CUT OUTS: WINDOWS THAT OPEN TO OUR BODIES
DENIZ AKKAYA
This season, the way we dress has taken on a liberating new meaning, and bold cuts are here for our more daring side.
As the vaccination process accelerates, we are once again warming to the idea of dressing slowly but surely, and we are faced with a sexy and bold fashion trend. During this period, when we isolated ourselves for almost two years now, wearing only comfortable house dresses and sweatpants has fueled the increasing interest in lighter styles in the post-pandemic; even trends such as underwear and swimwear bottoms as outerwear are on the rise. In recent collections, cuts, slashes and open holes are integrated into the clothes.
This trend has taken over the spring/summer 2021 collections, from Christopher Esber’s cut-out dresses to Nensi Dojaka’s take on the ‘little black dress’. Ig the prices of luxury brands do not fit your budget, but you want to try this style, of course, it is possible to find many different styles of this in fast fashion as well. While cut-outs may seem a little scary at first glance, designers are recreating this trend in fresh and contemporary ways that go beyond the usual stigma. These minimal yet bold details are a nice departure from the tight cuts we’ve seen in the past, making them both stylish and unexpectedly truly wearable.
The cut-out trend is not only the coolest trend of recent times, with trendsetter names such as the Kardashian-Jenners, Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid embracing the trend; it also invites everyone to be comfortable in their own body. In fact, the cut-out trend was not so unexpected after sheer frocks and bodycon in muted tones, which has become quite popular in the last few years. It never occurred to us that a missing piece of fabric or – reframing it – could change the body and body perception so much…
Bella Hadid-approved designer Nensi Dojaka’s underwear-inspired designs can even be called architectural works! Drawing on the deconstructivist tendencies of fashion, Dojaka seems to play with the fabric of what makes the blouse and the dress the dress, and in the process of putting it together, she chooses not to use much of the fabric and focuses on parts of the body that are perhaps not generally considered erogenous. focusing mostly on the female body, raise questions about where we are in terms of acceptance of different shapes and sizes in fashion and beyond, and it actually says a lot. In general, wearing a midriff-baring dress is much more “acceptable” if your body is within the narrow limits set by society.
Most of the current cut-out designs in high fashion are mostly shown on models that conform to the limited ideals of “model-body shape”, although there are exceptions. As a plus-size designer, Michela Stark creates designs that emphasize that cutouts are suitable for all sizes and only you can decide on what is suitable for you. A “cutaway would be something that would actually turn the outfit into something more subtle and sexy”; Stark says. Stark, who first started her career by designing children’s clothes, turned her focus to herself, and her aim was to emphasize the parts of her body that she did not feel confident with.
Stark’s lingerie designs connect, constrict and shape the body in a surreal way. Stark began to perceive her own body in a different way thanks to her designs. In an interview, she said, “I think that when I started I always knew that it was about body acceptance for myself, and it has really helped me and the way that I view myself. Now my body is something different – it’s almost like a tool now. When I see fat I know how to make it look beautiful.”
