In the last couple of years, there have been multiple pronouncements that the treacherous 2001 styling trick of hiking up your G-string so the straps are exposed above your low-rise jeans, is “coming back”. Vogue called it back in 2017. Then it happened again in 2019, when Hailey Bieber wore an ‘exposed thong’ gown by Alexander Wang to the Met Gala. Now, we’re getting the third wave of whale tale hysteria—with Dua Lipa, Bella Hadid and, most surprisingly, Givenchy, all giving the so-bad-its…bad? trend a nod.
Dua Lipa wore low-rise jeans with an exposed thong out to date night with Anwar Hadid last Friday. She was potentially taking cues from her beau’s sister, Bella, who wore a similar look during a photo shoot in August.
Matthew Williams, at his super-chic debut for Givenchy this morning, also gave the trend an unexpected shout-out, with built-in red detailing down the back of a black, backless gown.
I’m all for a gauche Noughties throwback—but surely we do not want to popularize the return of the G-string? They’re so obviously torture devices made by horny Victoria’s Secret execs. (This is just a little joke, Vice‘s remarkably detailed deep-dive into the history of the thong shows they date back to ancient times, and were largely worn by men).
Millennial women have, in the main, shown a proclivity for less-skimpy undergarments in the last decade. Vox charted the resurgence of the ‘granny panty’ (a cursed phrase if we ever heard one) in 2019, and the runaway success of Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS line is evidence of the mass global market for comfort-driven shape-wear. And while SAVAGE x FENTY offer a vast array of G-strings, their ‘best-sellers’ page is largely dominated by bikini and cheeky-cut panties.
Whether the visible thong takes off long-term remains to be seen. And if it did, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Whenever I feel dismayed at the trend, I remember Gillian Anderson at the 2001 Vanity Fair Oscar’s After Party, and all seems right with the world again.
