The Clothed Body

Objects
loved. And they are succeeding, above all because of their unbeatable
comfort and ability to be worn under any garment. It must be said that to
reach this point they have tried everything: ‘silk feel’, micro-fibre, ‘nude
look’, incorporated suspender belts, different colours, fake fabric, tartan …
In any case, stockings – whether they be hold-ups, tights, opaque or
transparent – are slowly consolidating the veridicity of their aesthetic and
practical value, with the help, naturally, of publicity campaigns. Apart
from the fact that they are an item of clothing which covers a highly erotic
part of the female body, stockings today represent the traces a woman
leaves on her journey through the world. They have become female ‘legs’
not just metaphorically and not just from a male voyeuristic point of view,
a wonderfully ironic example of which can be seen in Truffaut’s L’homme
qui amait les femmes. The ambiguity surrounding fashion and its languages
lends itself to numerous possible interpretations, while critical
awareness and irony help us to succumb to the charm of certain statements
without believing in them too much.
On Susan Sarandon’s head as Louise while she gets ready for her journey
with Thelma, the foulard, an accessory slightly neglected by recent fashion,
made a small come back. Perhaps because its modernity has always been
understood, or perhaps because American women have never really
stopped wearing it (to hide their rollers as they walk down the street?), the
image of Louise with her high chignon held in a square of soft material
makes us think back over the history of this object in the imagery of twentieth
century fashion. Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina, Rita Hayworth in Miss
Sadie Thompson and Kim Basinger in 9 1 ⁄2 Weeks all wear foulards: in the
first two cases the fashion of the time ‘backed up’ this accessory, while in
the 1980s it was only allowed the ironic and parodic role of a blindfold in
an erotic game.
The foulard undoubtedly has a strong sexual connotation, despite the
fact that it is usually associated with ‘well-to-do’ ladies. Perhaps it is the
original silk material that distinguishes it, giving it a ‘caressable’ character.
The word ‘foulard’ originally referred to a typical way of working silk,
with probable origins in the Far East. Its meaning was later extended to
describe a square (approximately 90 cm by 90 cm) of the same fabric
printed with various colours and designs. Of French origin, from the 1920s
to the 1960s the foulard was the work of illustrious designers, Hermes in
particular.
The foulard is a typical female garment for which the practical use (to
protect from the cold or wind, or to cover a décolleté) is of secondary
importance to the fact of its being a symbol of style. You either love it or
you hate it, there is no in-between. There are many other ways to protect
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