In the year 2001, American popstar Britney Spears, writhed with pleasure on our screens in the steamy, sexy music video for “I’m a Slave 4 U” in barely-there clothing. And since then, celebrities seeking attention (and us consumers wanting it) has never been more acute.
Fast forward to 2025 and see-through clothing is still one of the biggest stories because of its hyper-femininity and versatility. You can dress it up (wear it long, add a corset and heels) or dress it down (wear it in layers, add a T-shirt, and Crocs or sneakers).
But make no mistake, translucent clothing is on the rise with many collections including sheerness of some type. Even knitwear now includes openwork elements. The best part? These dresses are available at every price point: from ultra-affordable stretch tulle in Gikomba market to super-sophisticated frothy chiffon with that rediscovered boho vibe at the high-end shopping malls.
According to Klarna, a fintech company offering ‘buy now and pay later plans’ that obviously tracks fashion trends through purchase data, sales of sheer dresses and skirts have surged by 82% since 2023. Fashion weeks, typically a celebration of clothing, have also taken an unexpected turn by shifting from what models and audience were wearing to what they weren’t.
Essentially, the body is making a loud comeback. Some say the trend harks back to ’90s fashion, characterized by abbreviated clothing like slip dresses, low-rise jeans, and an obsession with thinness, yet again. At the same time, it aligns with a social moment where proud femininity confronts political challenges, including threats to reproductive rights.
Like everything important in fashion, the transparency trend carries a deeper significance. It’s a reaction to setbacks in gender equality, including restrictive abortion laws and enduring workplace inequalities. Not to mention eroding rights to the trans and gay community.
The standout runway show for sheer styles occurred at Saint Laurent in a collection that paid homage to Yves Saint Laurent’s original see-through blouse from the 1960s. Celebrities who attended the show were confidently donning similarly transparent clothing. Social media buzzed with observations that “nobody wore a bra to the Saint Laurent show.”
Among celebrities in particular, naked dressing is the new norm. At any A-lister event, you’ll see a sizable number of attendees in outfits that expose their nipples, underwear, or both. The trend spans generations: At the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscars party, Ice Spice and Charlize Theron both wore sheer gowns with black underwear showing underneath.
In an industry that runs on fastidiously negotiated nudity riders, and in a society in which some conservative ‘moral cops’ still classify exposed breasts as unlawful indecency, it can still feel jarring to see Hollywood stars showing their nipples at black-tie events. But celebrities have always pushed the boundaries of fashion, stretching norms of social decency in ways that expand our notions of propriety.
The bigger and more surprising shift of the past five years has been the entry of see-through garments into the urban mainstream, where the sight of a thong strap or nip slip now reads as a deliberate fashion statement rather than an unfortunate mishap.
It’s 2025 and we seem to be pushing more boundaries with sheerness. Clothing labels have long sent models’ exposed breasts down the runway, but nowadays celebrities and regular people alike are more inclined to bare it all. Perhaps it’s an act of cultural pushback against society’s puritanical restrictions on women and the queer people’s bodies.
Maybe it’s a sign that we shouldn’t be so concerned with our own nakedness. Luxury fashion’s latest trend is less about what you wear, and more about what you don’t.
No matter how you wear it, sheer is sexy, subversive, inescapable and powerful.
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