Tinashe Wore Nothing to the VMAs. That Says a Lot
It's tradition that there must be one naked outfit on the MTV VMAs red carpet. For the 2023 VMAs, Tinashe upheld the nude mantle.
Tinashe hit the VMAs red carpet fairly early in the night, displaying a daring get-up that's more distinguishable by what it doesn't cover than what it does.
Specifically, Tinashe wore a sparkly mesh dress that was entirely see-through, with ample tape to cover the NSFW bits. Don't let it distract from her makeup, jewelry, nails, and chunky platform heels — all were entirely on-point.
Tinashe's outfit is obviously intended for maximum visibility, as most nude outfits are, but it's also a visible display of immense confidence.
Truly, posed carefree with a smile, Tinashe is bending the naked look to her will.
To put it another way, it takes an impressively capable person to pull off arguably the single most-challenging type of red carpet outfit imaginable.
Tinashe is objectively making it work. Talk about power-dressing.
As mentioned earlier, Tinashe's impressive nude look has roots in VMA history, like when Lil Kim wore a purple mermaid get-up to the 1999 VMAs, complete with exposed pasty-covered breast.
But what makes this moment iconic isn't just the look itself, but how easily Lil Kim pulled it off.
The accessorizing was incredibly dialed in — matching wig?!? — and Kim's neon-wattage smile pulled it all together and, impossibly, made a truly advanced outfit look utterly effortless.
Then, there's the "naked" dress that Rose McGowan wore to the 1998 VMAs, just a year prior to Kim.
McGowan wasn't beaming as visibly as Kim but she was utterly captivating in her scintillating assuredness. That's the secret sauce to making any outfit look good but ESPECIALLY nude outfits, where there's literally nothing to hide behind.
Nude outfits, done right, are like a magic trick, except there's no sorcery involved except sheer self-confidence. Which is kind of like sorcery, actually.
