Transparent clothing

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Milena Velba wearing a transparent blouse
Photo: Bernd Daktari Lorenz

Transparent clothing consists of transparent (sheer, see-through) materials such as nylon that reveal details of the body underneath. Especially in big bust photography, it is often worn to accentuate a woman's breasts.

[edit] Types

Transparency can have different reasons, for example when the garment

• is designed as transparent as such and is made of woven or knit fabrics like nylon, tulle, chiffon, lace, spandex, fishnet or "compact" materials like transparent latex or PVC (fully transparent);
• is not transparent under normal conditions, but becomes transparent when exposed to intense light, such as photographer flashes or sunlight (semi-transparent);
• is not transparent as such, but designed to become transparent when getting wet (especially bikinis);
• is not transparent at all (e. g. cotton), but is used in certain sex game variations (such as watersports) where it becomes wet and transparent.

[edit] History

[edit] The nylon era

The beginning of industrially produced transparent fabrics in women's fashion is marked by the invention of nylon by DuPont in April 1930. Until then, stockings were usually made of silk, a very expensive and extremely delicate material.^[1] The commercial production of nylon hosiery began in late 1939,^[2] followed by the official release and sale to the general public on May 15, 1940.^[3] On this date, designated by DuPont as "Nylon Day", four million pairs of stockings were sold within four days.^[4][5]

The great success of nylon inspired fashion designer Rudi Gernreich to create his No Bra in 1964^[6][7] — the first fully transparent bra with cups completely made of nylon, available for cup sizes A to C (see advertisement picture below). Also in 1964, the corset manufacturer Warner's commissioned him to design a flesh-coloured bodystocking in stretch nylon.^[8] It was not successful at that time,^[9] but it marked the birth of today's modern nylon catsuits worn by many big bust performers. In the same year, Gernreich also created a see-through chiffon shirt, even before Yves Saint Laurent introduced his transparent blouse into haute couture fashion.^[10]

The 1964 No Bra by Rudi Gernreich for Exquisite Form, size 32C (70C)

An advertisement for the No Bra from 1965

Ines Cudna in a modern flesh-coloured catsuit that has its origin in the 1964 bodystocking by Rudi Gernreich

[edit] Haute couture

Rudi Gernreich's No Bra was still a piece of underwear supposed to be covered by other clothes. His 1964 see-through shirt made some fashion waves, but although "some women did accept the bared breast as part of the sexual revolution" now, his daring creations generally were not worn in public.^[9] It was famous fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent who achieved this in 1968: In his spring/summer collection, together with his Shorts Smoking tuxedo, he introduced the Transparent Blouse and thus brought transparent fabrics from lingerie to outerwear haute couture fashion.^[11][12] This first ever transparent blouse "aroused the wrath of moralists and the interest of sociologists" at that time,^[9] but is today regarded as "a brave move" and "more about the liberation of women than their exploitation".^[13]

The Transparent Blouse was followed by even more daring see-through designs like the Chiffon and Ostrich Feather Dress from Saint Laurent's autumn/winter 1968 collection.^[14] It was a completely transparent dress "upon which only a band of ostrich feathers at pelvis level veiled her [the model's] nudity".^[15]

Since 1968, Saint Laurent's transparent garments have been cited by many famous fashion designers like Valentino Garavani,^[16] Kenzo Takada,^[17] or Alexander McQueen,^[18] to name but a few. Saint Laurent is generally considered the founder of the "nude look"^[19] which became a common and popular fashion phenomenon in the late 1990s and 2000s.^[16][18][20] Thanks to him, visible breasts are not a great sensation anymore,^[13] be it in a fashion context or in public, and he paved the way for starlets like Davorka Tovilo who made it her trademark to appear in transparent haute couture clothing at public occasions.^[21]

The 1968 Transparent Blouse by Yves Saint Laurent shown at his 2002 retrospective in Paris^[22]
Model: Raquel Zimmermann

The 1968 Chiffon and Ostrich Feather Dress by Yves Saint Laurent
Model: Danielle Luquet de Saint-Germain
Photo: Bill Ray

A busty model wearing a transparent dress by Kenzo in 1999

[edit] Recent history

The innovations of Rudi Gernreich and Yves Saint Laurent had a great impact on both fashion industry and adult entertainment. Many classic lingerie manufacturers specialising in the larger cup size market like Eveden,^[23] (especially with their brand Freya) have gratefully adopted the new materials for their creations. Their transparent Arabella and Zeta bras, for example, became very popular and have been worn by such well-known big bust performers as Faith, Jana Defi, Petra Mis, Miosotis and Marie-Claude Bourbonnais.

