Bella Hadid, Eva Longoria, Emily Ratajowski - the A-list has called it; this is the summer of the naked dress.
The mood is Marilyn Monroe answering “Chanel No. 5, of course” when asked what she wears to bed, or Miranda quipping “tits on toast” when our reigning queen of the naked dress, Carrie Bradshaw, slipped into that whisper of a dress. The same dress that ends up on the side of a bus and later seduces Big, and make no mistake, it was the dress that beds Big. “I don’t blame myself,” proclaims Bradshaw; “I blame the dress. The dress! The dress led me on. It had a life of its own.”
Given fashion’s obsession with the era, it’s little surprise that we’re seeing a return to the naked dress (goodbye LBD, hello TND). Hadid has long championed archive designs and nineties style—almost single-handedly driving sales in tiny sunglasses and baggy jeans (bonus points if you wear them over boxer shorts).
For the model’s eagerly awaited red carpet return, Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello dressed her in look seven from the Maison’s Autumn/ Winter 2024 show. The collection—which featured figure-skimming dresses, wispy slips and headwear seemingly spun from silk stockings—was ripe for a Cannes debut. The film festival is known for high-octane fashion moments, like Carey Mulligan’s eternally elegant Dior gown for The Great Gatsby premiere, Kristen Stewart’s directional take on the Chanel suit, Dua Lipa in Celine (with ex Romain Gavras, who fans suspect her new single is about), or, more recently, Hunter Schaffer in Prada complete with a crisp white bandana which we have not seen the last of.
Playing to classic Cannes dress codes, Hadid and Longoria—who I recently interviewed for our Power issue—opted for Old Hollywood glamour (if you can’t do it here when Cannes you?) with tonal sandals, nude nails and a heavy dusting of diamonds. Ratajowski accessorised similarly when she wore her own naked dress at this month’s Met Gala.
Dare to bare (or at least give the illusion of it)? Here, we round up the top five naked dresses currently on the market. Proceed with caution, you never know what kind of trouble these dresses might walk you into…
