SOn the catwalk, a papal figure wearing a tunic and corset introduced Fellini-esque characters. As in a dream, enchantresses in maitresse corsets, sexy generalesses, nightmarish maids and crocodile women appeared. It was the year 2000 when John Gallianoin the Dior Haute Couture collection titled “Freud or Fetish”argued those surreal figures with an imaginary letter from Freud to Jung. «I tried to represent what fetishism evokes in the psychology of clothing» explained the provocative couturier, demonstrating how fashion could bring not only “simple” clothes to the catwalk, but something much more intimate (and sometimes even twisted). Among the experts, there are those who saw it as a true clinical case.
Among them Valerie Steelefamous fashion critic and director of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where until January 4, 2026 show Dress, Dreams, & Desire. A History of Fashion and Psychoanalysis proposes a journey between the unconscious, body and sexuality through the lens of clothing, and was created after 5 years of in-depth studies, which also resulted in an extensive catalogue.
Valerie Steele, “the Freud of fashion”
Steele, defined as “the Freud of fashion”, in fact wanted to demonstrate how fashion was superficial, of course, but only in its covering function. In reality, for a long time, the dualism between the rational mind and a body seen as mortal and (in women) too carnal instead placed the dress under the lights of malevolent frivolity. Steele’s perspective changed in the 1970s when faced with corsets: “Were they really oppressive to women, or sexually liberating? I finally understood that fashion, studied from that perspective, could enter the cultural discourse.” One of the teachers interviewed at the time revealed to her a distortion that the female world perhaps still pays for: dressing fashionably meant taking too much care of the body and, consequently, having little consideration for the mind. To demonstrate intellectual superiority, being anonymous (or scruffy) was certainly safer.
Opposites attract
Why not then consider clothing as a very profound surface, capable of telling a lot about us? Dear Freud himself, as a young man, was a lover of styleso much so as to pay tailors and precious fabrics even in installments. In Paris, intimidated and attracted by well-groomed women, defined femininity parisienne like «…an overdressed Sphinxwhich devours every stranger unable to answer its questions.” The subtle dance between analyst and patient has always had a magnetic charm, confirmed by Prada in 2012 with the fashion film At Therapy by Roman Polanski.
From Alexander McQueen’s 2009 “The Horny of Plenty” collection (Photo by Dominique Charriau/WireImage).
Helena Bonham Carter, lying in the analyst Ben Kingsley’s study, triggered in him an obsession with her designer clothes: she confessed, convinced that she would be listened to. But behind her, the doctor was flirting in front of the mirror wearing his purple fur coat. Futility had long been repressed in men: also the fault of analysts who saw ornamentation as a symptom of an incompleteness which, through clothing, led women to compensate for the lack of masculine attributes. A vision that the first couturières opposed, as Coco Chanel explained to Dalí speaking about himself in the third person: «He took the English men’s style and made it feminine. All his life he transformed men’s clothes into women’s… she always dressed like the strong, independent man she had dreamed of being.”
Corset from 1889, a symbol of sensuality often associated with fetishism.
Born poor and illegitimate, initially supported by her lovers, Chanel offered women less restrictive fashions to liberate them in their individuality. The psychoanalyst Joan Riviere (Coco’s peer) was known in this regard for the 1929 article Womanliness as a Masquerade. Translated: successful female professionals exhibited frivolous styles as a mask to hide a feared and cultured male mind. For many, dressing according to feminine codes was therefore not a spontaneous act, but a reasoned choice for a peaceful life.
Creative traumas and chic extremisms
In the dazzling couture of the post-war period, almost only homosexual men excelled. With them the women found corsets, vaporous skirts and high heels, unleashing the ire of Chanel herself, who accused them of wanting to (as already mentioned) “disguise” them again, not being able to take their place. Between them Christian Diorwhich Galliano himself – on the occasion of the aforementioned fashion show – happily defined as: «The first among fetishists: he was in awe of his mother, his New Look was full of fetish symbolism.”
Azzedine Alaïa dress 1986: for him, fabrics were as important as a loved one (Photo: PR).
Ah, the mother. Cross and delight for explorers of the psyche. Can a traumatic primary love lead the genius towards cathartic creativity, as perhaps happened for Karl Lagerfeld? Almost never seen without gloves (to cover hands that his mother found ugly), he spoke quickly to speed up conversations that she had always found boring. It’s difficult to imagine him without sunglasses, reflecting another fashion diktat: protect yourself with gestures that, in reality, attract attention. «The act of hiding must be seen: I want you to know that I hide something from you and I advance by showing you my own mask» explained Roland Barthes. Also summarizing well the charm of dresses that attract the eye between necklines, slits and transparencies, revealing a bit of what needs to be hidden.
Disquiet takes to the catwalk
In Paris, in the years of ’68, it was not only designers like Sonia Rykiel who created comfortable and functional clothes for emancipated women: also the young Yves Saint Laurent had dressed strong women in men’s tuxedos. But to create a strong break, the challenge of the “revolting” clothes was indispensable. Needless to say, how Vivienne Westwood’s punk was one of the first styles to emphasize an antisocial aestheticbut also psychoanalytic stylistic features linked to deviant sex and aggression, with one of the strongest impacts of the fashion system. When Gianni Versace covered some of his clothes from the 1992 “Bondage” collection with safety pins and straps, he defined himself as «a boring, old punk classic».
The dark and powerful femininity of Thierry Mugler in a 1988 outfit (Photo by Daniel SIMON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images).
Jean-Paul Gaultier consigned to history bras with cups of aggressive, to say the least, blunt sensuality, customizing skirts, soft colors and bare backs even in men’s outfits. Thierry Muglerscholar of that psychosynthesis that sees body, mind and soul as three interconnected levels, he declared that he wanted to make women powerful with his futurist femme fatale clothesbetween architectural lines and statuary shoulders.
It was the same desire as Alexander McQueen, designer who gave shape to restlessness in collections and shows that have gone down in history where – he said – he exorcised his ghosts. In 2009, in the parade The Horn of Plenty around a mountain of waste the clothes took the Dior New Look, Stephen Jones’ hats and the rigor of 1950s couture to extremes, amplifying it to the point of caricature, as an ideal of charm and terror.
Who knows if he would have agreed to lie down on stylist Bella Freud’s sofa: great-granddaughter of Sigmund, daughter of the painter Lucien and creator of the podcast Fashion Neurosis with her stylists such as Alessandro Michele and Rick Owens and personalities such as Julianne Moore and Kate Moss share memories related to fashion and reflections on how clothes communicate our identities. «Clothes can predispose you to freedom of thought» Bella explained to ad AnOther Magazine. “They’re associated with vanity and self-esteem, but there’s another thing: they care about you. They support you. And as stylists, we will support you with them.”