Dishabille By Anna Grazulis A Division I collegiate swimmer wakes up for an early morning practice after a Friday night out. She throws on her workout clothes: a sports bra, running shorts, and a cotton t-shirt. She cleans the makeup from her face, trying to conceal the previous night’s activities from her coach. She pulls her hair into a ponytail, grabs a water bottle, and runs out the door. Hours later, after a long weight-lifting session and a two-hour swim, this athlete peels down her suit in the locker room, preparing to take a post-practice shower. She notices one of her teammates staring at her bare chest, glances down, and laughs. Her teammate, sensing the amusement, starts laughing with her. Until she was about to hop in the shower, she had completely forgotten about the two small, peach-tinted silicone disks stuck to her breasts, meaning her nipples had been covered for the entire practice. In the pool, she was worried about her heart rate, her arm speed, and how out of breath she felt—not her nipples. The night before, though, when she was wearing a backless dress and didn’t want people seeing her bra straps, her nipples were at the forefront of her mind. She removes the sleek covers with the same hesitation as a young child taking off a Band-Aid, discovering that the adhesive caused tiny red dots to angrily stipple the skin around her nipples. The swimmer is not alone; there are many other women like her, who have MacGyver-ed ways of hiding their nipples from the rest of the world when they aren’t wearing a bra. Googling “How-to cover nipples” proves there’s a slew of websites offering advice on how to hide nipples quickly and creatively, listicles galore. Another search for “nipple coverage” results in essentially the same thing, with the added bombardment of advertisements for a host of products marketed to conceal women’s nipples. There’s adhesive flower petals, circular silicone covers, special tapes, and pasties in every color and pattern. Some of these products are for the purpose of fashion, some are more geared towards comfort. Still, many women utilize items as simple as Band-Aids and Scotch tape. Nipple coverage has moved into the spotlight more recently, as less women decide to wear traditional bras and opt for garments like lace bralettes. This shift from mega-padded, underwired cups to thin, halter-style support reflects a newfound brazenness in the equality movement for women. It also reflects a shift happening in the fashion world, where women are now choosing to go without any coverage at all. Anthony Vaccarello, creative director at Saint Laurent, exposed the nipple 8 out of 51 times in his Summer/Spring 2017 and 11 out of 107 times in his Autumn/Winter 2017 shows, oftentimes with sheer fabrics blatantly emphasizing the breast region. Nipple exposure has become a fashion trend, and one that celebrities, models, and designers have grown especially keen on. Marc Jacobs sent 18-year-old Kendall Jenner down the runway in 2014 wearing a sheer, v-cut brown shirt. At the time, it was a big deal; headlines raved and raged about the world seeing Jenner’s nipples. Since then, Jenner and other prominent women in society have supported nipple exposure via their fashion choices. Fashion trends are notorious for reflecting or commenting on whatever is going on in society, and this is not the first time that the nipple has been emphasized in the name of fashion. Still, what is this trend saying? Consider the swimmer: she’s been jumping into cold pools almost every day of her life since the age of eight. She utilizes her body for the purpose of athletic achievements, and her nipples have been visible through her swimsuit plenty of times; nobody would think to say anything. Why then, can it be shocking to see her nipple out at the bar? One word: context. The way the world thinks about the swimmer’s nipples when
46 | Fashion Magazine At Marist
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