During Fall-Winter 2025 Paris Fashion Week, designer Duran Lantink stunned onlookers by showing models with muscular six-packs and bouncy synthetic breasts. In addition to being eye-catching pieces of art, these prosthetics also symbolized a growing fashion trend toward the usage of prosthetics as transformational tools.
Models Mica Argañaraz and Chandler Frye led the way with their torsos that fused hyperrealism and fantasy. The message was clear to Lantink: fashion is shifting from fabric to flesh, challenging traditional ideas of gender, body identity, and beauty.
Above Shock Value: Creative Intention
Lantink’s designs that focus on prosthetics are a part of a larger trend.Companies such as Avavav, Balenciaga, and Collina Strada have used 3D-printed materials and lifelike silicone to rethink the human form. Prosthetics like cheekbone augmentation and animal-inspired face masks are being used to promote creativity rather than hide imperfections.
Prosthetics are a growing form of wearable art, according to special effects makeup artist Malina Stearns, who rose to fame for her Doja Cat transformation at the Met Gala. “It’s more about performance than perfection,” she noted.
A Deep History, A New Purpose
While prosthetics have existed for thousands of years—originally for function—they’ve since become central to performance art and drag. Today, they are making their way into fashion as a visual language that can express identity, rebellion, and creativity.
Artists like Alexis Stone and Nadia Lee Cohen use them to shift appearances entirely. From elfin ears at Burberry to Adele doppelgangers in Paris, prosthetics are reshaping how we define the self.
Blurring Lines: Gender, Beauty, and Technology
Prosthetics now go beyond theatrical gimmicks.Martine Rose questioned Eurocentric ideals of beauty by donning artificial noses. In the meanwhile, Zhongzhi Ding created clothing designed to support transmasculine identity, such as jeans with integrated sponge genitalia.
According to researchers from London College of Fashion, this evolution is motivated by a desire to transcend arbitrary limitations. It also represents a culture that is becoming more and more preoccupied with performance, virality, and anxiety related to body image.
Future Prospects: Animatronics and Motion
Collina Strada founder Hillary Taymour imagines dynamic prosthetics: swinging tails, garments that breathe, and soft robotics incorporated into apparel. “We can rewrite the human form with prosthetics,” she said. “You can style bodies instead of just clothes.”
As design and technology come together, the possibilities for stylish prosthetics seem limitless. What was initially astonished now inspires awe and possibly even acceptance of oneself.
Source: CNN
