The 50 Most Scandalous Dresses in History
The right dress can make a career. The wrong one can make headlines. But a scandalous dress can do both. Whether dating from Genesis, the Belle Époque, or the infancy of MTV, these 50 scandalous looks pushed boundaries, sparked controversy, and shifted the public’s eye. (Full disclosure: There are also some trousers, jackets, and T-shirts in here — sometimes, creating a stir means flaunting the rules.) They prove that there’s often more to scandal than sex — and that there’s more than one way to leave a lasting impression.
Eve’s fig leaves, Genesis 3:7, 3:21, and 3:22 From the very beginning, dress and scandal have been inextricably linked. Once Adam and Eve ate fro...
Eve’s fig leaves, Genesis 3:7, 3:21, and 3:22 From the very beginning, dress and scandal have been inextricably linked. Once Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they recognized their nakedness and hid their shame with fig leaves. And later, when God outfitted them with “coats of skins” (fur coats!), he decreed: “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” Self-awareness, morality, and clothing — that unholy trinity has been exploited by every scandalous dress since.
Photo: Imagno/Austrian Archives/Getty Images
Lady Gaga’s meat dress, Franc Fernandez and Haus of Gaga, MTV Video Music Awards, 2010 In the first (and hopefully last) appearance of raw meat o...
Lady Gaga’s meat dress, Franc Fernandez and Haus of Gaga, MTV Video Music Awards, 2010 In the first (and hopefully last) appearance of raw meat on the red carpet, Lady Gaga’s 2010 VMA dress had animal-rights activists and vegetarian groups seeing red. While shocking, the flank-steak gown was not technically an original; it borrowed heavily from Canadian artist Jana Sterbak’s 1987 installation Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic. When Ellen DeGeneres later asked Gaga about the dress’s message, Gaga explained that it was about “standing up for what we believe in … pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones.” Furthermore, said Gaga, “I am not a piece of meat."
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Janet Jackson’s Nipplegate, Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, 2004 It was the nipple seen round the world. Janet Jackson’s peekaboob moment while...
Janet Jackson’s Nipplegate, Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, 2004 It was the nipple seen round the world. Janet Jackson’s peekaboob moment while performing with Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl introduced the phrases “nip-slip” and “wardrobe malfunction” into the lexicon. The split-second exposure (which both stars insisted was unintentional) led to an FCC investigation, fines, and a legal battle that stretched on for more than eight years.
Photo: Bill Baptist/WireImage
Elizabeth Hurley’s safety-pin dress, Gianni Versace,
Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere, 1994 In 1994, Elizabeth Hurley was a struggling actre...
Elizabeth Hurley’s safety-pin dress, Gianni Versace,
Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere, 1994 In 1994, Elizabeth Hurley was a struggling actress best known as Hugh Grant’s girlfriend. But the instant she showed up at his Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere in the one dress Grant’s publicists were able to borrow on her behalf —a plunging black Gianni Versace embellished with giant gold safety pins — she became England’s “It” girl. By the next year, she had a contract with Estée Lauder Photo: Dave Benett/Getty Images
Jennifer Lopez’s palm-print gown, Versace (Donatella Versace), Grammy Awards, 2000 Two words: double-sided tape. With a neckline that plunged bel...
Jennifer Lopez’s palm-print gown, Versace (Donatella Versace), Grammy Awards, 2000 Two words: double-sided tape. With a neckline that plunged below the navel, a slit that climbed to the crotch, and an open back to match, Jennifer Lopez’s palm-print Versace gown introduced the stylists’ staple to women everywhere. While the dress had already been worn by Amber Valletta on the runway and was photographed on Donatella Versace at the Met Ball, it took J. Lo to make it scandalous — proving once again that it’s the gown and the girl that matter.
Photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor’s Mainbocher wedding dress worn at the Château de Candé, June 3, 1937 In December of 1936, King Edward VI...
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor’s Mainbocher wedding dress worn at the Château de Candé, June 3, 1937 In December of 1936, King Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Warfield, “the woman [he] love[d].” The bride wore Mainbocher — a floor-length fluted column dress and fitted jacket with a delicately shirred heart-shaped bodice. Cut of “Wallis blue” silk crêpe, the gown matched the duchess’s eyes and her Van Cleef & Arpels sapphires. Its conservative silhouette exemplified the austere style favored by the American divorcée, and it lent a sobriety to the scandalous union. Within weeks of their June 1937 vows, copies of the dress appeared in New York department stores. Photo: Central Press/Central Press/Getty Images
Madonna, “Like a Virgin” bridal dress, MTV Video Music Awards, 1984 A different breed of bride: At MTV’s inaugural Video Music Awards, Madonna pe...
