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Appearing in public without your trousers? For most of us, it’s the stuff of nightmares. But for a handful of people who scaled the Met Gala steps on Monday night, it was simply fashion.
The singer Sabrina Carpenter and the pop star and actor Lisa were among celebrities who attended wearing Louis Vuitton tuxedo jackets, stockings and little else. Naturally, Carpenter wore an espresso-coloured bodysuit with coat tails, while Lisa’s sparkly knickers were embroidered with replicated portraits by the US artist Henry Taylor.
Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo joined them with her hot pants exposed under a black tulle Givenchy gown of some size. The Colour Purple actor Taraji P Henson arrived in a tuxedo micro-dress by Monse that barely covered her crotch, and the model Hailey Bieber finished her thigh-skimming Saint Laurent blazer with a pair of black stockings and little else.
For Valerie Steele, the storied fashion historian and director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the look “didn’t seem that shocking”. Rather, it was a straightforward way to straddle the gala’s “superfine tailoring” theme and the wearer’s desire to dress up. “You could either wear a suit, or just go for the tailored jacket. As some people are more conditioned to wearing a dress, or heels, it was really the easiest way to fulfil the brief.”
These trouser-free outfits consolidated a trend that has been growing legs in the last few years: the “day knicker”. Kendall Jenner was among the first to go out in her undies, buying flowers in a Bottega Veneta crew neck and knickers in 2022. Her look was trumped only by a pair of £600 low-rise Miu Miu briefs in shades of canary yellow and tomato red, which became the most in-demand high-fashion item, as worn by Emma Corrin and Alexa Chung out and about. As the designer Miuccia Prada said after the show: “The point is, you can choose what you wear.”
Underwear-as-outerwear tends to rear its head most decades. In the 1960s, “once women were able to show their legs and wear miniskirts, to go in a tailored top was not that big a step”, said Steele. Indeed, Edie Sedgwick’s jumper, mesh stockings and black-knicker outfit became something of a countercultural inspiration for years to come. Steele also recalled when the socialite Nan Kempner was refused entry to a restaurant for wearing a trouser suit in the late 60s. Her reaction? “She went to the bathroom and took off her [trousers].”
Since then, knickers-not-trousers have popped up at Vivienne Westwood and Louis Vuitton, where Kate Moss accessorised a sturdy pair with a lit cigarette. In the 2000s, it was au courant for young women to flash their thongs. Indeed, Lil Nas X flashed his at 2023’s Met Gala. This season, Mother Denim has a knicker-showing “fold over” pair of jeans with a button permanently undone.
Steele thinks the trend says more about legs as status symbols. The 1930s fashion historian James Laver often talked about the ever-shifting erogenous zone: cleavage, back and legs.
The personal trainer for the Bridgerton cast, Aimee Victoria Long, said showing off toned legs was about celebrating female strength. “The idea that ‘leg day’ is a male-only concept is outdated. We are moving away from the outdated ‘skinny at all costs’ to a look that’s strong, capable, and sculpted.”
The critical reaction has been mixed. Steele thinks these accusations of sartorial transgression are linked to politics. “Things have turned so far to the right, we have gone back 50-60 years … it’s like slut-shaming,” she said. “The tailored suit seems so masculine and formal, it’s just the contrast that triggers the shock.
“It’s about context. It’s all performative. Lisa [from White Lotus] is in a girl group, and God knows the Met Gala is known for outre clothes,” said Steele. “But if you put it that way – they forgot to wear their [trousers]! – then sure, it might seem shocking.”
