From Rihanna’s Super Bowl outfit to Zendaya’s Tom Ford breastplate, 7 times skintight sculpted pieces rocked fashion

This golden bustier, designed by sculptor Claude Lalanne for Yves Saint Laurent’s 1969 autumn-winter haute couture collection, serves as a blueprint for wearable sculpted pieces mimicking human anatomy. Lalanne made the body cast of famous German model Veruschka, and Laurent incorporated the breast and stomach plates into the collection’s black and Mediterranean blue gowns.

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Famed for his pleating and technological strides in fabric design, Japanese designer Issey Miyake had also dabbled in acrylic casting. For his autumn-winter 1980-81 collection, he sent models down the runway wearing jewel-toned bustiers with deep cleavage and belly button details, paired with flowing silk skirts to juxtapose the rigidity of the tops.

This coiled bustier designed by jeweller Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen’s 1999 autumn-winter show was a study in metal manipulation. McQueen worked with his long-time industry friend Leane to create this unique piece crafted with 97 pieces of aluminium coils. This design has since then been immortalised in our collective fashion memory.

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French haute couturier Franck Sorbier turned plaster cast into avant-garde creations in his spring-summer 2012 collection of gowns featuring moulded pieces for the upper body. As well as the off-white colour palette, the intentionally unfinished bustiers pasted onto the models’ bodies contrasted against artfully bunched-up skirts created the effect of marble statues such as the ancient Greek sculpture Venus de Milo, which served as Sorbier’s inspiration.

This hot-pink lacquered bustier was a highlight of Tom Ford’s spring-summer 2020 collection, and it made its way to the red carpet just one week after its launch when Zendaya wore a piece custom made for her to the Critics’ Choice Awards. Her metal breastplate was scanned to fit her chest perfectly and was arguably one of the best looks of the night. Ford even let her keep it afterwards as a memento.

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The idea of a moulded breastplate might seem stiff, but creative director Olivier Rousteing managed to bring movement to his take on the look in Balmain’s autumn-winter 2020 collection using leather. The brown calf leather was shaped into ripples and pleats that looked as if they were draped dripping wet over the model. Again, Zendaya had a hand in making it popular when she wore a rendition of this design in a Balmain custom dress in sandy hue to the Venice premiere of Dune in 2021.

Creative director Daniel Roseberry referenced certain Yves Saint Laurent designs in Schiaparelli’s spring 2021 haute couture collection, most notably Laurent’s 1983 Big Bow Dress, as well as the golden bustier mentioned earlier. Roseberry went on to add well-defined abs and nipple piercings into his moulded pieces.

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