Madonna, “Like a Virgin” bridal dress, MTV Video Music Awards, 1984 A different breed of bride: At MTV’s inaugural Video Music Awards, Madonna performed “Like a Virgin” in a white lace bustier, tulle tutu, and her trademark “Boy Toy” belt. She began the song perched atop a wedding cake and ended it writhing on the ground, giving the audience a glimpse of her underwear and garter belt.
Photo: David McGough/DMI/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
The Bloomer Costume, Amelia Bloomer, 1851 The costume championed by early women’s rights advocates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and its namesake, Ameli...
The Bloomer Costume, Amelia Bloomer, 1851 The costume championed by early women’s rights advocates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and its namesake, Amelia Bloomer, featured voluminous pants tied at the ankle beneath a shortened skirt. The corset-free costume was physically liberating but became the object of so much public ridicule that most of its proponents eventually abandoned it.
Photo: Rischgitz/Getty Images
Le smoking, Yves Saint Laurent, fall-winter haute couture, 1966 When Yves Saint Laurent debuted le smoking, a menswear-inspired tuxedo tailored f...
Le smoking, Yves Saint Laurent, fall-winter haute couture, 1966 When Yves Saint Laurent debuted le smoking, a menswear-inspired tuxedo tailored for the chicer sex, women wearing pantsuits was still considered radical on both sides of the Atlantic. In a favorite fashion anecdote, a smoking clad Nan Kempner was denied entry to Manhattan’s La Côte Basque in 1968. Skirting the dress code, Kempner removed her pants and sauntered into the restaurant wearing her smoking jacket as a minidress. Photo: Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent
Bumsters, Nihilism collection, Alexander McQueen spring-summer, 1994 “I wanted to elongate the body,” said Alexander McQueen of his radical take ...
Bumsters, Nihilism collection, Alexander McQueen spring-summer, 1994 “I wanted to elongate the body,” said Alexander McQueen of his radical take on trousers. “The bottom of the spine — that’s the most erotic part of anyone’s body, man or woman.” Perching perilously low on the hips, the pants drew attention to cleavage of a different sort. His bumsters paved the way for low-rise jeans, whale-tail thongs, and doughy muffin tops.
Photo: Guy Marineau/Corbis
Miniskirt, Mary Quant, London, mid-sixties Some say Mary Quant set London swinging way back in 1955 when she opened her clothing shop Bazaar with...
Miniskirt, Mary Quant, London, mid-sixties Some say Mary Quant set London swinging way back in 1955 when she opened her clothing shop Bazaar with then-boyfriend Alexander Plunket Greene and Archie McNair. Though André Courrèges and Jean Varon also showed short skirts, it was Quant’s abbreviated designs that popularized the mini in the mid-sixties. Quant, who had the advantage of being her clients’ contemporary, credits her customers with raising hemlines “’shorter, [and] shorter.’” Photo: Corbis
Josephine Baker banana skirt,
La Folie du Jour, Folies Bergère, 1926 “Since I personified the savage on stage, I tried to be as civilized...
Josephine Baker banana skirt,
La Folie du Jour, Folies Bergère, 1926 “Since I personified the savage on stage, I tried to be as civilized as possible in daily life.” —Josephine Baker
By donning a skirt of rubber bananas at Paris’s Folies Bergère, the American-born black cabaret sensation Josephine Baker — whom reviewers at the time described as “savage” and “primitive” — exploited colonial fantasies of racial and sexual difference and claimed her body’s power as her own. Photo: Jerry Tavin/Everett Collection
Nas and Kelis, “N*gger” T-shirt and jacket, Grammy Awards, 2008 In a promotional move for his forthcoming album, Nigger, rapper Nas, his then-wif...
Nas and Kelis, “N*gger” T-shirt and jacket, Grammy Awards, 2008 In a promotional move for his forthcoming album, Nigger, rapper Nas, his then-wife Kelis, and their entourage donned matching outfits emblazoned with the N-word to the 2008 Grammy Awards. When a CNN reporter on the red carpet asked about his fashion statement, Nas replied that discrimination was a universal experience lived “every day, [by] all ethnicities — Black, White, indifferent.” He went on to reference the war in Iraq, the presidential election, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Following sharp criticism from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the NAACP, the rapper eventually changed his album’s name to Untitled.
