Sometimes it’s important to get a reminder that fashion icons are hailed as such for a reason. That’s certainly the case with Halle Berry, who recently shared a throwback to a memorable sheer black dress she wore on the red carpet. Sheer dresses have been everywhere since Florence Pugh “freed the nipple” in 2022, but as it turns out, the John Wick star rocked the look well before that.
In fact, Berry’s transparent number hit the carpet several years before Pugh’s. Back in 2017, the actress wore a black bodysuit with a sheer overdress to the premiere for Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The look was an Ellie Saab gown that turned heads at the time, so it’s no surprise the actress herself would look back fondly at the dress and re-share it with her 8.6 million Instagram followers in a recent Instagram Stories post.
The actress captioned the throwback post with the words “fashion” and “flashback” and you can see an up-close version of her original outfit below.
Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that Florence Pugh made the sheer look even more daring when she dropped the bodysuit, opting to let the design speak for itself. She later wore several other sheer numbers, particularly from the designer Valentino, and it was her original Barbiecore fashion look that led to a swell of transparent outfits on the red carpet, including Kylie Jenner and Bella Thorne also going see-through.
Though Halle Berry was clearly having fun with the outfit trend at the time as well, highlighting the floral notes and the fun way her dress tied in the back.
It’s always interesting to me how fashion is cyclical. One minute mom jeans are getting roasted on SNL and the next TikTok stars are swearing by them so they can stop looking like millennials. While Berry’s dress at the time wasn’t fully see-through, you can see how it’s the precursor to what came down the runways next. Just a few scant years after Berry paved the way, the actress who commonly gets tied to her, Halle Bailey, wore her own see-through princess dress to the 2023 Oscars.
While it’s worth noting Berry’s now-iconic 2017 look, she’s certainly not out of the fashion game yet. In the past year she’s been on the cutting edge in a slitted dress with cape sleeves with beau Van Hunt on her arm and she was also an early adopter of the 2023 celebrity black bikini trend. With a slew of 2024 movies coming up, I’m sure she’ll have more than some throwback fashion photos coming and I can’t wait to see what look she throws on next.