The Politics of Breasts

In light of fashion's reclaimed obsession with the female body, Shivpriya Bajpai traces the history of the chest-forward movement

- Shivpriya Bajpai

Fashion is in constant conversation with the cultural zeitgeist. While the micro-trend frenzy is far more fleeting, pertinent trends and themes become real conversation starters, often holding up a mirror to societal changes. Currently the fashion's spotlight is placed firmly on breasts. They're everywhere. From Schiaparelli's gilded breastplates, the resurgence of conical bras in 2022 and bejewelled nipple motifs from 2023 haute couture runways, Prada's sweaters with visible underwired bras, to Rick Owens's sheer fabric drape baring it all in Spring/Summer 2023-fashion seems to be returning to its surrealistic chest obsession, often crossing paths with art and design.

INTO THE ARCHIVES

A woman's chest has always been at the centre of patriarchal politics, from being eroticised and marginalised to being regulated at the free will of men. Contrary to the tropes of present-day morality, breasts weren't always hidden in ancient times. Visual documentation of historical archives has depicted female figures with bare breasts. For reference, on the one hand, Greek sculptor Praxiteles's creation Aphrodite of Knidos showcased the goddess naked and became a pathbreaking moment in the Classical Period. On the other, Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus from the Renaissance Period depicting goddess Venus emerging from the sea with her hands on her breasts and long tresses covering her vagina, is still considered a benchmark in the representation of the female body in art.