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Marie Antoinette at the guillotine, October 16, 1793 “Marie Antoinette wore a white gown, a white handkerchief covered her shoulders, a white cap...
Marie Antoinette at the guillotine, October 16, 1793 “Marie Antoinette wore a white gown, a white handkerchief covered her shoulders, a white cap her hair; a black ribbon bound this cap round her temples ... ”
—Charles Lacretelle (1766-1855)
In 1793, when France’s queen was taken to the guillotine, she was dressed in a simple white chemise, her shorn hair tucked under a plain cap. Far from the deficit-inducing gowns and three-foot pouf that had contributed to her fame, her final outfit nonetheless showed her talent for manipulating her own image. Photo: Corbis
Luisa, Marchesa Casati Stampa di Soncino, "Queen of the Night" costume, House of Worth, 1922 “I want to be a living work of art.”
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Luisa, Marchesa Casati Stampa di Soncino, "Queen of the Night" costume, House of Worth, 1922 “I want to be a living work of art.”
—Marchesa Luisa Casati
In a dazzling confection of diamond net and silver fringe, Italy’s wealthiest heiress, Marchesa Luisa Casati, personified “light” at a fancy-dress ball in 1890. Her ensemble, a collaboration with couturier Charles Frederick Worth, was completed with a giant corona of golden feathers, a towering diamond tiara, and a swarm of embroidered stars. It’s hardly surprising that the marchesa has since become one of fashion’s favorite muses — inspiring Dior’s 1998 spring couture collection, Chanel’s 2010 resort collection, and Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig’s label.
Tailleur Bar, Christian Dior, spring-summer haute couture, 1947 “We were emerging from the period of war, of uniforms, of women-soldiers bu...
Tailleur Bar, Christian Dior, spring-summer haute couture, 1947 “We were emerging from the period of war, of uniforms, of women-soldiers built like boxers ... I drew women-flowers, soft shoulders, fine waists like liana and wide skirts like corolla.”
—Christian Dior
Inspired by flower shapes — and dubbed the “New Look” by Harper’s Bazaar editor Carmel Snow — Christian Dior’s first couture collection marked the return of a strict hourglass silhouette. After years of wartime rationing in Europe, the wasp-waisted corsets and extravagant use of fabric were initially met with resistance. In Montmartre, street vendors attacked Dior-clad models during a photo shoot and anti–New Look clubs sprang up across America. By the next year, however, stylish women on both continents had succumbed to Dior’s charms.
Photo: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
Courtney Love’s shredded taffeta dress, Christian Dior Haute Couture (John Galliano), Golden Globe Awards, 2000 Long before John Galliano’s anti-...
Courtney Love’s shredded taffeta dress, Christian Dior Haute Couture (John Galliano), Golden Globe Awards, 2000 Long before John Galliano’s anti-Semitic outbursts and disgraceful dismissal from Dior, the designer courted controversy of a different sort. His Clochards (tramps) collection of 2000, featuring $20,000 gowns that resembled crumpled newspapers and jewelry made from garbage, was inspired by the homeless the designer observed while jogging along the Seine. The collection was uniformly panned by the French press and Dior headquarters was picketed by social-welfare advocates.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Hester Prynne,
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850 In Hawthorne’s classic nineteenth-century novel, heroine Hester Prynne is forced to...
Hester Prynne,
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850 In Hawthorne’s classic nineteenth-century novel, heroine Hester Prynne is forced to wear a red A as a punishment for her adultery. Accepting her penance but refusing to be ashamed, Prynne elaborately embroiders the scarlet letter with gold thread and bears the letter with dignity. A century and a half later, in the rom-com Easy A, Emma Stone wears a scarlet A to high school, and a star is born.
Photo: Buyenlarge/Getty Images
Lil’ Kim’s purple sequined jumpsuit and pasty, MTV Video Music Awards, 1999 Years before Madonna made out with Britney at the MTV Video Music Awa...
