It was a tale of two Paris, and now that the shows are over, fashion critics and journalist are asking, ‘does sex sell’?  The easy answer is a resounding, ‘yes’, but it’s a little more complicated than that.  Sex does sell, but who’s buying it?  There were some very sexy collections in Paris this season, but the shows that gripped the fashion world most were the ones where we were offered innovation and fully clothed models.  Of course Alexander McQueen’s show comes to mind with a look to the future, so does Louis Vuitton.  Both streamed their shows live and opened up this seemingly secret world to everyone.  Karl Lagerfeld even got Chanel into the act with a theme of farm and hay as the backdrop against the refined and polished looks of that house.  Contrasting the collection with the scenery made the clothes pop out.  The sexier collections used the clothes to do what McQueen and Vuitton used technology to do, get us talking.  Let’s face it, one of the purposes for the fashion weeks is to generate buzz.  Did this strategy work?  Maybe the sexier houses were betting that women wanted a change; that gamble would not have been too far fetched, but was translucent clothing the solution?  Dior and Giles Deacon took a calculated risk, but only time and sales will tell the full story.  For now, the strategy has proved itself effective because we are still talking about them.

At Paris Shows, Designers Hope That Sexy Sells [WSJ]

What Professional Woman Wants to Wear Lingerie As Clothing? [The Cut]