For Jean Paul Gaultier, fashion’s greatest creation is not the bra, the skirt or even a conical bra. “My only regret is not having invented the condom, the most beautiful item of clothing,” he told a journalist after the death of his partner Francis Menuge in 1990 following an HIV diagnosis. (The Frenchman confirmed the quote when interviewed by the Guardian in 2021.)
But Gaultier, beloved for his corsets and Madonna collaborations, isn’t the only one interested in unwrapping this intimate “garment”. The prevalence of condoms in fashion is ballooning, with designer collaborations and a new generation of innovative brands aiming to disrupt a once-flaccid, often unsexy market with more effective, inclusive and aesthetic designs. For his spring/summer 2023 show, Diesel creative director Glenn Martens partnered with Durex on a capsule collection that quickly went viral. Saint Laurent also sells £5 rubbers, while Neil Barrett offers a printed leather condom case.
Riffing off the house’s slogan, the Diesel collection featured T-shirts emblazoned with “For Sucsexful Living”, with 200,000 co-branded condom boxes strewn across the catwalk. “The scale was meant to symbolise the significance of the topic and the continued need for communities to rally around individual freedom,” says Martinne Geller, director of media relations at Durex’s parent company, Reckitt Benckiser, noting that 30,000 condoms were also given away in Diesel stores worldwide as part of the campaign.
