Janelle Monaé is well-known for rocking some gorgeous looks on the red carpet, and it only takes a quick look at her Instagram to see how enviable her fashion sense really is. Often futuristic in nature, her gowns are known to feature interesting shapes and cutouts that turn the actress/singer into a work of art. She showed that this week in an edgy black-and-gold dress with large shoulder piece at the 5th American Black Film Festival Honors. However, her latest look is straight royalty, as Monaé becomes the latest celebrity to free the nipple.
The Glass Onion actress’ latest dress, designed by SIEDRÉS, showed off literally all of Janelle Monaé’s assets, with the long-sleeved, flowing gown featuring an open knit that made it full-coverage and barely there at the same time. She posted a video from her shoot with Ebony magazine to Instagram, so check out the jaw-dropping, nipple-freeing look for yourself:
Janelle Monaé was a queen, sitting on a wicker peacock throne, with her long, thick braids providing slightly more coverage than the dress itself. The crochet piece was adorned with colorful beads, and the actress looked like a goddess worthy of using that “rich bitch accent” as she posed for her cover shot.
This casual red look comes just days after she slayed the black carpet in a futuristic minidress. While the SIEDRÉS number may not have been as sculptural as her previous fit, it was similar in the way it used cutouts in the fabric to make her body part of her statement. Her Gaurav Gupta dress was open on her torso and one shoulder, while featuring a large “sculptural creation” on her other shoulder.
The Hidden Figures actress is known for making some bold fashion statements, including being one of the early adopters of the silly-looking Big Red Boots, so it’s really no surprise that she’s part of the free-the-nipple trend. More actresses have been baring their chests in sheer gowns, including Julia Fox, who stepped out recently in a long, black see-through dress (but sans her human-sized handbag).
Kristen Stewart, meanwhile went in the opposite direction with her sheer dress, and rather than using cutouts to show more skin, she used pockets to avoid freeing the nips. The sheer dress trend has been embraced by everyone from Bella Hadid at Paris Fashion Week to Salma Hayek at the Magic Mike’s Last Dance premiere to Shakira in her latest music video. Even The West Wing’s Allison Janney freed the nipple at the premiere of her movie The People We Hate At The Wedding.
But rarely have we seen an outfit as revealing as Janelle Monaé’s open-knit crochet dress, and her fashion sense in general makes me excited for her future looks. Perhaps we’ll see her Sunday night, as her latest movie Glass Onion (available to stream with a Netflix subscription) is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Janelle Monaé doesn’t have anything coming on the 2023 Movie Release Schedule, but fans can still look forward to the new music she’s releasing this year.