Hosiery manufacturers like Leg Avenue, founded in 1999,^[24] even owe their whole existence to the invention of nylon. Today, the label offers a wide range of transparent bras, bodies and catsuits, along with costumes, swimwear and shoes. Their stretchy creations have become very widespread in big bust pictorials and have been worn by performers like Katie Price, Crissy Moran, Sara Stone, Jana Defi, Tera Patrick and Hanna Hilton.

Marie-Claude Bourbonnais wearing an Arabella bra by Freya
Photo: Chad Martel

Faith wearing a Zeta bra by Freya

Crissy Moran wearing an 8212 body by Leg Avenue

[edit] Other materials

[edit] Fishnet

In addition to woven materials like nylon, tulle or chiffon, knit fabrics like fishnet (or fencenet with larger loops) have enjoyed changing popularity throughout the decades. While weaving is the art of interlacing yarns or fibers to create a fabric, knitting, a later art, is the creation of interlocking loops of a continuous strand to produce a fabric.^[1] Like nylon, fishnet was initially reserved for legwear: fishnet stockings have been first introduced around the turn of the 20th century.^[5] In the beginning, they were mostly beige and flesh-toned^[3] while black fishnets were usually worn by dancers and entertainers throughout the 1940s and 1950s. This changed when Jane Russell started to wear black fishnets in public in the early 1950s. They came out of fashion until a revival in the late 1960s when they were worn with micro-mini skirts.^[3][5] In the 1980s, famous American singer Madonna re-introduced them when she started to express her sexuality through her style, making red lips, fishnets and underwear as outerwear a signature look for her.^[5][25] In 2008, fishnets were once again combined with haute couture when Madonna wore them in an advertisement for fashion designer Louis Vuitton shot by famous photographer Steven Meisel.^[26]

Chorus girls wearing black fishnet pantyhoses in a Live magazine report from 1941

Jane Russell wearing a black fishnet pantyhose in Montana Belle (1952)

Madonna wearing fishnets on stage in 1987

Madonna wearing fishnets again for an advertisement of Louis Vuitton in 2008
Photo: Steven Meisel

With the rise of catsuits, fishnet became also relevant as a material for breast-related clothing. Today, known hosiery manufacturers like Leg Avenue have added many fishnet designs to their lingerie collection, and niche designers like Barely Wear adapted the material for special designs like their nippleless 2681B bra. Fishnet is often used in big bust productions for obvious reasons: Big breasts stretch the normally regular loops of the fabric, creating a kind of fish-eye lens effect which emphasises the size of the breasts.

Gréta Istvándi wearing a catsuit made of finer fishnet
Photo: James Bertoni

Gianna Michaels wearing the nippleless 2681B bra by Barely Wear

Ewa Sonnet: The "fish-eye lens" effect

Katarina Nikita wearing a bra made of a fishnet variation that creates an emphasising perspective effect by using a seemingly horizontal and vertical pattern

[edit] Lace

Lace is an "ornamental fabric consisting of a decorative openwork of threads that have been twisted, looped, and intertwined to form patterns".^[27] It has a long tradition in many countries^[28][29][30] and was originally "designed to replace embroidery in a manner that could with ease transform dresses to follow different styles of fashion. Unlike embroidery, lace could be unsewn from one material to be replaced on another".^[28] Embroidery and knit or crocheted fabrics are generally not considered lace,^[27] although the latter are sometimes also included in the definition.^[31]

Depending of the garments it is used in, lace can serve different purposes. In white wedding dresses, for example, it conveys innocence, whereas it takes on a sensual tone when used in lingerie, often in black and layered over other fabrics.^[32] While pure lace is often used in stockings, catsuits or tops, so-called lace bras (like the popular Harlow by Felina for instance) normally use a lace layer over a lining of nylon or a similar fabric.

