2 weeks Ago By Daisy Jones
Think of the term “ winter dressing ” and your mind probably doesn’t immediately go to “ underwear as outerwear .” It’s a buttoned-up season, or at least a layered one – all cashmere knits and leather boots and oversized scarves . Yes, there might be a corset in there somewhere, but you’d have to go looking for it.
Not so much for Gen-Z , who are ushering in underwear as outerwear for party season. Go to any bar or club night and I can guarantee you’ll spot at least three people with a bit of silk, lace or sheer in the mix. So, what’s going on? Why is everyone wearing visible brassieres to the function? The underwear as outerwear trend tends to return around every couple of years or so, usually for spring – Chloé’s spring/summer 2025 collection was all about frothy baby-blue undergarments and flesh-coloured body stockings, whereas at Fendi , Kim Jones opted for silky negligées paired with grungy boots, and Alessandro Michele’s Valentino debut saw a whole host of sequin-studded, vintage-style lingerie and embroidered hosiery.
But what we’re also starting to see among the night-life and street-style sets is underwear that’s worn in more experimental ways, like visible pants and opaque tights, lace skirts and heavy jackets, and night dresses, black tights and baggy leathers. Essentially: treating undergarments as regular garments in weird and imaginative ways (which has always been the secret sauce of underwear as outerwear anyway). It’s also been fun watching black tights reemerge in everyone’s wardrobes.
For a while there, it looked like black tights were becoming almost maligned – a throwback to a simpler but less stylish era when millennials wore them with denim booty-riders on nights out. But over the past year or so, they’ve been coming back around (along with a gazillion other millennial trends ). Earlier this year, Dua Lipa wore classic six-deniers with red lace lingerie (as a dress) and a heavy-weight motocross leather, while Zoë Kravitz was similarly spotted in a long wool coat and tights paired with a Saint Laurent hosiery tube dress.
Basically, nothing is too cold or unsuitable if you throw on a pair of tights and a big jacket. Yes, even those vintage undergarments you had locked up in your closet for spring..
