Brigade of Bones: Skeletons in Fashion

In 1938, Elsa Schiaparelli designs a black skull dress, which must be the designer applying an x-ray vision to fashion One of the first instances. This approach goes well beyond the transparency currently popular on the runway. By taking the bones, and sometimes organs, out from below—here looking at you, Takahashi-kun—it also trumps the underwear-as-a-coat metaphor many times over.

People often say that fashion is about the surface, but this revelation undermines the narrative and exposes the fragility of the body, even more naked than the legendary emperor wearing his birthday suit Brilliant. As Halloween approaches, I’ve dug up skeleton looks from the usual suspects (including Alexander McQueen and Iris van Herpen) and many others. It’s up to you whether the design is a trick or a treat.