Lil’ Kim’s purple sequined jumpsuit and pasty, MTV Video Music Awards, 1999 Years before Madonna made out with Britney at the MTV Video Music Awards, Diana Ross and Lil’ Kim rounded second base. The rapper’s breast-baring jumpsuit, sequined pasty, and matching wig would have been scandalous enough on their own, but Ross upped the ante by copping a feel.
Photo: Trevor Gillespie/Getty Images
Portrait of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), John Singer Sargent, 1884 When John Singer Sargent exhibited his Portrait of Madame X at the Paris...
Portrait of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), John Singer Sargent, 1884 When John Singer Sargent exhibited his Portrait of Madame X at the Paris Salon of 1884, he shocked le tout Paris. Crowds jeered and jabbed at it with their umbrellas, while critics decried the “indecency” of the famous beauty’s costume, which featured a deeply plunging neckline and a pair of jeweled straps — one slipping off her shoulder.
The provocative dress was further set off by Gautreau’s “cadaverous” pallor and haughty pose. The scandal left Sargent humiliated; he did, however, keep the canvas. After repainting the errant strap, he eventually sold Madame X to the Met in 1916 — calling the portrait “the best thing [he’d] ever done.” Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY
Grunge collection, Perry Ellis (Marc Jacobs) spring-summer, 1993 With its runway interpretations of granny dresses, flannels, and crocheted skull...
Grunge collection, Perry Ellis (Marc Jacobs) spring-summer, 1993 With its runway interpretations of granny dresses, flannels, and crocheted skullcaps, Marc Jacobs’s spring-summer 1993 collection for Perry Ellis co-opted the anti-glamour stance of Seattle’s grunge scene. While the collection won him a CFDA Designer of the Year award, it also got him fired. It’s now seen as a seminal style moment — one that cemented Jacobs as the coolest kid in fashion.
Photo: Kyle Ericksen/Corbis
Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress, the Gap, worn in the Oval Office bathroom, February 28, 1997 It looks innocuous enough — a long-sleeved, blue Gap s...
Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress, the Gap, worn in the Oval Office bathroom, February 28, 1997 It looks innocuous enough — a long-sleeved, blue Gap shirtdress with a self-fabric belt — but intern Monica Lewinsky’s stained frock became the key piece of evidence in the Starr investigation and impeachment proceedings of Bill Clinton. With its traces of presidential DNA, the dress proved indisputably that he did in fact “have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”
Photo: Getty Images
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s pink suit, Chanel and Chez Ninon 1961, worn November 22, 1963. “Oh no … I want them to see what they have done to Ja...
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s pink suit, Chanel and Chez Ninon 1961, worn November 22, 1963. “Oh no … I want them to see what they have done to Jack.”
—Jacqueline Kennedy
Jacqueline Kennedy had worn the pink bouclé suit numerous times before that fateful day in Dallas. First shown in Chanel’s fall-winter 1961 collection, the suit is thought to be an authorized copy built by Chez Ninon from original Chanel fabric and trim. After John F. Kennedy was shot, the First Lady could not be persuaded to remove her blood-stained ensemble, wearing it to the hospital and onboard Air Force One as Lyndon Johnson was sworn in. The outfit was preserved with the stains intact and is held by the National Archives in an undisclosed location in Maryland. Photo: Art Rickerby/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Björk’s swan dress, Marjan Pejoski, 73rd Academy Awards, 2001 It’s a bird! It’s a dress! It’s Björk! Nominated for a Best Original Song...
Björk’s swan dress, Marjan Pejoski, 73rd Academy Awards, 2001 It’s a bird! It’s a dress! It’s Björk! Nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar for Dancer in the Dark’s “I’ve Seen It All,” the Icelandic singer proved that we had not seen it all — far from it. The swan dress (complete with softball-size eggs, which she mimicked laying on the red carpet) stupefied Hollywood and became one of the most parodied frocks of all time.
Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Marilyn Monroe’s “subway” dress,” William Travilla,
The Seven Year Itch, 1955 “Isn’t it delicious?” coos Marilyn Monroe as a gust from a ...
Marilyn Monroe’s “subway” dress,” William Travilla,
The Seven Year Itch, 1955 “Isn’t it delicious?” coos Marilyn Monroe as a gust from a subway grate blows up the skirt of her white halter dress in The Seven Year Itch. But the dress that made Marilyn immortal may have also doomed her marriage. Joe DiMaggio stormed off the film set at 52nd and Lexington, where crowds had thronged to get a glimpse of his wife’s underwear. Back in their room at the St. Regis, they had a physical altercation; three weeks later, the couple announced their divorce. In 2011, Marilyn’s “subway” dress sold for a record-breaking $5.52 million at auction.
