How Dakota Johnson became the Queen of the naked dress: Fifty Shades of Grey star has turned barely-there dressing into her red carpet staple since split from Chris Martin

One upon a time, a celebrity arriving on the red carpet in a see-through dress would cause a sensation. Now, it has become a whole fashion genre. And if there is one person firmly in her naked-dress era, it is Dakota Johnson.The actress has made it her business to appear at celebrity events in an array of frocks that leave little to the imagination and the New York premiere of her latest film, Verity, was no exception. Dakota, 36, slinked in wearing a slashed silver tassel skirt and matching bralette by Calvin Klein, giving a full view of her lissom physique.Just a week earlier, the US star had caused a stir when she appeared at the London premiere in a cream lace dress, with her black lingerie clearly visible. It increasingly feels as though the naked dress has become her signature red-carpet look.Styled by Kate Young, who has worked with the actress for many years, Dakota has become a byword for transparent fabrics, carefully placed embellishments and gowns that appear, at first glance, to be little more than beautifully constructed afterthoughts.The daughter of Hollywood legend Melanie Griffith, Dakota shot to fame as Anastasia Steele in the 2015 erotic thriller Fifty Shades of Grey, reprising the role in the two subsequent films, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.So while her association with racy fashion stretches back more than a decade, her current penchant for sheer dressing feels more like a fashion evolution than a continuation of the Fifty Shades persona.Ever since she wore that chainmail dress to the Madame Web premiere in 2024, Dakota has made the naked dress look like a comfortable pair of slippers. Then 2025 was a big year for the trend, with a string of appearances at fashion front rows and red carpets in shimmering, barely-there creations.That was also the year she ended her eight-year relationship with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. Could her run of nearly naked public appearances have reflected a sense of sexual liberation, or a desire to reclaim her body on her own terms? Dakota Johnson, 36, slinked in wearing a slashed silver tassel skirt and matching bralette by Calvin Klein at the Verity premiere Ever since that chainmail dress she wore to the Madame Web premiere in 2024, Dakota has made the naked dress look like a comfortable pair of slippers Dakota wore an ivory sheer lace gown by New York–based designer Colleen Allen to the UK premiere last monthCertainly, Dakota credits her famous mother with instilling in her a strong sense of body confidence. Speaking at the film premiere last week, she told The Sun on Sunday: ‘I am a sexual person. My mom raised me to be really, really proud of my body and love my body. 'So I’ve always felt so grateful for that, especially in my work, because I can use it and it feels real. She was very honest and open about body stuff.’But the naked dress is not simply about showing skin, or displaying a gym-honed body. It has become one of the boldest fashion statements a woman can make, because it says: ‘I know exactly what I am doing. I have a killer body and the confidence to match.’Dakota, however, cleverly veers more towards elegance than provocation. She is not wearing a garment that is essentially underwear disguised as a dress. Instead, the transparency becomes the structure of the dress itself, with the overall effect created by shadows, texture and tantalising glimpses of what lies beneath.Although the sheer dress can seem like a mid-Noughties phenomenon, its modern history stretches back decades. The woman who turned it into a fashion statement was Kate Moss.In 1993, the Croydon-born supermodel was photographed at a party for the Elite Model agency wearing a completely transparent dress designed by Liza Bruce. The full extent of its sheerness was apparently captured more dramatically by the camera than Moss had realised.Aged just 19, with no make-up and her hair scraped back into a bun, she embodied a new kind of star power: Kate Moss, the rebellious girl from the London suburbs with a face to launch a thousand photographs. The image became one of the defining fashion moments of the decade.But from that relatively innocent Kate Moss moment, the naked dress has evolved considerably. Fashion expert and commentator Caroline Baxter argues that it is now often used by celebrities as a vehicle for vanity. The actress wore a custom Calvin Klein sheer dress to the VMAs Dakota Johnson attends the 2025 Kering Caring for Women Dinner on September 11, 2025 in New York City She wore a custom, semi-sheer electric blue long-sleeved lace dress featuring a high neckline and a voluminous drop-waist tulle skirt to the 21st Zurich Film Festival in 2025‘Naked dressing really took off after Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé’s 2015 Met Gala looks,’ she says. ‘Leaving little to the imagination, celebs looking to go viral on social media soon adopted wearing very little on the red carpet.'It’s supposed to mean empowering femininity, but it actually means, “I go to the gym and I want everyone to know that I look good naked.”’Caroline adds that the look depends heavily on the wearer’s physique. ‘Dressing risqué means headlines, but it really only works if you are flat-chested, otherwise it’s burlesque and tacky.’The see-through dress has been reinvented by several generations of female stars. There was Carrie Bradshaw’s risqué nude mini on her first date with Mr Big in Sex and the City. Sarah Jessica Parker wore the DKNY spaghetti-strap number to the VH1 Fashion Awards in 1997, teasing prospective viewers of the hit show before it premiered. Who could forget Elizabeth Hurley’s infamous Versace safety-pin dress, worn to the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere in 1994? It was not sheer in quite the same way, but it demonstrated how the red carpet could become a platform for a career-defining fashion moment.Then came the various incarnations of the sheer look, from Beyoncé at the Met Gala to Gwyneth Paltrow, Rihanna and countless others. Now we have Dakota. Dakota was seen wear this incredible sheer dress in Tribeca, New York in 2025 Ms Johnson wore a custom Gucci gown to the Kering Women in Motion Awards in 2025 Dakota Johnson is seen front row at the Gucci Women's Spring Summer 2025 Fashion Show during the Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2025 at Triennale di Milano on September 20, 2024 in MilanDakota's appearances do not necessarily scream for attention; rather, they tempt the viewer into taking a second look. What is underneath? What isn’t? Where does the dress end and her body begin? The ambiguity is the entire point.Because a truly successful naked dress is not actually about looking naked at all. It is about making nakedness look deliberate, luxurious and beautifully styled.Kate Moss understood that in 1993. More than 30 years later, Dakota Johnson is proving that the naked dress is not going away.If anything, it has gone from bringing the red-carpet shock factor to becoming a bona fide fashion statement.