The Naked Truth

In the spirit of feminist defiance, the Free the Nipple movement finds new life on the runway.

- MARGAUX ANBOUBA

As protesters took to the streets last summer, decrying the overturn of Roe v. Wade, fashion was, understandably, the last thing on anyone’s mind. However, the attack on bodily agency rippled into the sartorial world a few months later, with spring 2023 collections—from Rick Owens to Prada—featuring sheer, nipple-baring looks that both celebrated and called attention to the female form.

Coincidence? History begs to differ. “There’s been a symbiotic relationship between women gaining greater access to the public sphere and the way they dress their bodies,” says Cassidy Zachary, a fashion historian and cohost of the podcast Dressed: The History of Fashion. Think hemlines shrinking at Courrèges in the mid-’60s, as birth control became more widely available and