Double take as three-breasted models strut the runway in Milan

27 September 2018 - 00:00 By Zola Zingithwa
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A model walks the runway at the GCDS show during Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019 on September 22 2018 in Milan, Italy.
A model walks the runway at the GCDS show during Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019 on September 22 2018 in Milan, Italy.
Image: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Fashion house GCDS’s collection stood out at Milan Fashion Week, which ended this week, in more ways than one. They strutted out three-breasted women to model some of their outfits during their runway show.

All three breasts were prosthetic and there was no attempt to make them seem natural.

GCDS was founded in 2015 and, according to creative director Giuliano Calza, the employees are all under the age of 30. He told Women’s Wear Daily that he wanted this show to be a "wake-up call".

“I wanted to talk to people our age about the future and get them thinking about plastics, water shortage and the environment”.

It is not quite clear whether Calza foresees a dystopian future in which women’s bodies will have changed because of the effects of environmental degradation or one in which women can choose to modify their bodies.

There is a trend of not only looking at the future of clothing, but also at a future in which people can modify their bodies as fashion statements.

For example, Gucci’s Fall/Winter 18 show, when creative director Alessandro Michele took inspiration from Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto. This resulted in a model walking down the runway holding a baby dragon, another sporting a third eye on her forehead, while others held replicas of their own severed heads.

A model walks the runway at the GCDS show during Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019 on September 22 2018 in Milan, Italy.
A model walks the runway at the GCDS show during Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019 on September 22 2018 in Milan, Italy.
Image: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
A male model sports a faux preggie belly at the Xander Zhou in June 2018.
A male model sports a faux preggie belly at the Xander Zhou in June 2018.
Image: Ian Gavan/BFC/Getty Images

Male models wore faux pregnant bellies and sported multiple fake arms during Xander Zhou’s London Fashion Week showing in June. Then was there was A.Human, launched during New York Fashion Week, which introduced prosthetic accessories that seemed to be embedded in the wearers’ skin.

If the fashion gurus are to be believed, we are moving towards a future in which the human body can be re-imagined. And if you can change your body, it means more possibilities to dress that body in different ways in the latest outfits from the runways.


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