Kendall Jenner’s nipples were trending on Twitter Wednesday evening, after the model closed out Marc Jacobs’ fashion show in a sheer yellow turtleneck.
The tabloid and media fuss over Jenner’s tits was so loud you’d think the world had never seen them before, when in fact we’ve seen them in numerous other fashion shows. They’ve been displayed in more casual settings, too, through tops just sheer enough to reveal two dime-sized circles of dark flesh.
The most likely explanation for Jenner’s nipples going viral on Wednesday was that they were the closing statement in Jacobs’ show—and in New York Fashion Week, which ends every season with Jacobs.
The tabloids and mainstream media invariably make a big deal about celebrities and nudity, but what’s most interesting about this episode with Jenner at Marc Jacobs is that it capped off one of the most flesh-and-sex-obsessed New York Fashion Weeks we’ve seen in many years.
Recording artist and dancer Teyana Taylor had an influential role in sexing up fashion week this year. She closed out Philipp Plein’s “Good Gone Bad”-themed show with a bawdy dance routine reminiscent of her moves in Kanye West’s “Fade” music video, writhing on the catwalk in a lace bodysuit, choker necklace, and garters.
Plein presented in New York for the first time last season and is less highly regarded for his designs than for his celebrity-heavy and expensively raunchy spectacles, which start late and end in the wee hours of the morning.
This year’s entertainment included a a striptease by Dita Von Teese and Future rapping on stage while lingerie-clad women gyrated behind him.
Later in the week, Taylor opened for The Blonds in a high-cut latex leotard (a thong, essentially) that showed off her ass tattoos. She treated the audience to a few of her mesmerizing, body-popping moves as she strutted down the runway.
Hip-slung men’s pants exposed bum cracks at Eckhaus Latta, where nudity emerged as a theme in the show—particularly as seen in women’s looks, like the sheer tops and dresses that exposed more nipples. Many other garments throughout the collection featured slits or other holes for bare skin to peek through.
At Barragán, a relatively new label that has upended gender boundaries and other conventions in their shows, breasts spilled out of tight bikini tops and bras. As my colleague Tim Teeman observed, jeans were “worn so low you would need a second waist around your ass.”
There was an abundance of fetish-y looks—peekaboo harnesses, backless pants, and BDSM gear—at Helmut Lang. And at Namilia, a label not officially recognized on the CFDA’s calendar, there were cone-shaped bras and nipple pasties, balloon-like fake breasts hooked to tops, and high-cut thong jumpsuits that barely contained models’ nether bits and pieces.
Even designers who don’t usually go in this direction went there this year. Marchesa, for instance, embraced see-through gowns, fishnet stockings, and plunging necklines in a collection inspired by the a misbehaving American heiress and explorer known for acquiring a long list of lovers. There were still more see-through gowns at Oscar de la Renta.
The designer Jenny Packham told The Daily Beast that Hollywood starlets have increasingly been requesting sexy red carpet looks, which may explain why Marchesa—another red carpet designer—sexed up their collection this year.
Guests at the annual Met Gala, which is essentially the Oscars for the fashion crowd, have also been exposing more flesh in recent years.
Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, Donatella Versace, and Jennifer Lopez all wore sheer or flesh-colored gowns with embroidered details to the occasion in 2016. This year, Bella Hadid wore an Alexander Wang jumpsuit to the gala that gave the illusion she was nude, then donned a nipple-exposing chain mail tank dress for the after party. And Kendall Jenner exposed her bum in a sheer dress with some strategically placed embroidery.
Taking this fleshy litany into account, one may deduce that some designers at this season’s New York Fashion Week are crafting clothes for their more skimpily dressed celebrity clientele (Nicki Minaj’s bustier was so tight and low at Marc Jacobs’ show this year that her photographed nipple-slip was inevitable).
Others seemed to embrace sexiness and nudity as a reprieve from our highly politicized climate, while still others embraced it to push their own progressive politics.
Whatever the motivation, designers at New York Fashion Week cultivated nudity and sexiness in a way that we haven’t seen since the early ’90s. Nipple slips on runways and red carpets have been overshadowed by intentional nipple exposure.
Indeed, the Daily Mail’s paparazzi have been documenting every “braless” celebrity outing and “nipple-flashing” blouse (today it was Victoria Beckham) to shock and titillate their conservative audience.
It’s hard to tell whether high fashion is parroting progressive and popular culture, or vice versa. But freeing the nipple was certainly a priority for many designers at New York Fashion Week.
Body positivity and sending models of varying shapes and sizes down the runways was a shocking trend when it emerged several years ago, but is now on its way to becoming the norm—at least in New York. This may well go hand-in-hand with championing sexuality and asexual nudity, particularly when it comes to women’s bodies.
The collections at New York Fashion Week encouraged women to flout conventions that tell them to cover up. Bodies are to be celebrated, not censored—and sex in the form of flesh-exposing sportswear and Teyana Taylor gyrating on the runway has never been more fashionable.