How to wear the naked dress trend and who popularised the ‘nude’ look, from Marilyn Monroe to Sarah Jessica Parker to Zendaya

When Marilyn Monroe sang a birthday song in a sparkling, skin-coloured evening dress to then-US President John F. Kennedy, she sparked a trend for years to come

The naked dress – generally a figure-hugging, semi-transparent – has gone from strength to strength, worn by the likes of Zendaya and even regular partygoers

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Zendaya in a nude-coloured, figure-hugging Balmain dress for the 78th Venice Film Festival in Italy. The “naked dress” trend, impressively sparked by Marilyn Monroe back in 1962, has made its return to the fashion scene. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:15pm, 3 Oct 2023Updated: 1:24pm, 3 Oct 2023

Stars worldwide have long been walking the red carpets in opulent gowns, but one less-is-more approach in particular has been making waves: the “naked dress”, a figure-hugging, sometimes semi-transparent dress often chosen for the shock factor.

The trend is not new: fans of the late ’90s American television show Sex and the City will remember Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw in a mini skin-coloured dress by DKNY, prompting her friend Charlotte (Kristin Davis) to remark: “Well, let’s just say it – it’s ‘the little naked dress’.”

Her quip proved an iconic fashion moment and a term for the fashionable “touch of nothing”.

Carrie, however, was not the first style icon to wow with this look. The history of the naked dress dates back to 1962, when American actress Marilyn Monroe – wearing a sparkling, skin-coloured evening dress – sang a birthday song to then-US President John F. Kennedy.

Sarah Jessica Parker during the 1997 VH1 Vogue Fashion Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York City. She wore the same dress as Carrie Bradshaw in an episode of “Sex and the City”. Photo: WireImage

The naked dress has even filtered down to the masses, and they can be worn at a casual party – not just a celebrity-studded gala or film festival – or on a warm day, as long as you keep a few things in mind.