dressed in nothing?
Naked Dressing on Red Carpets
Naked dressing has been a topic of conversation since the 2026 Grammys. Since the Cannes Film Festival red carpet in 2025 banned nudity, naked dressing continued to persist in many ways, with Vogue attendees saying that the Grammys reinvented naked dressing.
While some dresses use intimate cutouts such as Kehlani, others, such as Chappell Roan, take a far more daring stance. A dress held up by faux nipple piercings.
Karol G, Sabrina Carpenter and Heidi Klum take a more modest approach while still alluding to the naked dressing format with sheer lace and sculpted latex.
However, it existed way before the Grammys, with Marie Antoinette in 1800s popularised and in the 1920s when fascism spread across Europe.
Certain celebrities are known for their participation in the naked dresses trend. Such as Lily Allen, who “collected a whole “revenge wardrobe” of naked dresses soon after her divorce album had permeated the culture.” As well as Sydney Sweeney, who regularly wears sheer and exposing fabrics.
Her dress to the Variety Power of Women 2025 event was her most ‘naked’ to date.
This, to me, while may be a style celebs feel the need to do to stay in the trends, could also be a movement. Like FEMEN, who march topless for women’s rights. Wearing these naked dresses is empowering women's bodies of women and has more meaning the longer it shows in the media. The ‘buzz’ around Chappell's dress highlights this, as it shocked and stunned photographers and audiences but didn’t let that stop them from taking photos. Does that change it from empowerment to objectifying? Chappell replied to comments on her Grammy’s dress as being ‘fun and silly’. Not a political statement. Not a movement. Fun and Silly. Highlighting that wearing what you want doesn’t have to mean something.
But Sweeney’s was a movement directed at younger women. “You don’t have to wait for permission to be brave.”
Is it more about being seen? And to do that means exposing your body? Or distracting?
Eva Wiseman, at The Observer magazine, discusses it being a distraction from other things going on. Sweeney has been in constant backlash for each project she does, and yet she comes back and repeats it all. Are the beautiful yet distracting dresses a purposeful plant for this? These dresses show everything, so “you start to wonder what you’re not seeing. It feels slightly “dead cat strategy” where attention is diverted by chucking a cat on the table, or in this case perhaps, a pussy.”
Kanye West and wife Bianca Censori arrived at the 2025 Grammys in modest outfits. With the fur coat being dropped and Bianca in a fully sheer fabric dress stunned everyone and the media, who had to pixilate photographs. Looking back at footage where West says to ‘drop it’, it feels less empowering and, as previously mentioned, distracting. Especially after West and Censori left immediately after walking the carpet and not attending the event at all.
It all seems very calculated and purposeful to benefit their careers rather than for fun as Roan’s was.
What’s your take on naked dressing?