Photo: George S. Zimbel/Getty Images
Brooke Shields, Calvin Klein Jeans campaign, Calvin Klein, 1980 In 1980, a 15-year-old Brooke Shields appeared in print and television ads for Ca...
Brooke Shields, Calvin Klein Jeans campaign, Calvin Klein, 1980 In 1980, a 15-year-old Brooke Shields appeared in print and television ads for Calvin Klein Jeans. Shot by Richard Avedon, the commercial featured Shields whistling “My Darling Clementine” before confiding: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Already famous for playing a child prostitute in Pretty Baby (1978), Shields’s racy Calvin come-on helped launch the designer-denim craze.
Photo: The Advertising Archives
Kate Moss, Obsession campaign, Calvin Klein 1993 For Calvin Klein’s 1993 Obsession ads, starring newcomer Kate Moss, the designer sent the Britis...
Kate Moss, Obsession campaign, Calvin Klein 1993 For Calvin Klein’s 1993 Obsession ads, starring newcomer Kate Moss, the designer sent the British model to a deserted island off Saint Thomas with her then-boyfriend, fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti. The resulting black-and-white nudes, which made Moss an instant star, heralded the arrival of the waif and the controversial “heroin chic” aesthetic.
Photo: The Advertising Archives
CK Jeans campaign, Calvin Klein, 1995 “You’ve got a real nice look. How old are you? ... Are you strong? You think you could rip that shirt off o...
CK Jeans campaign, Calvin Klein, 1995 “You’ve got a real nice look. How old are you? ... Are you strong? You think you could rip that shirt off of you? … That’s a nice body. Do you work out? … Yeah, I can tell.”
Two years after the Obsession ads, Klein pushed the envelope yet again with a series of ads for CK Jeans. In the 1995 campaign, shot by Steven Meisel, an off-camera voice quizzes scantily clad teenage models in a wood-paneled rec room. The commercials, which closely resembled soft-core screen tests, led to charges of child pornography. Parent groups and retailers threatened a boycott, and the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the models’ ages. Klein ended up pulling the controversial campaign. Photo: The Advertising Archives
Chic Rabbis collection, Jean Paul Gaultier, fall-winter 1993 In 1993, fashion’s resident enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier, presented a collect...
Chic Rabbis collection, Jean Paul Gaultier, fall-winter 1993 In 1993, fashion’s resident enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier, presented a collection inspired by Orthodox Jews. Gaultier said he recalled seeing “a group of rabbis leaving the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue” and finding them “very beautiful, very elegant, with their hats and huge coats flapping in the wind.” While the collection was criticized for being culturally insensitive, Hasidic groups took particular offense that traditionally masculine hairstyles and garments had been shown on women.
Photo: Catwalking
One Hundred and Eleven collection, Hussein Chalayan, spring-summer 2007 For spring 2007, Hussein Chalayan looked backward to move forward. Named ...
One Hundred and Eleven collection, Hussein Chalayan, spring-summer 2007 For spring 2007, Hussein Chalayan looked backward to move forward. Named for 111 years of fashion history, Chalayan’s collection culminated with six animatronic dresses that transformed unassisted. Morphing from one iconic silhouette to the next, each dress traced the decades with its shifting shape. The final dress staged an Emperor’s New Clothes moment: The model’s simple chiffon sheath slowly ascended and disappeared into her hat.
Photo: Catwalking
M.I.A.’s Islamic ensemble, Spike’s SCREAM 2010 Awards Who’s that girl? Rapper M.I.A. hit the SCREAM 2010 Awards red carpet covered up from her he...
M.I.A.’s Islamic ensemble, Spike’s SCREAM 2010 Awards Who’s that girl? Rapper M.I.A. hit the SCREAM 2010 Awards red carpet covered up from her head to her studded heels. The self-designed niqab (face veil) and abaya (robe) were printed with pink flowers, hearts, and lyrics from her song “XXXO.” An outspoken advocate for human rights, M.I.A. offered no explanation for her fashion statement, though her choice came on the heels of France’s ban on wearing face veils in public.
Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
Michaele Salahi’s red Lehenga-Style sari and choli, White House State Dinner, November 24, 2009 She certainly looked the part. A striking blonde ...
