When Kendall Jenner stepped out in a pair of stockings and without pants flowers, we all thought she was crazy. The look was impractical, the kind of stunt you don’t try without the paparazzi there to make a moment of it. But then it was on the catwalk at Miu Miuwith models wearing pink sequined panties paraded.
We’ve seen the same thing at shows from brands like Chanel and Dion Lee and Coach. Since Jenner went pantless, her sister Kylie, Kristen Stewart and Sydney Sweeney have also tried the look. I’ve also personally seen a few brave mortals do the same on the streets of New York, perhaps to escape the scorching summer heat.
The no pants trend
The challenge with the pantsless trend is that it doesn’t seem like something that would ever happen organically. Most of us don’t live lives where we can literally and intentionally get caught with our pants down. I’d never seen anyone do it in a way that made me think it could exist in the reality that I live in. But then Copenhagen Fashion Week.
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OperaSport SS25
Bee OperaSportthe first show of the week, I watched with envy as a model wore a striped, billowing blue top, fastened around her waist with a thin black belt with a flower-shaped buckle. She wore nothing but a pair of tall black boots and a black swimsuit. A few minutes later, another model walked the runway in a black T-shirt with pleated seams, a bag with a long pleated strap, and the bottom of a blue bikini. These are the kinds of looks I sometimes put together when I’m getting ready to go out and no skirt or pants fit quite right. I stare at myself in the mirror and long for a reality where I could show so much skin and feel safe despite the unwanted looks from men or judgmental bystanders.
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OperaSport SS25
A. Roege Hove SS25
In underwear on the runway
Later in the evening the conceptual brand returned A. Roege Hove back to Fashion Week with the first runway show in a year. Some of my favorite looks were ribbed button-up tank tops that were usually worn open to reveal the navel and midriff, styled with turtlenecks draped over the shoulders and matching ribbed underpants high-waisted. The models wore heels and bags that took the shape of whatever they were carrying in them.
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A. Roege Hove SS25
A. Roege Hove SS25
By the time the London-based designer Sinéad O’Dwyerwho moved to Copenhagen this season as winner of the Zalando Visionary Awardshowed itself, I began to wonder if I should be more pantsless looks than pants. A handful of O’Dwyer’s looks featured high-cut bodysuits with ribbons that zigzagged around each model like a fabric ribcage. Some were worn loose, while others were paired with lacy underwear that peeked out from underneath and hugged the hips.
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Sinéad O’Dwyer SS25
Sinéad O’Dwyer SS25
Like a Scandi girl
Maybe it’s because I took a cold dip in the canal earlier in the week at the famous The Banchinawhere chic Danes gather around a pier to sit in their bikinis and drink orange wine before taking a dip, but this pantsless looks didn’t seem so crazy to me anymore. Instead, they all started to make sense.
At least in a place like Copenhagenwhere locals often jump in the water before or after work and can do so without the fear you might feel in New York with the Hudson River or in Paris with the Seine. There is an ease in every aspect of life in the capital of Denmark, and it shows in what people wear and how they wear it.
That’s why everyone wants to dress like a Scandi girl: they dress with a fiery whim that feels genuine. And so if I saw one of them strutting down the street in nothing but an A. Roege Hove vest, a tiny swimsuit, and a Caro Editions flower hair clipI wouldn’t think: how strange. I would absolutely buy it all. Will Copenhagen Fashion Week the thing that really makes the pantsless look mainstream makes? I guess I should say, as they do here: Yes.