Nadine Jansen wearing a lace top
Photo: Bernd Daktari Lorenz

The flesh-toned nylon lining under the lace of the Harlow bra
Model: Jelena Jensen

Katerina Hartlova wearing a knit lace top

Embroidered nylon which is often taken for lace
Model: Xanthia Doll

[edit] Spandex

Spandex (also known by the brand name Lycra) is a synthetic segmented polyurethane fiber^[33] that was invented in 1958^[34][35] by a team of scientists at DuPont, originally as a replacement for rubber in corsetry.^[34] The new extremely elastic and quick-drying material soon found its way into into swimwear and high-profile sports clothing. With the disco fever of the 1970s, it also started to make an impact on the fashion scene, mostly in tight leggings and bodies.^[34] Although the spandex fiber is never used alone, but always blended with other fibers,^[34] the word also became a synonym for clothing containing spandex.^[36]

Unlike nylon, spandex was not specifically designed for transparency. Fabrics with spandex only became transparent when they were very thin or stretched excessively. White swimsuits or bikinis could also become transparent when getting wet, which was usually unwanted and considered a wardrobe malfunction. It was not before the late 1990s that swimwear manufacturers like Wicked Weasel^[37] or Malibu Strings took advantage of this and started to produce either transparent-when-wet or even fully transparent bikinis.

The adult industry soon picked up this trend with websites like Bikini Dare which focuses on models wearing transparent, nippleless, open bust and crotchless bikinis in public. In the 2000s, specific spandex fetish sites like Crazy Spandex Girls and Spandex porn emerged. They extended the scope of usual spandex sites to transparent outfits and featured many big bust performers like Ashley Robbins, Chantal Ferrera, Renata Daninsky, Rachel B, Terry Nova and Zuzanna Drabinova.

French swimmer Laure Manaudou wearing a spandex swimsuit slightly too thin for a public event

Candy wearing a white 312 Tri Top Satin Sheer bikini by Wicked Weasel
Photo: Bikini Dare

Renata Daninsky wearing a transparent flesh-toned spandex catsuit
Photo: Crazy Spandex Girls

Rachel B wearing a transparent black spandex catsuit
Photo: Spandex porn

[edit] Latex

The 2000s have seen a new dimension in transparent fashion: latex. Although haute couture designers like Thierry Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier had already experimented with latex in the 1980s,^[38] it was finally German fashion designer Katja Ehrhardt who started a new approach to the material with her label Fräulein Ehrhardt in 2001. Her intention was to "get rubber out of the hidden fetish zone"^[39] by designing clothes "rather for normal use or for the clubs".^[40] She developed a very special style of her own with more references to haute couture and fashion labels than to the fetish scene.^[41] This was so successful that she is today recognised as one of the leading German latex fashion designers by both the international fetish scene^[42] as well as an increasing number of non-fetish publications and organisations.^[43][44][45] Her creations include many transparent latex bras, bodies and tops which have been worn by known models like Ancilla Tilia, Ulorin Vex, Susan Wayland and Monique Vegas and published by photographers like Steve Diet Goedde, Peter W. Czernich and Thomas Rusch.

Since then, the idea of blending haute couture with the formerly fetish-focused latex has influenced many other couturiers as well. Young French designer Sophie, for example, created the transparent Cage Dress for her label HMSlatex in 2008^[46] — a dress which was itself inspired by a creation from the autumn 2008 ready-to-wear collection by Comme des Garçons.^[47]

Susan Wayland wearing the EyesWideShut body by Fräulein Ehrhardt
Photo: Norman Richter

A nylon bodysuit by Thierry Mugler that may have inspired Katja Ehrhardt
Model: Brigitta Bungard
Photo: Helmut Newton

Eden wearing the Cage Dress by HMSlatex
Photo: Maxime Avet

The dress by Comme des Garçons that inspired designer Sophie

[edit] Accessories

Sometimes transparency is achieved not by wearing garments, but by using accessories like plastic wrap or clear adhesive tape. They can both be used to imitate whole garments like tops or dresses, or to immobilise, expose or even mummify a woman's body in BDSM and fetish contexts.