Michaele Salahi’s red Lehenga-Style sari and choli, White House State Dinner, November 24, 2009 She certainly looked the part. A striking blonde in a red sari, Michaele Salahi and her husband, Tareq, made their way past multiple security checkpoints and into the White House for a state dinner honoring the Indian prime minister — without an official invitation. Exploiting what the Washington Post’s Robin Givhan described as a “cultural blind spot,” Salahi (who, it turned out, was a cast member of the as yet unannounced The Real Housewives of D.C.) bluffed her way past the gates by letting her sari do the talking. In the aftermath, the Salahis were subpoenaed to appear before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, where they proceeded to invoke the Fifth Amendment 32 times.
Photo: The Washington Post/Getty Images
Michelle Obama’s custom Naeem Khan gown, White House State Dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, November 24, 2009 On the same night a...
Michelle Obama’s custom Naeem Khan gown, White House State Dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, November 24, 2009 On the same night as the Salahi sari scandal, the First Lady inadvertently created a fashion controversy of her own. As an homage to the guest of honor, Mrs. Obama selected Indian-American designer Naeem Khan to design her gown. Described by Khan himself as a “sterling-silver sequin, abstract floral, nude strapless gown” and by the Associated Press as “flesh”-colored, the dress sparked an intense debate about the political correctness of “fashionspeak” and who exactly gets to define the color of flesh.
Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images
Yves St. Laurent versus Ralph Lauren, halter-neck tuxedo-style gowns, 1992/1994 It was an odd venue for a fashion show, but in 1994, French judge...
Yves St. Laurent versus Ralph Lauren, halter-neck tuxedo-style gowns, 1992/1994 It was an odd venue for a fashion show, but in 1994, French judge Madelaine Cotelle ordered that two halter-neck tuxedo-style evening gowns be modeled in her courtroom. Entered into evidence were YSL’s $15,000 lightweight wool dress with wide lapels and gilt buttons and Ralph Lauren’s $1,000 silk dress, featuring narrower lapels and black buttons. The French court ruled in favor of YSL, who had pioneered the design in 1970, and fined Lauren $395,090 for “counterfeiting and disloyal competition.” The decision was the first time a designer’s work was acknowledged as intellectual property.
Photo: Catwalking
Black Hole collection, Viktor & Rolf, fall 2001 Is blackface the new black? Karl Lagerfeld shot Claudia Schiffer in dark makeup and an Afro w...
Black Hole collection, Viktor & Rolf, fall 2001 Is blackface the new black? Karl Lagerfeld shot Claudia Schiffer in dark makeup and an Afro wig in 2008; Steven Meisel lensed a blackened Lara Stone for Vogue Paris in October 2009; and Beyoncé’s face was darkened in an African Queen–inspired editorial in March 2011’s L’Officiel de la Mode. But Dutch duo Viktor & Rolf may have kicked off the controversial trend back in 2001, when their all-black collection was shown on models whose faces, limbs, and hair were covered with soot. While admirers of the images claim post-racial multiculturalism and artistic license, others have decried the noir makeup as a moral gray area. Photo: Reuters/Corbis
The LBD, Coco Chanel, 1926 It is now considered the epitome of classic good taste. But when Vogue published an image of Coco Chanel’s radically s...
The LBD, Coco Chanel, 1926 It is now considered the epitome of classic good taste. But when Vogue published an image of Coco Chanel’s radically simple “little black dress” in 1926, the style was derided by Paul Poiret as “poverty deluxe.” Vogue predicted that the plain, straight-lined dress would be “the frock that all the world will wear.”
Photo: Corbis
Long evening dress and veil in blue crepe with bust sculpture by Claude Lalanne; long evening dress and veil in black crepe with waist sculpture by Cl...
Long evening dress and veil in blue crepe with bust sculpture by Claude Lalanne; long evening dress and veil in black crepe with waist sculpture by Claude Lalanne, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture, fall-winter 1969 As part of his 1969 fall-winter couture collection, Yves Saint Laurent showed two crepe evening gowns featuring galvanized copper body jewelry. Based on the model Veruschka, the body sculptures by Claude Lalanne were anatomically correct. More than three decades later, Tom Ford riffed on the designs for his debut at YSL, replacing the copper pieces with a molded leather bustier and adding a studded nipple piercing to the breastplate.
