If the straight boys are exploring a softer masculinity, queer fashion is embracing kinky leathers.
WORDS TOM GEORGE IMAGES COURTESY OF FASHION EAST
Every September, around the same time that coffee shops fight to be the first to drop a PSL and Caitlin Covington awakens from her slumber, TikTok and Instagram gays signal that it’s going to be a ‘femme top fall’. It’s not; according to Google Trends at least. Perhaps the queer desire for femme top recognition is a response to the recent universal fawning over straight-identifying ‘babygirl boys’ such as Jacob Elordi, Paul Mescal and Timothee Chalamet. Or, the rise of softer masculine expressions among straight men – Pleasing pastel nail varnishes, cutesy broccoli perms and preppy sweater vests, all on the biggest DL fuckbois you’ve ever met. Or perhaps, it’s a desperate attempt by influencers to gain cultural capital by coining a viral seasonal aesthetic. One thing is clear though, in reality many designers have been leaning far from femme energy in their most recent menswear offerings – think more: wipe-clean leathers, whip-like belts and harnesses over oiled up pecs. Spring Summer 2025 is giving dom top.
Berghain was clearly on the minds of designers this year. For his final collection under the Fashion East programme, Olly Shinder continued to subvert the power dynamics of uniform. The splicing together of 50s boy scout hats with prison guard attire, whips made out of plaited hair, latex finger gloves and leathers with an oil-like gleen, all twisted with the archetypes of porn and fantasy. The characters became increasingly indecipherable from each other. The Berlin nightlife energy was most evident in a look that saw loose cutout panelled shorts merely held up by the straps you’d see on a worker’s overalls, fashioned to allude to a harness. Get you an outfit that goes seamlessly from the building site to the sex club!
Olly Shinder at Fashion East ss25
"Get you an outfit that goes seamlessly from the building site to the sex club!"
In a similar vein, Maria Koch told Vogue that her menswear collection for SS24 was inspired by the moment at “Berghain the shutters go up when the sun begins to rise”. Outfits among Maria’s walk of shame – alongside the guys wearing just office shirts and oversized hoodies, their trousers lost in last night’s debauchery – were leather vests, jackets and overclothes with the same easy-clean sheen of the well-trodden mattresses of a dark room floor. New York designer Elena Velez also played with hides in her collection inspired by Americana and old timey Rust Belt gender stereotypes – the first look of the collection saw a cowboy in leathers less reminiscent of cow hide so much as the ones you’d find in Prowler.
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Ahead of this kinky leather revival was Ludovic de Saint Sernin, whose AW24 collection was inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe, the late 20th century photographer who garnered controversy and censorship with his documentation of the gay BDSM scene covering everything from cruising to fisting and watersports. Ludovic’s collection evolved from looks alluding to the late artist’s delicate floral photography, to the more seedy. Ringlet lace-up briefs, harnesses and corsets were paired with wet room ready boots, daring butt cleavage trousers and condom tight head caps, all in that same slick gleen we’ve seen across the runways this season.
"That dom energy is making its way from the runway to the bodies of the most brazen celebrities too"
That dom energy is making its way from the runway to the bodies of the most brazen celebrities too. As he writhes around the stage of his uber horny Sweat Tour with Charli XCX, leather has become a staple of Troye Sivan’s concert wardrobe. Hyperbranded scally sportswear sits under studded black chaps or are cinched at the waist with long, dragging, whip-like belts in a similar style to the ones seen on the most recent Jil Sander runway. Elsewhere, Lil Nas X turned up to the MTV VMAs wearing a motochic ensemble comprising white and pink leather slacks with a matching, ab-baring cropped jacket. What added the final detail to the badboy cyclist look was the identity-hiding helmet over his head; the kind you could definitely imagine a DL top insisting to keep on during a hookup.
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So why are designers embracing a more kinky, dominatrix side with their menswear? If straight men are increasingly attempting to distance themselves from the toxicity and fragility of the ghosts of masculinities past (and present) through the use of softer, more feminine and queerer expressions, then it seems likely that queer fashion, one that by its very name is meant to be disruptive, would evolve too. If straight men are stripping themselves of expressions of dominance, queer people are showing the space in which that energy can exist. As Ludovic said, “Mapplethorpe had the audacity to share his fantasy with the world and I think that’s really powerful, because he helped a lot of people, including myself, to really be daring and embody every part of ourselves.”
If the economy is tanking, why *not* dress like a dominatrix for the office?
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