Could There Possibly Be A Whole New Way To Think About Our Breasts?

As I got dressed for a birthday party in Bushwick on a Saturday night, my boyfriend and I glanced at each other in a state of mutual apprehension. It had been a long week and we were hungry and not all that young. The Brooklyn neighborhood was not near. Then I pulled on a white Mugler babydoll T-shirt, studded with rings approximating nipple piercings, and we both perked up.

In the yard of the party, a beautiful young woman who had moved to New York only a month ago admired the look. "Well, nipples are most desirable when they're pointing up at a 45-degree angle," she told us officiously.

Lately, it seems as if everyone has an opinion on this most familiar feature of woman­hood. The fall shows exposed nipples all over: In New York, Christian Siriano surrounded them with tulle and visible boning, while in Milan model Amelia Gray, walking for Dsquared2 , wore an opulent sheer gown descending into maximalist feathers. In Paris, Alaïa sent models down the runway in what looked like fishnet shirts and see-through stocking-like tops. And then at Cannes, naked dresses were formally banned, but Charli XCX wore a translucent lilac YSL one not quite transparent enough to contravene the new rules.

Elsewhere, subtler investigations have been taking place. The young designer Nensi Dojaka has made a name for herself in recent years with her lingerie-inspired tops and dresses, which can look as though delicate bralettes and underwire have been placed on the exterior of the garment. "This interplay speaks to a contrast between presence and absence. It's a visual and tactile duality that only structures like corsets and boning can embody," she told me. At the fall 2025 Valentino show, a public bathroom was the perfect stage for a collection that played with secrecy and revelation: a shimmering satin bra and high-waist underwear represented a thrilling confluence of fit and unfit for the public gaze. Most striking was a full-length see-through gown worn with a playfully baby-girl pink satin skirt. The model, an older woman with white hair loosely pulled back, reminded me how rare it is to see exposed breasts once they have passed a certain age.

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