Cara Delevingne Balances a Sheer Dress With This Menswear Staple

For Cara Delevingne, naked dressing is all about balance. Take her red carpet appearance last night: yes, the model and actor donned a see-through dress, but the men’s wardrobe staple she layered on top set her look apart in more ways than one.

Delevingne, attending the Ocean With David Attenborough world premiere in London, slipped into a fully mesh Annie’s Ibiza dress with a plunging neckline. Although the star is never shy about a daring dress, this maxi dress was one of her riskiest yet. It was so sheer that it revealed the matching thong she wore underneath. That, too, was designed with flashy bits and baubles and was more or less completely transparent.

And while Delevingne would have no problem wearing such a risky garment on its own (she’s long been an advocate of the “free the nipple” movement), she decided to pair it with something out of the box: a menswear-style suit coat.

The strong-shouldered jacket added a fair amount of coverage to the look. But, perhaps more importantly, it harkened back to Delevingne’s Indie Sleaze days, when It girls would juxtapose a party dress like this with a traditionally masculine piece à la men’s suiting. Delevingne finished off her look with peep-toe black heels, a pendant necklace from the British jeweler NVW, and perfectly tousled hair that fell past her shoulders.

Following the red carpet, Delevingne stepped out to a post-premiere event. Usually, an after-party would call for an outfit change, but the model and actor decided to keep on the same outfit she had worn to walk the red carpet in. And for good reason. All Delevingne had to do was remove the jacket to really go into party mode (which would truly show off the sheer qualities of her dress) or keep it on for the perfect hint of skin.