Is there a doctor front row?

If we thought we had left the blue of medical masks behind, fashion seems ready to bring back the aesthetics that the Financial Times calls “first-aid chic.” In the past, designers have approached the trend in different ways, from Ann Vandervost, who has been using the medical cross as her brand’s logo since the 1990s, to Alessandro Michele, who brought straightjackets and hands protesting mental health advocacy to the Gucci SS20 runway. Fashion’s most significant homage to nurse aesthetics is tied to Marc Jacobs, who, for Louis Vuitton’s SS08, created looks that foresaw what we would wear twelve years later—minus the red initialed hats for the models. To these examples, we can add one of the most famous fashion editorials of the new century: "Makeover Madness," a project shot by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia, July 2005. In the images, Linda Evangelista and other top models, including Jessica Stam, appear undergoing invasive surgical procedures, only to find themselves covered in bandages and couture at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. While the Vogue Italia editorial and Michele’s straightjackets used hospital aesthetic codes to evoke dramatic images denouncing social issues such as the mental health crisis or the obsession with aesthetic retouching in the new millennium, lately, we’ve seen runway items resembling gear from nurses and doctors. This might signal how fashion is striving to stay connected to the people it dresses.

One of the first signs of medical aesthetics in fashion this year strangely appeared on the red carpet, at the Cannes Film Festival, when Hunter Schafer arrived in a Prada outfit featuring a white headdress faintly reminiscent of the caps worn by nurses during the World Wars. The same brand worn by the actress has, in recent seasons, incorporated stylistic elements inspired by the doctor’s wardrobe, such as the 24-hour handbag. Prada’s sister brand, Miu Miu, has also drawn inspiration from hospital corridors. At the SS25 and FW24 collections, the brand showcased shirts and trousers in light blue technical cotton and brown handbags perfect for carrying stethoscopes and prescription pads. After all, creative director Miuccia Prada herself said in a 2016 interview with System Magazine that «doctors are considered very sexy.»

Beyond Prada and Miu Miu, whose passion for the doctor’s look reflects their founder’s preferences, other brands have turned to the medical wardrobe for their creations this year. The Row released its version of the doctor’s bag—rigid, spacious, and brown, a pseudo-Birkin style that Pharrell adapted for Louis Vuitton Men. Meanwhile, French brands Coperni and Courrèges reinterpreted the sexy nurse style presented by Marc Jacobs in 2008. With full white outfits, transparent fabrics, or designs featuring pockets and cut-outs emphasizing intimate areas, these brands envision future hospital uniforms that are functional yet highly sensual. Similar to the uniforms André Courrèges designed in 1985 for staff at Paris’s public hospital.