Earlier this year, after the fall-winter 2026 collections in Paris, I wrote about sex. More specifically, about how luxury brands were offering it up on the runway, in some ways hearkening back to the licentious fashion of the late 1990s and aughts, and in some others recontextualizing it for the post-#MeToo, post-COVID-pandemic era of the 21st century. Haider Ackermann considered the art of street cruising at Tom Ford, which Anthony Vaccarello had explored a season prior at Saint Laurent. At Jean Paul Gaultier, Duran Lantink cut his skirts in such a way as to make it appear that their wearers were pitching a tent, if you catch my drift, and at Gucci, Demna outfitted Kate Moss with a thong and armed his very buff models with very tight shirts. It was a season in which so much of what we saw felt sexualized, yet it was not always sexy.
This contradiction is representative of the way sex operates within culture at large. All over Instagram and TikTok are male “creators,” a nebulous evolution of the influencer denomination, flashing their bulges, somehow bypassing censors. Never mind “thirst traps,” which are now part of our vernacular and our daily online diet. In the third season of Euphoria, which premieres this Sunday, Sydney Sweeney’s character seems to be selling erotic content too, at least as suggested by the trailers for the show.
All of this doesn’t mean that people—young people—are having more or less sex, though there are various reports that say Gen Z is having less sex, hinting at a sexual recession of sorts. It means, however, that we have more access to it than ever. We are simultaneously less sensitive to it as an image and an idea, yet more aware of it as an act.
In many ways, this is the OnlyFans effect. Content creators and celebrities alike have been able to leverage its profitable subscription model to harness the power of the internet in a way that fills their pockets in addition to their egos. Meanwhile, OnlyFans has been working to branch out of erotic content: The company announced a ban on explicit content in 2021, chalking the move up to difficulties with banks and payment processors, though it swiftly reversed the decision. That same year, it launched OFTV.
Nouchi says he launched his brand’s OnlyFans at the right time. If his brand were smaller, he says, it wouldn’t make an impact, and if it were any bigger, “no one would allow me to do it,” he says, referencing C-suite executives and potential investors.
He argues that fashion brands’ ability to promote themselves online and launch e-commerce labels challenged retailers, but that having direct access to his consumers—he operates a store in Paris and sells through his own channels—saved his brand from the ongoing wholesale crisis.
“I have great e-commerce, we have a store,” Nouchi says. “What [other] solution do I have for an independent business, which is working very well but still independent? The option is to be smarter.”
