the airbrush bikini shirt

trompe l'oeil in an age of hyper-realism and absurdism

It started with marzipan. As a child who preferred raw dough to cookies, marzipan was a revelation. The marzipan fruits at my hometown bakery were bursting with life, mounds of almond paste as big as fists. I still can’t resist it—whenever I’m in the general vicinity of Economy Candy or Sahadi’s, I stop in for a shrinkwrapped green container that holds exactly five pieces of marzipan fruit.

Rainbow cookies and gigantic marzipan at Alessi Bakery in Tampa; the generic green container of marzipan, procured this time from Damascus on Atlantic

Part of the initial appeal of marzipan was the sugar content, sure, but the real draw—what elevated it above all other bakery treats—was my enduring childhood fascination with miniatures, fakes, and approximations. In art, this fascination manifests in the technique of trompe l’oeil, French for ‘to deceive the eye.’ Trompe l’oeil technically refers to an optical illusion of a three-dimensional object on a two-dimensional surface, but the definition has expanded to include three-dimensional objects (like marzipan fruits) that also create a convincing illusion of reality.

Elsa Schiaparelli is largely considered the pioneer of modern trompe l’oeil fashion, hand-knitting herself a bow-print sweater in 1927 that became so popular it led to the creation of Schiaparelli as a brand.¹ In the early 2000s (when I began to tune into fashion in real time), Jean Paul Gaultier was leading the trompe l’oeil charge, with Galliano at Dior not far behind.²

Elsa Schiaparelli bow sweater; 2000 Christian Dior by John Galliano trompe l'oeil silk dress; Loewe Spring 2023

While trompe l’oeil clothing is no more a trend than denim is a trend, there have been multiple iterations of it on the runway each season for the last few years. Many Fall 2022 shows featured body-focused trompe l’oeil—in addition to the reissue of some 1990s Jean Paul Gaultier pieces, Loewe, Balmain, and Margiela all sent models down the runway in form-conscious trompe l’oeil garments.³ Loewe’s Spring 2023 show featured a tongue-in-cheek, Playmobil-esque spin on trompe l’oeil with clothing that appeared to be two-dimensional blurry or pixelated jpegs instead of actual three-dimensional objects⁴.

Balmain Fall 2022 show, Tessa Thompson in Maison Martin Margiela (Hollywood To You/Star Max) in June 2022, Loewe Fall 2022 show

My first encounter with trompe l’oeil may have been through the vehicle of almond paste, but I’ve now realized what my favorite example of it is. I present to you the ultimate Floridian trompe l’oeil… the airbrush bikini coverup.

After my grandmother died, I ended up with many different garments and objects of hers (including a kazoo collection). This bikini shirt was my favorite thing. The brand is LA Imprints, which is still around and selling the same shirts today, including the exact one I own. While the available skin color options fall appallingly short, I’m a bit charmed by the fact that they’re still up and running, having made seemingly no changes or updates to their hero product in the last twenty-something years.

So what elevates trompe l’oeil from something considered ‘trashy’ or tasteless (the airbrush bikini or the derisive portmanteau of ‘jeggings’) to high fashion (the polka dot bikini dresses of Jean Paul Gaultier or the faux-denim pants from Balenciaga)? I’m actually surprised we haven’t seen an airbrush bikini from Demna yet. (Nikki Chasin makes a fashion girlie version of the bikini top called the ‘Florida Woman Applique T’, but I’ll allow it, as she grew up in Florida.)

LA Imprints airbrush bikini shirt via eBay; Jean Paul Gaultier Dots Dress via 1st Dibs; Hue ‘Essential Denim Leggings’; Balenciaga ‘Trompe L’Oeil Pants’

Here’s how Vanessa Friedman covered Jonathan Anderson’s Fall 2022 Loewe show in the New York Times:

There was a lot to look at and a lot of it was absurd (absurd-on-purpose), though it was grounded in the final simplicity of two shrunken cardigans paired with loose trousers. Afterward, Mr. Anderson talked about the Industrial Revolution and feminist art and primitive man, all of it stewed together in an irrational expression of how we got to an irrational time in an irrationally humorous, yet logical, kind of way.

Here, siloed in the etiquette column ‘Social Q’s’, is how the New York Times broached the subject of jeggings:⁵

First, about the jeggings, those elasticized leggings that are styled to look like skin-tight jeans. They’re modern and comfy, great for weekends and evenings on the town, but 100 percent inappropriate for Perry Mason’s assistant.

(A more recent mention of jeggings, while slightly more complimentary, is still contained within an advice column with a prescriptive outline of when and where it is appropriate to wear leggings.⁶)

What is it that relegates one type of trompe l’oeil to a boardwalk souvenir and reveres another as a runway hit? What prompts a collective cultural handwringing about loosened standards versus acclaim for a display of outré brilliance?

I want to return to Vanessa Friedman’s mention of this “irrational time” we find ourselves in. Elsa Schiaparelli’s bow-print sweater took off at a specific cultural moment, on the heels of the dual devastation of World War I and the influenza epidemic and at the dawn of surrealism.⁷ Maybe the renewed cultural interest in trompe l’oeil over the past couple years reflects our descent into a different age, one of simultaneous hyper-realism and absurdism.

Our trompe l’oeil is Is It Cake?⁸ and 5-Minute Crafts⁹, post-pandemic triumph declared as cases surge¹⁰, entire vacations and wardrobes propped up by Klarna + Afterpay¹¹. When you can’t have the real thing, a facsimile will have to suffice.

5-Minute Crafts (above); Netflix’s Is It Cake? (below)

That’s a bit of a depressing and cerebral point of view, which is maybe why I keep coming back to the airbrush bikini shirt. I actually think it’s brilliant in its joyful exaggeration. It’s not trying to trompe anyone—it’s in on the joke, it’s poking fun at a trope. The only thing it reveals is something about the viewer; it turns the male gaze onto itself. But I’ve got to stop reading into it. Maybe it’s just another layer of sun protection with a silly design. It doesn’t need to be a symbol or a metaphor. Sometimes it’s not that deep; it’s two-dimensional.

And with that… a selection of secondhand trompe l’oeil clothing!

Clockwise from top left: Anna Sui x James Coviello dress (S/M), $256; Sam Edelman t-shirt (M), $25; vintage wool sweater (6), $100; Coach crossbody clutch, $70; vintage lifeguard bikini t-shirt (M), $60; Betsey Johnson rope-print pants (M), $84; Kieselstein-Cord silk scarf, $51; Henri Bendel canvas tote, $60

1. https://www.schiaparelli.com/en/21-place-vendome/the-story-of-the-house/

2. https://www.elcycervintage.com/products/christian-dior-spring-2000-runway-trompe-loeil-dress-1

3. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2022/07/11060560/trompe-loeil-optical-illusion-clothing-trend

4. https://www.papermag.com/loewe-pixel-capsule#rebelltitem9

5. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/fashion/20Social.html

6. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/08/fashion/leggings-fashion-workout.html

7. https://hypebeast.com/2024/4/trompe-loeil-fashion-fool-design-trick-trend-history

8. https://www.fastcompany.com/90739466/why-we-cant-stop-watching-is-it-cake

9. https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/comments/wviwkm/can_somebody_explain_5minute_crafts_to_me/

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-51504484

10. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democratic-national-convention-surprise-guest-covid-kamala-harris-rcna168298
https://x.com/luckytran/status/1826774910011887789

11. https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-gen-z-travel-debt-affirm-klarna-credit-cards-2024-8