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When Charli xcx took to the stage to accept one of her many Brit awards last month, she noted that she had received some feedback on her choice of dress. “I heard that ITV were complaining about my nipples. I feel like we’re in the era of free the nipple though, right?”
Wrong. According to a new survey from YouGov, only 36 per cent of Britons support outfits like Charli xcx’s at red carpet events. They are massively outnumbered by the 55 per cent who say this is unacceptable, while 10 per cent (cowards) sat on the fence.
I am amazed that in this day and age, these percentages are so woeful. Exposed nipples on the red carpet are nothing new, and at this point, nothing on the red carpet should shock or outrage us, really. The red carpet gives carte blanche on fashion choices, however naked and however weird. We’ve had Katy Perry dressed as a hamburger at the 2019 Met Gala, Lady Gaga clad in real, raw, stinking meat at the 2010 VMAs, and an entirely naked Bianca Censori at the 2025 Grammys. And yet... a simple display of two areolas is still enough to get people’s backs up.
Red carpet aside, I had hoped by now that visible nipples would be more accepted. Nipples are a reality of life, of human anatomy and the idea that they need to be constantly caged behind a bra is, to me, ridiculous. Yes, that may make me sound like a bra-burning 70s hippie, but it’s also more practical than that.
As a Gen Z, basically every woman I know who can get away with not wearing chooses to go braless daily. Some are bound by the size of their breasts, and that sucks, but even those more well-endowed women often express to me how much they wish they could join the itty bitty titty committee and be free of their over the shoulder boulder holders.
Soft bras have rocketed in popularity, and padded bras have taken a nosedive. Personally, the idea of wearing something padded or underwired in 2025 is akin to donning a chastity cage or wearing high heels around my empty flat. Dated, strange, and entirely for the male gaze. (Obviously, the padding is needed to provide support my bigger-breasted gals, so I appreciate I’m speaking with small-breast privilege and this cannot always be the case boobwide).
With so many nipples now undeniably closer to the surface, I had hoped for a little more celebration — or at least acceptance. Clearly, this is not the case. But it just doesn’t seem fair. Maybe we need to level the playing field. Should we ask men to wear padded boxers now, to cover the minor bulges in their trousers that can be seen as they walk around, simply existing? Should we insist they wear harem pants so we don’t have to see the outlines of anything when they sit down in front of us and their trousers ride up?
Perhaps I shouldn’t be that surprised. Although I’m insistent on going braless 70 per cent of the time, there’s a reason why my percentage isn’t higher, too. As I walk around the streets or go about my day braless, I do notice a slightly more targeted gaze towards my chest. And there’s the unfortunate reality of peanut smuggling when you get a little cold, which shouldn’t be a problem at all (you don’t point out when someone gets goosebumps) but undeniably is. It pisses me off, and it’s often not worth the mental hassle, so against my best wishes I stow away my nips for more important occasions or for times where I’d just rather not be ogled.
People like Charli xcx are doing god’s work. She didn’t know it at the time, but we really aren’t in the era of free the nipple. Maybe we never were. So, to further the cause, more and more nips need to be exposed. Then, one day, when I can disembark my office building’s elevator without any men honing in on my nips like the eye of Sauron, then I will know we are free.
Maddy Mussen is a culture and lifestyle writer