The following article contains spoilers for Babygirl.
In the days of Fifty Shades of Grey, expensive tailoring became synonymous with a BDSM fantasy—the buttoned-up boss with a corner office became a high-powered fantasy for people the world over. But in Halina Reijn’s new erotic thriller Babygirl, sportswear is the new dom. Harris Dickinson ordering Nicole Kidman to kneel while wearing an oversized Nike hoodie and a pair of Adidas Spezials? “That’s the power of street style and animal confidence,” says the film’s costume designers Kurt and Bart.
For a while, the doms of film sat in the Fifty Shades tailoring canon; of course Jamie Dornan fit the Christian Grey brief in the official adaptation. But there was also the professional lawyer of black comedy Secretary, and even Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, a biopic about the creator of said superhero, which explored the BDSM tastes of the titular psychologist. Now, Babygirl is a reminder that the dom can actually be anyone and wear anything, so long as he has the right amount of confidence.
Since twenty-something underling Samuel (Dickinson) comes with both in spades, it doesn’t matter that CEO Romy (Kidman) is wearing designer clothing that “probably cost nearly his annual intern salary.” Confidence trumps wealth when it comes to sexual power dynamics: while she overthinks her professional image, he “comes as himself without pretense or self-consciousness,” Bart says. “His nonchalance is disarming.”
To be unassuming is more captivating because it’s unexpected. A man who slings plastic on Savile Row projects an image of power; the intern in a Fruit of the Loom singlet…less so. But the most important accessory for Samuel is swagger. “[His] animal confidence makes whatever he is wearing magnetic for Romy,” Kurt says.
Attitudes to how we should be dressing, particularly for dealings in boardroom and bedroom, are changing. Romy represents an older generation who still equate formality with power, while Samuel is the younger employee who knows he can do his job just as well from home in his sweatpants—or, if he must be in the office, in a second-hand suit. And it tracks with what Gen Z largely wants. A recent report by global recruitment agency Robert Walters found that over half of respondents aren’t particularly charmed by middle management roles, and that “72 percent of Gen-Z would actually opt for an individual route to advance their career.” Power structures are being questioned, and maybe that’s how Babygirl‘s successful Giorgio Armani-wearing lead ends up kneeling before a guy in Adidas.
As the film wraps, Romy remembers Samuel not as a topless young buck dancing to George Michael. Instead, the picture she calls to mind when sleeping with her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas) is of him in that motel room in his Zara jeans and “broken in Nike hoodie”. In Babygirl, the real power is most comfortable in sweatpants.
This story originally appeared on British GQ.
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