Julia Fox’s sheer Oscars after-party dress draws Bianca Censori comparisons

Julia Fox arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

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Only a month after Ye’s wife Bianca Censori made headlines for her controversial naked dress at the Grammys, another nearly nude star has hit the red carpet.

Julia Fox, the “Uncut Gems” star and model who dated Ye (the rapper formerly known as Kanye West) in 2022, arrived at the Vanity Fair Oscars party on Sunday in a beige-colored sheer slip dress designed by Dilara Fındıkoğlufor.

Sweeping, knee-length hair extensions were carefully placed underneath the dress to provide some coverage, but left her nipples mostly exposed. The bare yet daring look was completed with nude pumps and a French manicure, and left any jewelry behind.

Julia Fox sheer dress draws comparisons to Bianca Censori and Ye’s shocking Grammys stunt

Fox’s appearance drew comparisons to Censori and Ye’s Grammys moment. News outlets took notice. E! News declared: “Julia Fox Goes Nearly Naked to Vanity Fair Oscar Party a la Kanye West’s Wife Bianca Censori,” and People magazine noted: “Julia Fox Bares Her Nipples in Nearly Naked Dress Following Bianca Censori’s Controversial Grammys Look.”

At the Grammys red carpet in February, West and Censori stopped to post for photos, and Censori dropped a large fur coat to reveal a skin-tight, completely sheer dress underneath, revealing her naked body to photographers. Ye, by contrast, wore an entirely black outfit, adorning a T-Shirt, pants and sunglasses.

Debate over dress

Fashion experts and spectators debated whether Censori’s bold attire was degrading or empowering. Ye and Censori’s goal was obvious: to shock and draw attention to themselves. But their stunt also prompted a larger conversation about how clothing – or lack thereof – symbolizes gender, agency and power dynamics. And when it comes to Fox versus Censori’s look, context is crucial.

“This juxtaposition of a fully dressed man and an undressed, naked woman replicates very old tropes in pop culture that have been around for decades,” Shira Tarrant, a women’s, gender and sexuality studies professor and the author of “The Pornography Industry: What Everyone Needs to Know,” previously told USA TODAY. “And that does speak to power. It speaks to bodies and whose body is available for public consumption, who gets to be clothed, who doesn’t get to be clothed.”

For instance, when Rose McGowan, one of the first major advocates of the Hollywood #MeToo movement wore a see-through dress to the MTV Video Music Awards in 1998, said she went with the nearly naked look to reclaim a sense of agency over her body after she was assaulted by disgraced film producer, and now-convicted sex offender, Harvey Weinstein.

She got a lot of backlash for it at the time, but McGowan said her critics missed the point. Some of her supporters have too: “Most of the women that have done homages or dressed kind of like that on the red carpet, it’s a calculated, sexy move to turn people on. Mine was like, ‘I’m gonna (mess) with your brain.’”

Julia Fox wasn’t the only nearly naked star at the Oscars: Doja Cat, Olivia Wilde, Kylie Jenner wear sheer dresses

And it seems like naked dresses are in fashion as they reign this awards season. Olivia Wilde stepped onto the Vanity Fair Oscar Party red carpet in a sheer, white boho dress designed by Chemena Kamali, with opaque ruffles covering part of her breasts. Doja Cat was dripping in Diamonds in a sheer dress during her live performance on Sunday. And, Kendall and Kylie Jenner both opted for semi-sheer black lace gowns at Oscars after parties.

If you’re sick of seeing stars in the nudes, fashion experts reassure that nudity for nudity’s sake could be on its way out of the trend cycle.

“The only thing you can count on in fashion is that what goes up must come down,” Lorynn Divita, a professor of apparel design and merchandising and the author of the book “Fashion Forecasting,” previously told USA TODAY. “Eventually, people will get tired and the cycle will change.”

Reporting by Alyssa Goldberg, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

Contributing: Charles Trepany