L'OFFICIEL delves into the history of this season's most revealing trend and a late '90s and early 2000s cult: the exposed thong.



One of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/blazers-with-shoulder-pads-trend-of-the-season" rel="noopener" target="_blank">&#39;90s</a>&nbsp;and early aughts&#39; most controversial trends seems to have recently creeped back into fashion, with young Y2K&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/pop-culture/hollywood-stars-with-most-oscars-wins">celebrities </a>like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/bella-hadid-depop-vintage-stores" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Bella Hadid</a><a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/bella-hadid-loves-vintage-stores-new-trend">&nbsp;</a>and<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/pop-culture/brit-awards-2021-nominees-full-lis">&nbsp;Dua Lipa</a>&nbsp;being photographed both on the West Coast and East Coast in their high-waist thongs. Beauty moguls like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/kim-kardashian-kanye-west-getting-divorced-lawyers-settlement">Kim Kardashian</a><a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/pop-culture/kim-kardashian-new-flirt-van-jones">&nbsp;</a>also brought&nbsp;the style directly onto social media, having recently posed for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/kim-kardashian-west-matthew-williams-givenchy-designer-thong-fashion" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Givenchy</a><a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/fashion-week/givenchy-fall-winter-2021-collection-matthew-williams-paris-fashion-week-digital-edition">&#39;</a>s Creative Director Matthew Williams&nbsp;in a <a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/oscars-six-biggest-talking-point-cutout-trend">sexy&nbsp;low-cut </a>back dress with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/gucci-vintage-moments-100-years-anniversary" rel="noopener" target="_blank">exposed thong</a>&nbsp;from the Spring/Summer 2020 collection.

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Though the origins of shameless thong showing began with&nbsp;burlesque&nbsp;dancers in the 1930s as part of their performance costumes, the now so-called whale tail trend made its <a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/gucci-aria-film-balenciaga-collaboration">fashion</a> debut at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/jean-paul-gaultier-sacai-nike-collab-sneaker-release-date" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jean Paul Gaultier</a><a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/jean-paul-gaultier-Haute-Couture-2020-2021">&rsquo;</a>s Spring/Summer 1997 runway show, which included exposed&nbsp;undergarments, thongs and briefs alike. Then,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/tom-ford-fall-winter-2021-womens-mens" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Tom Ford</a><a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/fashion-week/tom-ford-autumn-winter-2021-collection-milan-fashion-week">&#39;</a>s Spring/Summer 1997 collection for<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/gucci-beloved-harry-styles-serena-williams-james-corden">&nbsp;Gucci&nbsp;</a>featured models walking out with only G-strings on their lower halves, men and women alike. Thin thong straps were also featured, this time with clothes over them, for Ford&#39;s Spring/Summer 1998 collection, too. The memorable Gucci piece would return again, when the&nbsp;Keeping Up with the Kardashians&nbsp;star posed in a neon green two-piece set with the vintage double-G logo thong peeking out while promoting KKW beauty on Instagram in 2018.

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Before <a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/chunky-rings-trend-instagram-inspiration">Kardashian</a>, the exposed thongs of the&nbsp;&#39;90s and early&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/chunky-rings-trend-instagram-inspiration" rel="noopener" target="_blank">2000s</a>&nbsp;were popular among music and movie stars who helped to bring the look into the mainstream thanks to their pairing of low-rise pants and skirts with thongs pulled up high over the waistband. The undergarment even gets its own pop cultural moment in Sisqo&#39;s 1999 &quot;Thong Song.&quot;

At the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, the whale tail trend was all the rage, with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/britney-spears-finally-speaks-out-controversial-documentary" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Britney Spears</a><a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/pop-culture/free-britney-spears-documentary-father-conservatorship">&nbsp;</a>who performed her hit song &quot;Oops I Did It...Again&quot; in a gold two-piece set with a bedazzled built-in G-string. Then, Christina Aguilera and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/pop-culture/zoe-kravitz-catwoman-and-all-the-previous-cats" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Halle Berry</a>&nbsp;rocked the VMA&#39;s red carpet with the high-waist underwear straps showing. Socialite<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/paris-hilton-and-nicky-hilton-style-">&nbsp;Paris Hilton</a>&nbsp;followed suit the next year, wearing an exposed pink thong at the Lloyd Klein Fall/Winter 2001 presentation in New York City.

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However, by the mid <a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/beaded-necklaces-phone-beads-spring-summer-trend">2000s</a>, the whale tail obsession came to an end, when both the thong and the low-rise cut fell out of vogue. But like all trends, it circled back. In 2018 and 2019, designers began elevating the look on the runways, and at the Camp-themed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/pop-culture/met-gala-2021-themes-looks" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Met Gala</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/hailey-bieber-skincare-beauty-line-rhode" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Hailey Bieber</a><a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/happy-birthday-hailey-bieber-her-best-look-ever-steal-her-style">&nbsp;</a>showed up on the red carpet in a pink Alexander Wang gown with a revealing low back and built-in thong.

Hailey Bieber at the 2019 Met Gala in a pink Alexander Wang thong gown.

Since then, the high-waist thong detail has populated the runways of Jacquemus, Givenchy, and more. In the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gianni-versace-fashion-signatures-designer-history-medusa-bondage" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Versace</a>&nbsp;Spring/Summer 2021 women&#39;s collection, models strutted with hip-strap details, similar to those worn by Bella Hadid on the Versace Spring/Summer 2020 Men&#39;s runway with a pair of sparkly low-rise pants.

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Versace Spring/Summer 2021

While we may not fully retire our high-waist denim for low-rise cuts and exposed thongs, the daring trend is begging to go mainstream again. And after a year spent inside, many of us are ready to take some fashion risks. Judging from the various A-listers and fashion mavens&#39; photos, and the continuous social media push towards&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gen-z-y2k-millennial-90s-fashion-nostalgia" rel="noopener" target="_blank">&#39;90s and Y2K fashion</a>, we might be soon walking around in our G-strings thinking, &quot;Oops We Did It...Again!&quot;

Why Do We Keep Returning to the '90s Whale Tail Trend?

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