There is a photo of a bare-faced Kate Moss taken in 1993, where is wearing a silver slip dress. Her hair’s a bit messy, her cheeks are rosy, she has a fag in one hand and a drink in the other. It is a memorable look not only because Moss is so brilliant at mastering a mesmerising type of cool that transcends decades, but also because you can see her knickers (black briefs) and her nipples. In it, she looks like she doesn’t have a care in the world. It’s a definitive, lo-fi ‘90s moment – but it could equally be today.
Of all the things worth losing sleep over at the moment (and honestly, we are spoilt for choice) something that really shouldn’t make the list is this: am I too old to wear a see-through dress? But nevertheless, it is 3AM and there I am scroll-holing my way through various delicate, fine and crucially, <>, dresses having this exact debate with myself.
Usually, thoughts that go bump in the night reveal themselves to be inconsequential come daytime. Not this one. It continues to follow me. And probably because see-through dresses suddenly seem to be everywhere. Nipples might be flashed; knickers definitely are. Everyone is wearing one. There’s Emily Ratajkowski in Tory Burch fishnet; here’s Olivia Wilde in Ganni mesh. Camille Charriere’s new Mango collection features two show-it-all dresses (I ordered one as soon as I saw the collection). Florence Pugh defended her right to bare her nipples in sublime Valentino haute couture earlier this year.
And Moss is still at it too, last night opting for an olive green, hooded Saint Laurent dress that showed off her briefs. Remember when we thought VPL was a bad thing? I hardly need tell you that it’s not 1993 anymore. Of course Moss operates on a different style strata to the rest of us, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take up that same spirit: there’s no such thing as ‘too old’ – for a see-through dress or otherwise.
Perhaps you think none of this is any different to what any number of attention seeking wannabes have been doing for years. But there is a different, namely the fluid cuts and demure silhouttes. Yes you might see a bittaboob but the sleeves are long, the neck high. Sure you might see exactly what underwear I’m wearing, but it will be under the diaphanous maxi layers of silk georgette.
Party season is coming, what better time to try the nearly-naked dress? I am double Moss’s age when she wore that silver slip; she has over a decade on me now. I’m not saying we have much in common with Kate (if I did, I would never get dressed), but still – tonight I am going out in a see-through dress myself. Because flash-fash has everything to do with attitude, and nothing to do with age.