Between representation and desire, how the body has become an instrument of fashion

There are many - perhaps all too many - reflections condensed by Maria Luisa Frisa in the 130 pages of her latest book, which starts from an assumption: "Every dress does not just cover a body, it says who we are and who we decide to be", as the author herself, a graduate in History of Art and for years one of the most authoritative fashion theorists and curator of exhibitions, books and university lecture series, writes.

The reflections contained in the essay are divided into nine chapters, the most interesting of which are perhaps those dedicated to make-up, a topic that is almost always ignored when talking about fashion and not 'mere' fashion shows or photo shoots, and the male body, given that even today the attention is still catalysed by the female body, especially when talking about fashion and despite the fact that the fastest growing part of the fashion industry is the men's collections.

Each section of the book starts with personal feelings, sometimes very intimate confessions, and widens the view from there. But at some point it always comes back to the author's self, as if the relationship of each of us with the body - and fashion - were actually a unicum. The personal gaze is intertwined with quotations from designers of the more or less distant past, from Gabrielle Chanel to Gianni Versace, who died in 1971 and 1997 at 88 and 50 years of age respectively. There is no lack of contemporary designers, from Miuccia Prada to Alessandro Michele, although the former's future in the group she co-founded with her husband Patrizio Bertelli seems very solid, while that of the latter, currently creative director of Valentino, appears much more uncertain.

Quotations from those who have made or are still making fashion are complemented by reflections and reasoning inspired by historians of costume, artists, philosophers, art critics, again living or dredged up from a past that at times seems really remote: this is the case of Roland Barthes but also Irene Brin, who died in 1980 and 1969. Dates are important: if it is true that women and men will continue to dress and 'accessorise' themselves by making choices dictated by the body they are born with but also by taste, by what they see in the mirror and/or what they want to communicate to others, it is equally true that Maria Luisa Frisa's idea of fashion seems to be deeply in crisis.

There was a time when almost everything - except haute couture one-offs - that we saw on the catwalks, in magazines and then on streaming or e-commerce platforms could be desired, coveted and finally purchased. For a few years now, this is no longer the case: ready-to-wear wants to transform itself into luxury at all costs, and glorious creatives of the past (one above all, John Galliano) are teaming up with fast fashion giants to aspire to dress normal people, not just the ultra-rich. The body, of course, will never be naked. But fashion as we understand it is already marginal. And that is not necessarily a good thing.