Article by “genie” / @bbyg6rl on Substack (guest writer)
I’ve always considered myself a sentimental person, and lately i’ve been reminiscing of the 90s and early 2000s. and of specifically these men: John Galliano, Lee Alexander McQueen, and Tom Ford.
Shalom Harlow in McQueen ss99 collection finale “No.13”
Shalom Harlow in McQueen SS99 collection finale “No.13”
in comparison to today’s luxury landscape (boo, tomato tomato), the late 90s and early 2000s was a time went fashion unapologetically promoted sex, danger, fantasy, obsession, drama, and spectacle. now today’s world fashion has largely stopped trying to seduce us and started trying to sell to everyone.
Dana Thomas in Gods and Kings describes Galliano and McQueen as two young men arriving in a fashion industry that had become artistically stagnant. together, they revived it with collections that were theatrical, sensual, provocative, and emotionally charged. they made you feel something, whether you wanted to or not (some people were much more prude back then).
Tom Ford was also basically the decade’s king of sexy. he revived Gucci from its financial struggles and made the brand desirable again. he’s iconic because he was controversial. Tom Ford understood the nuances of fantasy, obsession, and mystery.
fashion has become boring because our culture stopped prioritizing desire and seduction
fun fact: did you know that people are having less sex? and as a result, fashion has become boring, but you probably already knew that. right, so people are having less sex and fashion is boring → this is a correlation. the mechanism bridging the two is desire.
for context, an analysis of General Social Survey data reported: in 1990, about 55% of U.S. adults ages 18–64 reported having sex at least once a week. by 2024, that figure had fallen to about 37%. among adults 18–29, 24% reported no sex in the past year, roughly double the rate in 2010.
so people are having less sex than they did in the 1990s. fashion also became less erotic over that same period. i don’t think one necessarily directly caused the other. i think they’re symptoms of the same cultural shift. fashion has become less erotic because our relationship with desire has changed. it stopped being obsessed with seduction after our culture stopped being obsessed with physical intimacy, mystery, and fantasy.
let’s talk about the facets of our society involved with desire and seduction:
dating culture
i find dating culture fascinating. spontaneity and in person connection has largely been replaced by dating apps. as a result, dating has become algorithmic. we have a multitude of dating apps, swiping, filtering, and an overload of choices.
the thing is, desire thrives on uncertainty, and dating apps remove uncertainty. nowadays we have a dating culture where everything is analytical and optimized. theres compatibility scores, green flags, red flags, attachment styles, dating coaches, relationship podcasts, courses on “how to make him obsessed”, and an endless amount of choices.
now that it’s easier than ever to optimize, people feel that there is a always a “better” option. why settle for someone under 6 feet when you can just swipe once more and find someone taller? a guy has a typo in one of his prompts? yellow flag, keep swiping. the nature of today’s dating world makes it hard to focus on one person.
when we look at television shows, we used to have more “organic” dating presented to us with classics like Sex in the City, Girlfriends (hugely underrated btw), and Gossip Girl. these shows made dating feel aspirational and transported the viewer into dating scene. nowadays the binge-worthy feel-goods have been replaced with reality shows like Love Island, Too Hot to Handle, Love is Blind. i’ll be honest, i do love these shows—however they are by in large brain rot. i do, however, think these modern shows can be analyzed as a reflection on society’s current dating culture (misogyny, the manosphere, the male loneliness epidemic, gender dynamics, emotional intelligence, romantic ideals, etcetera etcetera).
if we’re being matter-of-fact, the people that audition to go on these shows are basically there to boost their careers, audiences, personal brands, gain sponsorships, start influencer careers. after all, being an influencer is one of the top careers gen alpha aspires to today. and we can see this with how many Love Island contestants go on to sign with top talent agencies. i mean, good for them, but also, what does that say about dating culture nowadays? romance has become commodified entertainment instead of aspiration.
club culture / nightlife
spontaneous nights out have been replaced by nights in with streaming services. i think this is a byproduct of both technology and covid-19, both have which removed desire.
several people interviewed in this Vanity Fair article repeatedly describe LA nightlife as existing before social media, when clubs actually felt secretive, exclusive, and mythic. they pointed out that smartphones and Instagram eventually made everything performative and dissolved much of the mystery of a night out. god, what i would give to experience a night out in the 90s. i was definitely born in the wrong decade.
