During the 1990s, Italian designer Chiara Boni staged one of fashion’s more provocative experiments: a runway show featuring exclusively transgender models, at a time when mainstream European fashion still treated gender nonconformity as spectacle rather than as an ordinary part of casting. Boni pushed the provocation further by placing pornographic performers Moana Pozzi and Éva Henger on the catwalk. The show reflected her neo-avant-garde approach, which used stretch fabrics, spandex, organza, and deliberately body-conscious silhouettes to challenge conventional ideas of glamour and identity. Its importance lies less in scandal or criminality than in the collision of fashion, erotic performance, celebrity, and transgender visibility on a professional runway. The casting could be read simultaneously as an act of inclusion and as a sensationalist 1990s fashion spectacle, exposing the era’s uneasy fascination with bodies and identities outside traditional couture norms. The event helped establish Boni’s reputation for provocative presentations, although the source does not document a specific legal controversy or lasting institutional reform resulting from the show.
Preparing the daily feature…
AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1990s
Chiara Boni’s 1990s Catwalk of Transgender Models and Porn Stars
Chiara Boni / 1990s
During the 1990s, Italian designer Chiara Boni staged one of fashion’s more provocative experiments: a runway show featuring exclusively transgender models, at a time when mainstream European fashion still treated gender nonconformity as spectacle rather than as an ordinary part of casting. Boni pushed the provocation further by placing pornographic performers Moana Pozzi and Éva Henger on the catwalk. The show reflected her neo-avant-garde approach, which used stretch fabrics, spandex, organza, and deliberately body-conscious silhouettes to challenge conventional ideas of glamour and identity. Its importance lies less in scandal or criminality than in the collision of fashion, erotic performance, celebrity, and transgender visibility on a professional runway. The casting could be read simultaneously as an act of inclusion and as a sensationalist 1990s fashion spectacle, exposing the era’s uneasy fascination with bodies and identities outside traditional couture norms. The event helped establish Boni’s reputation for provocative presentations, although the source does not document a specific legal controversy or lasting institutional reform resulting from the show.
The daily editorial is currently unavailable. There’s still an entire archive to explore.