Recently a picture of Kendall Jenner strutting the street sans pants went viral. First of all, it was a look straight off Bottega Veneta’s runway (minus the shoes, those were YSL), and second of all – it was incredibly polarizing amongst her fans, and the wider world. Yes, she looked fabulous – but then again, she’s not wearing any pants!
Celebrities often go out in wild looks that just can’t be translated into real life. For a while I went to too many concerts and decided that a good going-out outfit consisted of a pair of tights, a pair of heels and a fancy bodysuit/swimsuit. I am not Beyoncé, and as fabulous as that looks on stage, the fact is, I was at the end of the day, not wearing any pants, and therefore denied entry. Move over “No shoes, no shirt, no service” and meet “No pants, no party”. It certainly looks commonplace up on Taylor Swift’s stage at the O2 Arena, but not so much in Shoreditch on a Saturday night, surrounded by other normies actually wearing pants. I went to a house party instead.
More recently, for my 27th birthday I bought a delicious David Koma dress consisting of an LBD with a sheer top, with two oversized hibiscus flowers plonked over the boobs. It was a show-stopping dress – so show-stopping that Dua Lipa also wore it out in London paired with a pair of blackout sunnies and a cigarette. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), I do not have itty-bitty Dua Lipa boobs, so even though those flowers fit a C-cup at least, paired with the fact that I was not famous, I was told to keep my jacket on at all times as I went against the dress code. Frankly, I reckon I was discriminated against for having breasts (which is a real thing by the way. It’s called hyper-sexualization, people), but whatever, I ignored the rule and got told off several times. Who cares; I looked great, and it was my birthday. I’ll do what I want, boobs be damned.
A couple of weeks ago, I went back to that same establishment that will not be named, and Kate Moss was there wearing a sheer dress with no bra. Pays to be Kate Moss, I guess.
I feel like pop culture and staged photoshoots are so engrained in our daily consumption through social media that it has almost become commonplace to want to dress in a way that pushes boundaries. When I saw that picture of Kendall Jenner sans pants, I was fully ready to strut down the street in tights and a jumper. It looks fab! Why wouldn’t I want to look like that? But then again, it brings into question what is appropriate, and where do we draw the line? Is wanting to be appropriately dressed a thing of the past? Are we in a kind of limbo where the old expectations of how to dress is clashing uncomfortably with the new age of movers and shakers who simply don’t adhere to social standards?
Fashion seems to be on the brink of pivotal change at the moment. Trends are dead, yet long live trends. Decade revivals have been done and then done again. We have overconsumed referential culture, and now need to come up with something completely new – as in, new silhouettes, new ways of dressing. Perhaps no pants is the future? As ground-breaking as it was when women graduated from skirts to wearing trousers (shock horror!), perhaps no pants is the 21st century change we’ve all been waiting for.
Celebrity dressing may be unattainable to the average normie like me (take it from someone who has tried and failed), but perhaps they are paving the way for Mugler thong-emphasizing bodysuits to be worn out in public without a second glance – which frankly is a world I’d like to live in. The more outrageous the better. Isn’t that what fashion – not just style, but fashion – is all about?
Call me old fashioned but I think we should wear pants
— dj fuck (@eggshellfriend) November 22, 2022
Image via @zolototrubova on Instagram