How to Wear Cutout Clothes in the Dead of Winter

If traditionally sexy garb is a dose of Ambien, the spring 2022 collections, which debuted last fall, are sartorial smelling salts. Designers from New York to Paris implemented the art of exposure in unexpected, offbeat ways. There wasn’t a hint of cleavage at the London fashion week show from 2021 LVMH Prize-winning designer Nensi Dojaka. Instead, her wispy tops and dresses revealed glimpses of sternum or rib cage via angular apertures and sheer overlays. Norma Kamali and

Stella McCartney

proposed puzzle-like cutouts on the torsos of jumpsuits and dresses; Eckhaus Latta presented unbashful diaphanous looks; and brands including Mugler, Alaïa and Chanel played with combinations of bare flesh and transparent fabric. “These are revealing clothes, but the point of view is different,” said London fashion creative consultant Francesca Burns. “It’s no longer about the male gaze…it is about the right to own your body and feel empowered.”

Between the #MeToo movement and our isolating pandemic existence, clothing has become less about external validation, said Shakaila Forbes-Bell, a London consultant who specializes in fashion psychology. “We’re thinking more about how what we’re wearing makes us feel,” not how we’ll be perceived, she said. But the trend also taps into our disdain for sweatpants and solitude. “It’s reactionary,” said Allison Pfingst, the director of fashion studies at New York’s Fordham University. She sees parallels between this new “uncovering” and the liberated styles adopted by ’60s and ’70s youth culture as a rebellion against stifling suburban life. Today, we’re reacting to two-plus years spent in masks and athleisure.

“People are tired of it. They want to be seen [and] touched,” said New York- and Milwaukee-based designer Elena Velez, who showed translucent skirts and artfully slashed bodysuits for spring. She suggested the appetite for such clothes could be a response to “womanhood having to be so functional right now” due to the pandemic’s complicated demands. Thoughtfully revealing garments, she posited, help sate women’s desire to “feel like they can exist in the world in a more sensual way.”

A less complicated explanation: “Maybe people don’t want to admit this but having Kim Kardashian so front-and-center with cutouts…trickles down,” said Raissa Gerona, chief brand officer of e-commerce sites Fwrd and Revolve. Whatever the catalyst, she reports that since fall 2021, her sites can’t keep cutout styles by brands like Monot in stock.

One problem: It’s January. It was 9 degrees in New York the week of Jan. 9, and warm these clothes are not. But as New York stylist Beverly Nguyen demonstrates above, skillful layering lends revealing pieces insulation and versatility. New York designer Norma Kamali suggests trying her sheer Diana Dress—a bestseller comprising a neutral bodysuit and mesh overlay—atop leggings or a long-sleeve shirt. For a contrast, she condones slipping a colorful turtleneck under her black cutout jersey catsuits.

Lesley Giffels, 32, an account manager in Chicago, is drawn to sheer mesh shirts, which she sometimes wears over a red bralette or camisole. “This adds a layer of intrigue,” she said of her base, which makes her tops’ transparency “less in your face. It leaves something to the imagination.” Bridget O’Shaughnessy, 27, a policy fellow in Boston, takes a similar approach when picking bras to pair with her mesh turtlenecks, which she’s worn at home with friends and once, to a pumpkin patch. For her, showing a hint of undergarment while otherwise covered is a way to reclaim provocative dressing. “It’s [about] me and how I’m feeling—[not] how others, namely men, are going to see me.”

Kolbe Hancock, a physician and infertility specialist in New York, wears Alix NYC bodysuits with cutout shoulders to work. “If you put a blazer on and there’s a bit of cutout showing, I think that’s fine for the office,” said Ms. Hancock, 36. She likes balancing skin-baring pieces with something “strong” like high-waisted trousers. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to find ways to have a suggestion of femininity without wearing…a spandex dress,” she said. “This is a more natural, relaxed way of exuding sexuality.”

In her 1792 book “A Vindication of the Rights of Women,” author and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, often called the mother of feminism, wrote: “I do not wish [women] to have power over men but over themselves.” She was discussing education, not chic exhibitionism, but the general sentiment applies. “We’re all particular about what [parts of our body] we’re happy to share,” said Ms. Burns. In the past, our options were mostly limited to obvious erogenous zones. “The best thing about this trend is that you can pick and choose,” said Ms. Burns, even if what you choose is, say, your left knee. “The power is on you.”

Skin Win

Five quasi-revealing pieces that lend themselves to layering

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