Fashion Gone Prudish?

Some leading figures of the Italian fashion world have criticised a trend towards naked breasts and bottoms on the catwalk, saying it demeans the industry. "Nowadays you need a bare bottom even if you're just trying to launch a handbag," complained Giorgio Armani, whose reputation is founded on elegant, if sombre creations. Armani and his fellow designers Valentino Garavani and Carla Fendi say the "splashes" of bare flesh that were always part of glamorous fashion shows have become a "deluge", and that an excess of nudity is not sexy, but vulgar. "Fashion is drifting towards a type of woman who looks like a soft-porn star," said Valentino. This year's shows have seen a Jean-Paul Gaultier wedding dress without a bottom half, and John Galliano's models in scarlet G-strings beneath skin-tight, practically invisible skirts. Emanuel Ungaro paraded a dress with a transparent front panel in his "ready to wear" collection in Paris, and Dolce & Gabbana leave little to the imagination. At one end of the less-is-more debate stands Armani, who sees his job as showing people that what they wear can be fashionable. The rival camp is led by those such as Domenico Dolce, of Dolce & Gabbana, who says the catwalk is about creativity, and has little to do with selling clothes in shops.