90s, he launched a magazine named after himself, the content of which masterfully balances at the junction of soft-porn, art and fashion. And the story of the eponymous clothing brand began in 2003, when Andrew created a line of t-shirts with Supreme. Richardson streetwear-brand started on the splinters of this collaboration.
Secondly, the fashion-expansion Grindr. The list of application partners now includes such fashion brands as Baja East, Illesteva and Re / Done. As conceived by PR Consulting employees, a reputable consulting agency, with whom Grindr closely cooperates with the goal of integrating into the fashion community, these brands regularly provide their products for drawing among the users of the application. The joint project of Grindr and Paper magazine, the author of which was the famous photographer Stephen Klein, did not go unnoticed. By the way, Grindr's own men's clothing line also appeared, even though its launch happened almost unnoticed.
Thirdly, with the filing of Diesel artistic director Nikola Formichetti, Grindr and Pornhub have found a new advertiser: recently, the brand willingly places its advertisements on both platforms. Formichetti himself claims that Diesel doesn’t have any intention to shock the public - it’s all a matter of cold calculation: both Grindr and Pornhub have a huge reach of the target audience for the brand.
All this seemingly fragmented and small-scale fashion activity of Grindr and Pornhub in fact quite clearly demonstrates the serious intentions of both companies to develop as large lifestyle styles brands. And the conquest of fashionable territories is just a step towards the implementation of these ambitious plans. The step, I must say, is quite easy and quick to implement. And that's why.
In today's world, pornography has become an integral part of the everyday landscape. The pop star in the image is now difficult to distinguish from the porn actress, while the porn stars themselves, such as Standing or Sasha Gray, deftly cope with the role of public speakers and social activists. The line between TV reality shows and soft porn is blurring more and more rapidly, the fitness industry is increasingly integrating the aesthetics of adult films into their own visual content, not to mention the fact that the state of one of the most influential families in show business has been acquired by scandal with homemade sex video.
Visual images related to the field of intimate and conditionally “indecent” have become a familiar sign of the time: somewhere on the periphery of our view someone’s naked butt imprinted in the decorations of the gymnasium or the red carpet, or naked breasts appearing during reporting from the spontaneous action of the Free the Nipple movement. Actually, the term "porn" has long been overgrown with completely domestic semantic meanings and is widely used in relation to things and concepts that are not related to the sphere of sexual entertainment: for example, the terms "foodporn", "shoeporn", "apartmentporn" and etc. Porn has become an absolute mainstream, an important component of pop culture.
And fashion responsive to new realities. If earlier she was selling the dream of sexual contact with a beautiful stranger from an advertising poster or a promise of an incredible orgasm from a new pair of jeans, today sex and related attributes are presented through a documentary, everyday statement of facts. Sexification in fashion has been replaced by pornography, which firmly establishes in the public mind the notion that sex is something very mundane, routine and ordinary and at the same time completely inevitable. Like washing your hands before eating or needing to brush your teeth.
In this sense, the advertising campaign of the American brand Eckhaus Latta of the spring-summer 2017 season, which is a series of shots of real people having sex with a camera, is very indicative. It is difficult to come up with a more detached and cold supply of this process, especially the contrast of these photos compared to, for example, hot shots of advertising campaigns from Tom Ford for Men perfume line 10 years ago.
Equally devoid of scandalous connotations and things from the collections, which were discussed above. Nominally, they are associated with porno-thematics, but there is nothing defiant and shocking about them: they are ordinary, adjusted for the context of 2017, everyday clothes. For example, in such a really handy smack with the rods of your new sex partner, it would also be quite appropriate to go to something like that for shopping at the next grocery store. Probably not so far away the day when the luxury colossus really have to make room in the market for specialized goods and services due to the emergence of a sudden and powerful competitor in the face of Pornhub. Well, or Grindr.
Photo:Claire de Rouen books, Richardson, Grindr, Eckhaus Latta
