Joan of Arc is an unlikely fashion icon, but designers today are increasingly channeling the spirit of warrior women. Love and War: The Weaponized Woman takes an unprecedented look at the influence of armor and other military styles on fashion. But it’s not all chain mail and camouflage. Love and War is the first exhibition to suggest that modern women’s fashion is profoundly inspired by what might be called the discourse of silk and steel, as designers reference both armor and lingerie.

If lingerie is like soft skin, armor is a hard exoskeleton. Lingerie symbolizes nakedness, intimacy and seduction, while armor is associated with power, protection and discipline. Whereas uniforms and armor are strongly associated with masculinity, underwear and the exposure of skin have been culturally coded as feminine. However, uniforms, like lingerie, are fetishized cultural artifacts, which embody ambiguous erotic impulses.

By focusing on the dichotomy between armor and underwear, we can more easily see how modern fashion alludes to a series of other visual and conceptual polarities, such as male/female, hard/ soft, outside/inside, armed/disarmed, rigidity/fluidity. Different designers have, of course, focused on various aspects of this duality. Thierry Mugler famously envisioned women as sexy robots with hard, metallic bodies; Azzedine Alaïa designed a snakeskin brassiere ensemble; and Issey Miyake referenced samurai armor. The young British designers behind the avant-garde fashion label Boudicca even named their company after the Celtic warrior queen who battled the Roman Empire, so it is not surprising that they often created styles that evoke transgressive warrior women.

Why military style? “I’m tired of all that passive, sweet femininity,” says Miuccia Prada. “We women should go back to some strength.” Her reasoning seems to resonated with contemporary women, who have long sought respect and authority, an dhwo apprieciate a fierce fashion statement.