Fashion’s no stranger to dipping a toe into the world of kink, with names like Versace, Christopher Kane, JW Anderson, and Gucci diving into the bedside cabinet for inspiration before turning out titillating collections littered with chains, whips, collars, and more bondage-y, BDSM-tinged bits. Something that hasn’t really made it out of the bedroom (or dungeon, depending on your proclivities) and into the high fashion realm, however, is the chastity belt.
Originally created to prevent women from having sex back in the 17th Century, in the hands of Fabian Kis-Juhasz, the chastity belt becomes a “campy” bum-bag, crafted from sugary pink leather bearing silver-toned hardware. The unique style forms part of Kis-Juhasz latest collection Navel Gazing, which got its debut on the runway at the 2024 edition of Hyéres Fashion Festival and scored the rising Hungarian designer a bunch of vital funding to really get the label off the ground.
Courtesy of Fabian Kis-Juhasz, see end of article for full credits
The offering itself takes a magnifying glass to the rituals and rites of passage connected to the clothing worn as girlhood transitions into womanhood – from ravaged, spent ballet slippers, to graduation gowns, to prom dresses and beyond – and translates them into a line-up littered with ruffles and bows and typically ‘girly’ accoutrements. Right from studying on London College of Fashion’s BA course, Kis-Juhasz was obsessed with exploring the many facets of femininity channelled through the clothes we wear, and examining identity and sexuality within that – so the chastity belt seemed like a particularly interesting garment to get to grips with.
The contraptions themselves might not be quite so prevalent now, but the expectation that women should submit to society’s archaic ideals – in beauty, in sex, and beyond – is still pretty steadfast when you boil it down. The inspiration might be heavy at points, but the end result is an edit of cutesy, coquettish clothes underpinned with an edge, of which Chloë Sevigny is a big fan.
As Kis-Juhasz debuts a new book created in partnership with photographer Anna Kis-Kéry, we discuss making “desirable and dramatic” clothes, dreams of dressing Lana Del Rey, and little monkeys wearing clothes.
Courtesy of Fabian Kis-Juhasz, see end of article for full credits
Tell me a bit about you. Where did you grow up? What did you study?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: I grew up in Budapest, I had very traditional art education high school (life drawing, art history etc). I moved to London at 18 to do a BA at LCF and then I did my Masters at the Royal College of Art. What’s your star sign? Are you typical of it?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: I’m a Gemini, and I have been told I’m a very typical Gemini. Not sure what that means, but based on people’s reaction I don’t think it’s good.
When did you first realise the power of fashion?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: The first time I was mesmerised by the power of fashion was when I saw the Chanel AW09 Couture show on YouTube as a kid, where the models were walking around these giant perfume bottles. Just the scope of it, the production value, how coherent the collection was, how chic it all was. It was my introduction into high fashion.
How did you come to start your own label, what’s it all about?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: My work was very strongly attached to my academic research from my MA. I was fascinated by the difference between femininity and womanhood, the idea of the monstrous feminine and the abject, cinematic interpretations of this. It was all very personal and theatrical, but over the years it became more subtle and product focused I would say.
“Who would I most love to see wearing your pieces? Lana Del Rey, Lana Del Rey, Lana Del Rey” – Fabian Kis-Juhasz
Fave ever fashion show or collection?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: I think about A Cautionary Tale by Meadham Kirchhoff at least once a week.
Did you have a freakum dress/outfit growing up?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: Not really, but I bleached my eyebrows in high school. At the time, especially in Hungary, that was quite freaky.
How do you want to make people feel in your clothes?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: Desirable and dramatic.
Who wants to wear or is the wearer of your label?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: I dressed Chloe Sevigny a couple of times and it doesn’t get much better than that.
Tell me about the inspiration behind this collection?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: This collection was an exercise in having faith in my identity as a designer. I didn’t go into it with a solid concept or a core research, it started with a simple technique or detail and I let the rest unfold organically. In the end, as always, it became about femininity, specifically about that transitional space between girlhood and womanhood, a duality between sentimental objects and new desires.
I was thinking about the value a dress can hold and how it can be an instrument for a rite of passage, and the idea of “big girl” dresses came to me. A dress a parent buys for you for a special event, maybe a graduation, or maybe it’s something you splurged on with your first pay cheque. It’s usually cut in the more feminine way, trying it on feels intimidating, and it holds the promise of making you feel beautiful.
I was trying to imagine a wardrobe that is a combination of pieces like that but also sentimental pieces you carried on from your childhood or teenage years. For example, the shoes in the collection are up-cycled pointe shoes that were donated by the dancers from the Budapest Opera. Actually used, almost completely destroyed pointe shoes that were moulded by the dancers through their performances. I loved the idea of combining these precious relics that can be seen as symbols of childhood ambition, with the kind of high-heels that are such textbook symbols of femininity.
What was Hyères like?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: Hyéres was amazing. The structure of the competition is quite complex and there are a lot of collaborations we have to do for the different prizes. I had the chance to work together with some of Chanel’s leM19 ateliers such as Lesage and Desures which was an insane opportunity, I also managed to secure sponsorship from some amazing textile companies, like Attilio Imperiali – once you get selected to be a finalist you are given the chance to really work with the best of the industry. Beyond that I became very close with the other finalists and made some lifelong friendships. It truly felt like graduating from college again.
Let’s talk about the chastity belt within your collection. How have you reimagined it? What’s it all about?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: I have been fascinated by chastity belts for so long, they are so inherently campy. They are robust and heavy but are directly associated with fragility and purity. As I understand they weren’t actually real in the medieval times, they were talked about in an allegorical sense which then spawned some actual physical iterations much later in the 17th Century, which makes them even more comical. In the collection I reimagined them as fanny-packs, I thought making them practical would feel liberating, also combining something already so campy with something so mundane and unglamorous like a fanny-pack seemed in line with the nature of the chastity belt.
What do you think of fashion’s proclivity for mining kink aesthetics?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: Honestly, I don’t. Any type of sexuality in my work is coincidental or a byproduct of my endless fascination with femininity. If you ask me about kink I am like Charlotte York – I kinked my hair.
“The first time I was mesmerised by the power of fashion was when I saw the Chanel AW09 Couture show on YouTube as a kid, where the models were walking around these giant perfume bottles” – Fabian Kis-Juhasz
What’s your weirdest internet obsession?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: Videos of monkeys wearing little outfits.
Let your predictive text finish this sentence: I am a designer because I love ___ but people don’t know that I am actually ___.
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: I am a designer because I love the idea of making something that looks good but people don’t know that I am actually an expert at making something that looks nice.
What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given? And the best?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: The best: focus on one thing at a time. The worst: to bleach my hair again.
What do you reckon you’re most likely to get cancelled for?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: If the group chat ever gets leaked I will be publicly executed. I just hope it’s a guillotine.
If you could only wear one designer for the rest of your life who would it be?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: Edward Meadham.
What would the line-up be in your nightmare blunt rotation?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: Tube Girl, Harris Reed, the Wicked press tour, Kelly Bensimon.
Courtesy of Fabian Kis-Juhasz, see end of article for full credits
What’s the last meme you saved?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: A man walking on the beach at dawn next to a tube of La Roche-Posay Cicaplast BAUM5 and it reads “Never forget who was there for u at your lowest”.
What would your ghost outfit be?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: The brown chemise I designed for Emma Stone in Poor Things!
Who would you most love to see wearing your pieces?
Fabian Kis-Juhasz: Lana Del Rey, Lana Del Rey, Lana Del Rey.
