Why Lingerie Is No Longer Just for the Bedroom, But the Streets, Too

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show may take place once a year—and, this time around, all the way over in Shanghai—but for aspiring Angels, prepping for the always over-the-top lingerie extravaganza is a year-long event. In addition to forever staying true to their all too intense fitness regimes, they also have to pick the perfect—and we mean perfect, given that even Gigi Hadid was once turned down by the brand’s board—outfit to wear to castings, which took place earlier this month in New York, and which proved the perfect opportunity for the models to showcase just how well they can wear lingerie, even while casually walking in the streets.

Luckily enough for them, though, lingerie-inspired looks are becoming more and more visible outside of the bedroom; brands like Dolce & Gabbana had already provided the required lace at their fall shows earlier this year, despite, you know, ostensibly offering outfits for colder weather and everything. But then again, who can blame them after Dior’s ultra-sheer spring 2017 collection, which a nipple-freeing (and likely freezing) Bella Hadid famously repped back in January, is somehow still wildly popular? Paris Jackson, for one, was not afraid to do a repeat of Hadid, more than six months later, just last week at the VMAs.

There are, of course, non-model celebrities who’ve been pioneering the look, too, whether just by wearing crop tops so cropped they expose their bras—or, in the case of Kim Kardashian, that essentially are bras in the first place—or by updating a classic Chanel tweed suit by exposing a shoulder and wearing a lace tank underneath, like Lily Collins. Charlize Theron, for one, spent the summer yet again driving home she’s not one to mess with by assembling an intimidatingly confident wardrobe for her Atomic Blonde red carpet tour, which stretched from Berlin, where she channeled Kim in a Dior bra, to Los Angeles, where she went through the motions of covering up another bra by topping it off with a sheer shirt.

Those moves admittedly require quite a bit of comfort with exposing your skin, which non-Angels—aka pretty much all of the earth’s population—may not find as easy to come by. But take a lesson from expert alumnus and returning Angel Bella Hadid: It’s also possible to have the best of both worlds. Earlier this summer, she turned up to a dinner in, predictably enough, Matrix glasses and a corset. But beneath both of those on-trend accessories, she also completely covered up in a business-appropriate look of a white button-up and black trousers, making the case for the desk workers among us to try out not just day-to-night, but office-to-night looks, too.

Related: How Gigi Hadid and Kristen Stewart Are Bringing Crop Tops to New Heights

See Jasmine Tookes Try on the $3 Million Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra: