A Celebration of Bella Hadid's Riskiest Looks: Sheer Dresses, Catsuits and Freeing the Nipple

When you know, you know. And Bella Hadid was well aware from an early age that she had an innate sense of style. 

Even before she walked her first runway for Desigual at New York Fashion Week in 2014, the industrious, punctual, never-missed-a-day-of-work daughter of immigrants Yolanda Hadid and Mohamed Hadid was using her earnings from her $7-an-hour juice shop job to scour the Rose Bowl flea market for vintage tees, plaid tees and rare Betsey Johnson finds. 

"I’m dead-on," the middle sister to fellow models Gigi Hadid and Anwar Hadid explained in a 2022 Vogue cover profile. "I know what I like. I always have, since I was young. And I’ve never drifted."

Sometimes that might mean strutting through the streets of New York City in leather on leather on leather. More often these days, it's rocking some manner of ten-gallon hat in Texas where she spends most of her time with cowboy boyfriend Adan Banuelos. 

But no matter if she's donning a men's cummerbund as a top to catch a fashion show in Paris or climbing the red-carpeted steps at the Cannes Film Festival in sheer Saint Laurent, she's grown accustomed to turning heads. 

“I look outside and I see a hundred people dressed exactly like me," she noted to Vogue, "just because of what Instagram is.” 

And while her 61 million IG followers likely don't have the same access to couture she's received after a decade in the business, Bella's ability to pair, say, boxer briefs, a graphic tee, an oversized racing jacket and Ugg platforms is something she was born with. 

Now operating without the help of a stylist, she tends toward pieces that make her "comfortable" and "happy," she told WSJ. Magazine in 2022. "In the last year," she explained, "it was really important for me to learn that even if people talk about my style or if they like it or if they don't, it doesn't matter, because it's my style."

And she owns it. 

For all the talk about her predilection for a sheer gown or a mesh catsuit, she feels the boldest statement she ever made was with color. 

Calling the red silk Alexandre Vauthier gown she wore to Cannes in 2016 "a big risk," she said she still gets embarrassed thinking about the cut-to-there 'fit "even though the dress is gorgeous," she told Vogue in 2021. 

"I think that this was the start of the Bella persona that everyone sees of me," explained the star, marking her 28th birthday Oct. 9. "That's my alter ego, that's Belinda. I'm just so the opposite of her. She's very va-va-voom. You know, bless her, love her, she was very nervous."

And now? Shrug. 

Referencing the "work of art" Schiaperelli number she wore at Cannes in 2021, she admitted she was "really worried about how it would hold," given she had only a metallic statement necklace covering her chest. 

"When I would look down you could see everything," she told Vogue. "So it was very bizarre walking onto the carpet, like, with a breeze in places you wouldn't usually have a breeze." 

Still, she continued, "I think I did a little cup check before I got out of the car and that was it. It was like, 'It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen now so I'm about to walk this carpet. And if five minutes from now, there are pictures of my breasts everywhere, then that's what was supposed to happen." 

And though she took a brief break from the runway, she's certainly not done with her work as style influencer. As she teased to Vogue, "I'm sure that there's a lot more to come." 

For now, enjoy this look back at where she's been. 

The fragrance mogul wowed in a plunging naked dress at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Bella left little to the imagination, as she strutted her stuff at the Stella McCartney runway, wearing a sheer catsuit. 

The supermodel wore a preppy-meets-punk look at the Thome Brown ready-to-wear spring/summer 2023 runway.

At the Coperni Paris Fashion Week show, three technicians spray-painted a white layer of latex onto her bare skin. Within moments, a white slip dress appeared on her body.

During Milan Fashion Week in September 2022, Bella Hadid snapped a series of selfies that served up a major Mortica Adams moment.

At the 2022 Ludovic De Saint-Sernin show, Bella rocked a black gown with velvet details.

For the 2022 Coperni Paris Fashion Week show, the supermodel sported a see-through blue dress.

"Palestinian and Dutch," the runway star captioned a February 2021 bikini pic.

The model sported a neon thong bikini while celebrating her 24th birthday on a boat in the ocean. 

While attending the Louis Vuitton Menswear Fall/Winter 2020-2021 show at Paris Fashion Week, Bella Hadid grabbed the attention of fans with her blue cropped halter top.

At the 2019 Met Gala, the supermodel stood out in a bejeweled Moschino gown adorned with large cutouts at the hip. 

That same year, the supermodel sported a black catsuit by Alexander Wang, which featured faux nipple and belly button piercings. 

For the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2018, the star opted for a sheer gown with a plunging neckline and thigh-high slit. 

The model posed in a see-through design at the 2017 Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring Summer Bal Masque.   

At the 2017 Met Gala, the star had all eyes on her in a backless Alexander Wang mesh catsuit. 

For Rihanna's Met Gala after-party in 2017, Hadid dressed up in pasties and underwear with a sheer overlay.  

At the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris, Hadid confidently posed in this sheer metallic gown with a plunging geometric neckline and waist cutouts. 

The supermodel unforgettably donned this red Alexandra Gauthiere gown with a daring slit that went as high as her hip at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.