Dana Thomas in Gods and Kings also mentions how after Galliano and McQueen runway shows, there were often afterparties, nightclubs, and a heavily involved Paris and London club scene. clubs were places where people heavily experimented with identity, sexuality, and self-expression before those ideas ever reached luxury brands. they were places for casual hookups, meetcutes, and sexual exploration.
Kate Moss and John Galliano
Kate Moss and John Galliano
the ‘90s luxury customer also aspired to a lifestyle of nightlife, sex appeal, celebrity culture, confidence, and hedonism. and this is what Galliano and McQueen kept in mind, being more than active participants in the clubbing scene themselves.
advertising
Tom Ford once said “Sex sells,” therefore i took it upon myself to look at some luxury commercials 90s and 2000s. i found various fragrance ads selling fantasy and sex. we went from ads that often over sexualized and even objectified women to ads that promote body positivity, representation, and everyday bodies and beauty. not to say that this is bad at all, but it’s definitely different.
probably my favorite campaign i stumbled upon was this Gucci Envy fragrance commercial (1997) directed by Tom Ford. in it, we see hypersexual imagery, voyeurism, oozing confidence, tension, cinema, fantasy over identity, and luxury as seduction. THIS is why we say Tom Ford revived Gucci through eroticism, people. he definitely knew how to take risks. after typing this, i decided to check if Tom Ford was an Aries. to my disappointment, he is not.
i also want to note the Opium fragrance campaign by Yves Saint Laurent (2000). this ad embraces ambiguity and sells longing, not self improvement. i think we can say that luxury has broadly changed from selling temptation, lust, and fantasy to authenticity, inclusivity, confidence, and wellness.
societal ideals
we can see that the consequence of an absence of desire has reflected on our society. back in the day, marriage used to be the main goal— nowadays it’s self improvement, financial stability + freedom, travel, experiences, and even in some cases, a childfree lifestyle.
if we look at the male loneliness epidemic (which i won’t get deeply into because it’s a whole thing), i think one reason for this phenomenon, if you will, is that women are more self sufficient now more than ever before and therefore want more of their counterparts.
as women have achieved gained greater economic independence and more choices around education, career, marriage, and parenthood, the social script around relationships has changed. partnership became increasingly optional rather than economically necessary. it’s increasingly become a choice rather than a social expectation, changing how people fundamentally approach dating and relationships.
the impact
fashion has always reflected the culture around it—but it also tells us what to desire. runway has shifted from theatrics and supermodels to lifeless walks and commerciality. the Comme Des Garçons models jogging down the PFW SS27 catwalk feels like a anti-uniformity statement.
couture has become increasingly detached from everyday fashion culture being less sustainable and profitable. at the height of postwar couture, there were roughly 20,000 couture clients worldwide. today there are only about 4,000. overall, silhouettes have gone from experimental to algorithmic (appealing to the social algorithm) and mass commercial appeal.
the industry has become increasingly corporate as luxury brands have gone from family owned to conglomerate and grown larger. with it, expectations from top-down have changed. creative directors are no longer simply artists. they are now responsible for billion-dollar businesses. they no longer have the luxury of indulging of their desires rein-free.
fashion has always reflected how we relate to one another. so when desire became optimized, commercialized, and increasingly mediated by technology, fashion changed with it. luxury has increasingly shifted its center of gravity from transgression and seduction toward identity, relatability, and capitalistic ideals.
btw, this topic was heavily inspired, check this out: nobody’s having sex anymore and it’s ruining fashion by kikileaks on substack
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