Photo: Catwalking
Let It Rock, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, 1971 In 1971, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren opened a boutique at 430 King’s Road call...
Let It Rock, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, 1971 In 1971, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren opened a boutique at 430 King’s Road called Let It Rock. The shop was renamed in various periods as Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die, Sex, Seditionaries, and Worlds End. Coinciding with the emergence of punk, the pair dressed the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols in bondage gear, latex, tartan, and tees. Their designs defined the anarchic look of the era.
Photo: Rex USA
Gucci spring-summer 2003 campaign, Gucci (Tom Ford) Mario Testino dubbed the ad “Pubic Enemy.” In March of 2003, British Vogue readers were confr...
Gucci spring-summer 2003 campaign, Gucci (Tom Ford) Mario Testino dubbed the ad “Pubic Enemy.” In March of 2003, British Vogue readers were confronted with the photographer’s portrayal of Carmen Kass’s nether regions manicured into a perfect Gucci “G”. The fashion house defended the image as “the ultimate ironic pun for a sexy brand in a logo-led age.”
Photo: The Advertising Archives
Demi Moore’s black-tie bike shorts, 61st Annual Academy Awards, 1989 Here’s a fashion riddle: What has a train but no skirt? The answer: Demi Moo...
Demi Moore’s black-tie bike shorts, 61st Annual Academy Awards, 1989 Here’s a fashion riddle: What has a train but no skirt? The answer: Demi Moore’s black-tie bike shorts ensemble! Part Elizabethan costume, part workout uniform, the St. Elmo’s Fire star’s 1989 Oscars outfit (a mash-up of Lycra, black moire, and metallic floral brocade) was famously designed by the actress herself.
Photo: Jim Smeal/WireImage
Political slogan T-shirts, Katharine Hamnett, 1983 In 1983, Katharine Hamnett did something deceptively simple: She printed words on a T-shirt. H...
Political slogan T-shirts, Katharine Hamnett, 1983 In 1983, Katharine Hamnett did something deceptively simple: She printed words on a T-shirt. Hamnett’s oversize tops screened with slogans such as “Choose Life,” “Worldwide Nuclear Ban Now,” and “Save the World” turned political statements into fashion statements. At the height of her fame, the designer wore her own “58% Don’t Want Pershing” T-shirt — a reference to the public’s opposition to Pershing missiles — to a meeting with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Photo: PA Archive/Press Association Images/Landov
“Easy Ryder,”
W magazine, June 2002 In June of 2002, Winona Ryder appeared on the cover of W wearing a T-shirt bearing her likeness and the tagl...
“Easy Ryder,”
W magazine, June 2002 In June of 2002, Winona Ryder appeared on the cover of W wearing a T-shirt bearing her likeness and the tagline “Free Winona.” At the time, Winona was technically free but faced shoplifting charges for an incident at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills on December 12, 2001. Six hundred of the shirts were sold the week they debuted.
Photo: Courtesy of W
Dress Meets Body, Body Meets Dress collection, Comme des Garçons (Rei Kawakubo), spring 1997 You can like it — or you can lump it. In the ...
Dress Meets Body, Body Meets Dress collection, Comme des Garçons (Rei Kawakubo), spring 1997 You can like it — or you can lump it. In the fall of 1996, Rei Kawakubo presented dresses with bulbous padding applied to shoulders, hips, and backs. While the Comme des Garçons designer claimed she was exploring “volume and space” with her distorted silhouettes, many critics were perplexed, mentioning “Quasimodo” and “tumors” in their reviews. Photo: Catwalking
Monokini, Rudi Gernreich, 1964 In 1964, Rudi Gernreich made a splash with his topless bathing suit — the monokini. Gernreich’s daring desig...
Monokini, Rudi Gernreich, 1964 In 1964, Rudi Gernreich made a splash with his topless bathing suit — the monokini. Gernreich’s daring design (of which he sold 3,000 at $24 a pop) was denounced by the pope and cited by the Soviets as evidence of capitalist depravity. “Baring these breasts seemed logical in a period of freer attitudes, freer minds [and] the emancipation of women,” said the designer, a left-leaning political activist who also invented the “No-Bra” bra (a foundation garment without underwire or fasteners), the pubikini (a bikini cut low enough to display the pubic hair), and the thong.
