Model Gigi Hadid wearing the underwear as outerwear trend.

Summer 2016’s hottest trend is giving lingerie lovers a chance to show off their most luxurious garments in sophisticated style. Underwear as outerwear has been reaching new peaks in popularity over the past few years, led by fashion icons and celebrities who bare their intimate apparel as statement pieces in their outfits. This has been giving lingerie brands and designers more visibility than ever before among fashion lovers everywhere.

Le conical corset by Jean Paul Gaultier, worn by Madonna during the “Metropolis” sequence of The Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990, photographed by Emil Larsson.

“Underwear as outerwear” is no new fad, as it was first coined in the 1980’s by Malcolm McLaren when his winter 1982 collection showed a 1950’s-style bullet brassiere worn over a sweatshirt. This offbeat fashion statement was a huge inspiration to the industry, provoking designers like Jean Paul Gaultier to create some of their greatest lingerie-inspired works and performers like Madonna to wear the look out on tours. Since then, bold and beloved celebrities like Britney Spears and Rihanna have kept underwear as outerwear in vogue with barely-dressed appearances. read more