How jockstrap made it to the catwalk

Shortly before Milan Fashion Week, Jonathan Anderson had published a post on his Instagram profile that read «Getting ready for fashion week». The photo in question depicts a jockstrap, a garment taken from American athleisure bent to underwear that is particularly popular within the queer community. Not that fashion has refrained from bringing underwear to the runway, quite the contrary: one only has to go browsing through Tom Ford's collections and editorials at Gucci to realize the exact opposite. So much so, in fact, that the thong that appeared during the SS97 show with a metallic logo has become a real archival piece online, triggering a Y2K revival wave in the representation of women's underwear.

Boxers and underwear with branding in plain sight, often paired with low-rise pants and crop garments - from Dior Men to MSGM via Balenciaga - have sparked a real trend in menswear, sorted through the streets and feeds thanks to the SS and FW 2022 shows. Already in 2018, in fact, Gucci had legitimized the use of the jockstrap on the catwalk: made of leather and studded with diamonds, the one proposed by Alessandro Michele for the SS19 collection functioned as a garter belt, however. Deprived of its more markedly sensual dimension, the jockstrap began to make inroads in more than one fashion show, transforming itself into a kind of outerwear garment. No longer relegated to a restraining function concealed by pants, the jockstrap has become a real determinant garment in the styling of an outfit. A process probably accelerated by the aesthetic imaginaries explored by the queer world and the success of platforms such as Onlyfans gone superimposed on a narrative of the sexy that has found its doppelganger in fashion, the jockstrap's debut on the catwalk is counter-evidence of this.

Gucci SS19

Champion x Rick Owens

Vtmnts SS23

Thom Browne SS23

If the one proposed by Eli Russell Linnetz embroidered Lesage was worth $30,000, Ludovic de Saint Sernin's model became the cult object of a sect of adherents to a form of eroticism bordering on fetish. Fetish that was translated by VTMNTS into a uniform made of leather, padded shoulders and underwear - jockstrap to be exact - that Guram Gvasalia decided to cut out in volumes distributed around perfectly sculpted bellies - «crop the bullshit» he had declared to Vogue during the SS23 presentation. And then, as unexpected as it was instantly viral, Thom Browne's kinky turn: jockstrap, studs and fetish accessories taken from the sailor world were the roommates of jackets and tweeds inspired by 1940s and 1950s couture. And the cohabitation was not at all forced since the goal was not to shock, but rather to be able to give substance to a masculine silhouette that is both fun and, at the same time, powerful. By 2024, global menswear sales will reach nearly $500 billion, so we might as well invest in jockstrap.