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The fashion critic Cathy Horyn called Sportmax’s Fall Winter 2022 show “Blade Runner meets Helmut Newton”, and if that isn’t enough to sell you on a collection, I don’t know what will be. Sportmax has always operated as the cooler younger sister to Max Mara, and the design team’s instinct for ‘now’ was obvious throughout FW 22. Titled Dial ‘S’ for…, a spin on the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic, the clothes tapped into fashion’s new obsession with sex, skin, and seduction. The show notes called the collection a “hotline to the Seduction and Sensuality of powerful, body conscious, erotic silhouettes that transcend any and all cliches.” (Although it would have been refreshing to see the collection transcend the cliche that ‘sexy’ has a size limit—Paloma Elsesser’s glorious i-D cover proved this new trend is not solely the domain of sample-sized supers).
Showcased in a dazzling pink-lit room, the presentation felt like an enthralling Lynchian fever dream, with references spanning the “primordial she demon” Lilith, the ‘50s actress Kim Novak, Sean Young’s character in Blade Runner, and the cartoon pin-up Jessica Rabbit. There were homages to the fetish community courtesy of glossy patent leather dresses cut in seductive silhouettes, as well as suggestive cut-outs: dresses with thigh-high splits, backless shirts, cold-shoulder evening gowns. Oversized (faux) fur jackets in hyper-femme shades of baby pink added to the sense of Old Hollywood seduction—they joined references from the 40s (hourglass jackets), the ‘80s (exaggerated jackets and body-hugging pencil skirts), and the ‘90s (androgynous minimalism courtesy of men’s style suiting and Calvin Klein-esque navy slips).
As for the accessories, oversized envelope-style clutches paid homage to Maison Margiela, while leather fingertip gloves, thigh-skimming boots in cherry red and leopard print, and fishnet stockings all spoke to the collection’s kink-positive sensibility. The pieces are described as “a balance of the sophisticated and the perverse”. That tension point has always been tantalising for designers, and as we make our grand return to life after Covid, the temptation to let our hair down and throw on a slinky, skin-baring party dress feels stronger than it ever has before.