Photo: Bing Liu
Cher’s “Mohawk” ensemble, custom Bob Mackie, 58th Annual Academy Awards, 1986 Presenting the Oscar for Best Actor in 1986, Cher quipped: “As you ...
Cher’s “Mohawk” ensemble, custom Bob Mackie, 58th Annual Academy Awards, 1986 Presenting the Oscar for Best Actor in 1986, Cher quipped: “As you can see, I did receive my Academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress.” The star’s custom Bob Mackie ensemble (black stretch pants, bejeweled loincloth, and cutout top, floor-length cape, and feathered headdress) has been a fixture on Oscar worst-dressed lists ever since.
Photo: Jim Smeal/WireImage
Tears dress, The Circus collection, Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, 1938 Dalí painted three canvases in 1936 depicting figures...
Tears dress, The Circus collection, Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, 1938 Dalí painted three canvases in 1936 depicting figures in slashed, skintight garments; the rips in their clothing and the tears in their flesh were virtually indistinguishable. In 1938, Elsa Schiaparelli (who owned one of the paintings), collaborated with the artist on an evening dress and veil with a trompe l’oeil print imitating flayed skin. The Tears dress suggested the fragility of the body and poetically evoked the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Between collection, Hussein Chalayan, spring-summer 1998 For the close of his spring/summer 1998 collection, Hussein Chalayan offered a glimpse b...
Between collection, Hussein Chalayan, spring-summer 1998 For the close of his spring/summer 1998 collection, Hussein Chalayan offered a glimpse behind the veil of Muslim modesty. During the finale, six models entered and assembled onstage. The first wore a face mask and nothing else. Each successive model wore an increasingly longer version of the niqab, obscuring more and more of her nude body. “It was about defining your space structurally and graphically. It wasn’t really supposed to be offensive,” said the designer, a secular Turk born in Cyprus. “This was about the cultural loss of self.”
Photo: Catwalking
Lindsay Lohan’s courtroom collection, 2007-2012 In recent years, Lindsay Lohan’s red-carpet appearances have taken a back seat to her courtroom o...
Lindsay Lohan’s courtroom collection, 2007-2012 In recent years, Lindsay Lohan’s red-carpet appearances have taken a back seat to her courtroom ones. And during these turns, she’s been found guilty of multiple reckless fashion choices, including a scandalously tight white, knit dress, a latex tunic, and her infamous “fuck u” manicure (zoom in to see). Still, if the teal Givenchy pantsuit she wore to her final probation hearing on March 29 is any indication, Lindsay may be on the path to fashion rehab.
Photo: David McNew/AP
“Cocaine Kate,”
Daily Mirror, September 15, 2005/Hologram Kate, Alexander McQueen, fall 2006, Widows of Culloden It was a tale of two videos. On...
“Cocaine Kate,”
Daily Mirror, September 15, 2005/Hologram Kate, Alexander McQueen, fall 2006, Widows of Culloden It was a tale of two videos. On September 15, 2005, the Daily Mirror published stills from a grainy video taken of Kate Moss snorting lines of a white powder. The model immediately lost lucrative contracts and checked into rehab. But six months later, Moss reappeared in another video. At the end of Alexander McQueen’s fall 2006 show, the lights dimmed and a puff of white smoke appeared inside a glass pyramid on stage. The cloud gradually assumed the form of the troubled model in a swirling organza dress. Recalling a nineteenth-century device used to create the illusion of a spiritual visitation during a séance, McQueen’s hologram of Moss helped resuscitate her career. Photo: Courtesy of The Daily Mirror, Catwalking
Transcending gender, the rise of Andrej Pejic and Lea T, 2012 “I sort of am what I am. I don’t really try and put a label on it. ”
—Andrej Pejic...
Transcending gender, the rise of Andrej Pejic and Lea T, 2012 “I sort of am what I am. I don’t really try and put a label on it. ”
—Andrej Pejic
Andrej Pejic is an androgynous male model from Melbourne who has walked both the men’s and women’s shows for Jean Paul Gaultier and had a magazine cover wrapped in opaque plastic by Barnes & Noble so he wouldn’t be mistaken for a topless female. Lea T is a transgendered Brazilian model and Riccardo Tisci muse who made her post-op runway debut in São Paulo this January after undergoing gender reassignment surgery. Both are subverting conventional notions of gender and redefining the industry’s definition of beauty by staying true to themselves. Photo: Courtesy of Dossier
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