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

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.”