Sex and fashion, fashion and sex, sexy fashion, “sex-fashion”, yada yada yada… in theory it should be easy to do, because it’s what in some ways fashion is all about*. Yet, as we all know, it isn’t. It’s complicated, not least because sex itself, what’s in and what’s out (no pun intended) and what’s acceptable and what everyone wants is constantly changing, forever on the move.
But last night’s launch at Le Chat Gris (already, the name says so much…) for Don’t Shoot The Messengers, in collaboration with TISSUE magazine proved it needn’t be so hard. In the basement the label showed their new SS13 collection, entitled “The Hunter”, with a quartet of models writhing around in an ultra-erotic, borderline-scandalous scenario. The collection combines leatherwear, mysticism and something of the Belle Epoque (y’know, flappers, decadence and the the feeling that the world is about to end, so let’s just enjoy ourselves) and nods to the sport of hunting itself plus with a palette of neutrals, blacks and taupes. As everyone knows, Tom Ford reinvented Sexy at Gucci, but this collection shows he’s not the only one with his finger on the pulse of the Western world’s erogenous zone. It’s a collection that’s hot to the touch, and alluring to the eye.
The photos you see here were taken by sometime Sleek collaborator Maxime Ballesteros – he’s the guy with the muscles, tatts and stubble you’ll see at any Berlin fashion even worth its salt – who by no coincidence whatsoever happened to also showcase his work in the second edition of Uwe Jens Bermeintinger’s superbly sexy TISSUE magazine, which was itself launched at the same event, upstairs. In case you don’t know TISSUE, it’s a magazine at the absolute vanguard of the new print erotica – a beautiful combination of DIY sex fanzine, art manual and coffee-table mag, of the kind that would enable you to find out very quickly just which of your friends are the open-minded, liberal type. Ballesteros’s name on the cover is in very good company – TISSUE #2 also features content on or by Martin Eder, Mike Meiré, Roy Stuart and plenty of others.
All in all, it was a sexy collection, launched in a sexy place, along with a sexy sex magazine, enjoyed by a sexy crowd.
And there weren’t any celebrities there, either.
www.dont-shoot-the-messengers.com
* Complaints to the usual address please.