DOG IN PANTS
2022
production and art direction
PEDRO HUGO VILANOVA and GABRIEL VENZI
styling ALICE RUFFO
photography GABRIEL VENZI
text MARIA EDUARDA VERÍSSIMO
studio VIGA
Bondage, Discipline, Domination, Submission, and Sadomasochism, the set of words that form the acronym BDSM, are imbued with clear and strict rules that practitioners meticulously follow. It is worth noting that BDSM does not always involve sex or pain; it can simply be about submission and a fetish for materials like leather or the aesthetic appeal of the visuals. When pain is part of the practice, the number one rule comes into play: the safeword, predetermined by the partners, which establishes the moment to stop, preventing any type of accident and making it clear that everything is healthy, consensual, and friendly— unlike the culture of abuse prevalent in society.
The Dog in Pants editorial aims to demystify BDSM through the lens of artist Pedro Hugo Vilanova, a native of Minas Gerais, a student of architecture and urbanism at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, and a BDSM practitioner. Pedro shares that, long before reflecting on his sexual orientation, he already felt an attraction to Bondage-something so integral to him that it now feels like a responsibility to explore it in his work. In a reactionary society, the status quo often makes individuals like Pedro feel disgusted with themselves. For him, exploring BDSM was akin to accepting his sexuality and overcoming feelings of shame and alienation through the delightful lightness of simply existing as he is.
Unlike SEX, Madonna's love letter to the practice, or the enveloping sexism that dominated Jean Paul Gaultier's runways, Dog in Pants exudes lightness and sensitivity. Pearls, with their purity and femininity, harmonize in unison with latex, much like the care and explicit carnal violence intrinsic to BDSM. Plugs are delicately presented, as if extended by hand in an invitation for something that is only possible with the consent of a signal indicating acceptance of submission. A corset outlines a sensual silhouette, and the warm summer breeze stirs hair and a fluid scarf, moving like a dance toward a violent pleasure-visceral even-that warms the cheeks (where there is life, there is heat). A latex mask obscures identity, becoming part of this captivating choreography of dominance and submission, surrender and control. Finally, Pedro poses alongside his self-portrait, issuing his own love letter to BDSM in a subversive act that aims to propagate existence, which itself is an act of resistance. And if it exists, why stifle it?
These individuals, participants in a misunderstood and judged act of agitating love, cast light on multiculturalism and reject homogenization through this provocative work. Even in a more accepting world than that of iconoclasts like Martin Margiela or photographer Robert Mapplethorpe-both criticized yet widely emulated-Dog in Pants seeks to pave the way for awareness and inclusion of the unknown, which only needs to be understood.