Merilyn Sakova in a dress made of plastic wrap

Milena Velba with clear adhesive tape around her breasts

Kitty Lee mummified in plastic wrap

[edit] Transparency in public

Transparency in public is often considered a wardrobe malfunction, especially when happening at formal occasions where breasts or other intimate body parts are not supposed to be shown. Some of the early and also current incidents of clothes becoming transparent under intense spotlights or photographer flashes may indeed have been real wardrobe malfunctions. Davorka Tovilo stated that she was shocked after seeing the tabloid photos of her fist public appearance on December 10, 2003, adding that the dress she wore would have been opaque in normal light.^[21] However, on almost all following public occasions, she exposed her breasts under fully transparent tops or dresses and was given the name "Miss Transparent" by the tabloids.^[21]

Like her, but mostly not to this extent, many celebrities and adult entertainers started to openly wear semi-transparent or transparent clothing in public, playing with the risk of their breasts becoming visible or even deliberately exposing them — which makes it sometimes hard to draw the line between real wardrobe malfunctions and intended exposure.

[edit] Semi-transparency

• On March 16, 1999, actress Catherine Bell appears at the premiere of EDtv, wearing a black top that becomes transparent in the flashlights.^[48]
• On September 24, 2003, American actress Anne Hathaway visits the premiere of The School of Rock in Los Angeles, USA. The thin material of her dress is stretched by her breasts and becomes transparent in the flashlights.^[49]
• In 2005, American singer Mariah Carey comes out onto a balcony and waves to her fans, wearing a shiny beige dress that is not fully transparent, but so tight that her nipples poke through the fabric and her areolas become visible.^[50]
• In late 2007, Meagan Good is seen at the Hyde Club in Hollywood, wearing a black shirt that becomes transparent in the flashlights of the photographers.^[51]
• On August 15, 2008, Meagan Good's breasts are exposed again when her blue dress becomes transparent under the photographer flashlights upon her arrival at her birthday party at The Bank nightclub in Las Vegas.^[52]
• On October 26, 2008, Traci Bingham takes out her trash wearing a green top that becomes transparent in the sunlight.^[53]

Catherine Bell at the 1999 premiere of EDtv

Anne Hathaway at the 2003 premiere of The School of Rock

Mariah Carey on a balcony in 2005

Meagan Good at the Hyde Club 2007

Meagan Good at The Bank 2008

Traci Bingham taking out her trash in 2008

[edit] Full transparency

• On September 10, 1998, American actress Rose McGowan arrives with Marilyn Manson at the red carpet of the MTV Video Music Awards wearing a dress with a fishnet front that reveals her breasts, and only some loose strings covering her back.^[54]
• On August 28, 2005, Coco shows up at the MTV Video Music Awards wearing a black dress with holes that reveal her nipples in public.^[55]
• On January 28, 2006, British glamour model Katie Price wears a transparent 8211 dress by Leg Avenue at Andy and Patti Wong's Chinese New Year Party at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, United Kingdom.^[56]
• On May 24, 2006, "Miss Transparent" Davorka Tovilo shows up at the opening of a luxury restaurant in Munich, wearing a Talbot Runhof dress with a revealing transparent top.^[57]
• On January 20, 2007, Davorka Tovilo arrives at the 2007 German Film Ball, exposing her breasts again under a transparent dress by Daniel Fendler.^[58]
• On June 9, 2007, German nude model Jennique visits the Shadow gothic club in Leverkusen, Germany, wearing a transparent bra.^[59]
• On May 21, 2008, Madonna visits the premiere of I Am Because We Are at the film festival in Cannes, France,^[60] wearing a black and silver sequined see-through dress from the spring 2007 couture collection by Chanel.^[61]

Rose McGowan at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards

Coco at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards

Katie Price at the 2006 Chinese New Year Party
Dress: 8211

Davorka Tovilo at the opening of a restaurant in 2006
Photo: Martin Schmitz
Clothing: Talbot Runhof

Davorka Tovilo at the 2007 German Film Ball
Clothing: Daniel Fendler

Jennique at the Shadow club in 2007
Photo: Udo Krähenfeld

Madonna at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
Clothing: Chanel

[edit] See also

• Category:Transparent - Articles about transparent garments
• Category:Transparent images - Images of transparent garments
• Category:Transparent in public - Articles about women wearing transparent clothes in public
• Category:Transparent in public images - Images of women wearing transparent clothes in public
• Category:Nylon clothing - Articles about nylon garments
• Category:Fishnet clothing - Articles about fishnet garments

[edit] References