Amsterdam Fashion Week opened in a haze of chiffon, bows and confrontation. Pauline Blind’s Blasphemous Bodies staged its debut inside a temple, where a giant pink bow — a supersized echo of her Lichting 2024 collection A Girl Is a Gun — crowned the altar. What began as girlie now sharpened into femme fatale, balancing sensuality with political urgency and a controlled undercurrent of rage.
Blind’s collection of 20 handcrafted looks interrogates the sacred weight placed on female fertility, and the way patriarchal systems, from politics to religion, continue to entangle women’s worth with reproduction. That critique translated viscerally on the runway. The bow, once playful, now functioned as both verb and weapon: silencer, restrictor, metaphor. From there the procession oscillated between delicacy and menace: lingerie rendered in lace with matching gloves, a pastel pink lace confection bowed to excess, and black veiled figures with faces erased entirely.
The narrative deepened in accessories and structure. A leather belt bodycon dress sprouted wings, chiffon shifted into Bordeaux tones, and a knitted balaclava sealed with a bow left the mouth symbolically shut. A glimmering silver ensemble fastened with belts across the wrists transformed a garment into shackles. Even hair became a chain, coiled tight around the neck, femininity turned into restriction.
Religious symbols ran throughout: crosses glinting on floor-length gowns, veiled heads that conjured cult-like rituals, fishbone constructions of lace patterned starkly across white fabric. The runway itself staged moments of silence, echoing Blind’s dedication to those whose voices are taken from them. Midway through, the show cut with the words: “Last night I dreamt I was so rich I could afford my own body.”
With Blasphemous Bodies, Blind marked her first solo show with clarity, courage and conviction. Every detail aligned into a debut that felt both fearless and fully formed, a beginning that already reads as a milestone.
