Hollywood is the ultimate playground when it comes to fashion.
Whether celebrities are experimenting with playful cutouts, daring slits or anything in between, the red carpet is the place to do it. Nicole Kidman and Shakira felt adventurous with their cutouts, and Selena Gomez showed her sultry side in a red dress at the MTV VMAs.
Here are some of the sexiest red carpet looks of 2023.
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Nicole Kidman channeled her sultry side when she attended a screening of her series with Paramount +, "Special Ops: Lioness." She posed for photos in a stunning black dress with a halter neckline, a cutout in her midsection showing off her abs, an over the shoulder train and a floral detail on her shoulder.
The actress wore her hair in a loose ponytail, and paired the look with diamond earrings and sheer black gloves. Kidman is an executive producer on the show, which she also starred in, alongside Zoe Saldaña, Morgan Freeman and Michael Kelly.
The show, which is reportedly based on the real-life CIA program, follows a young Marine who is tasked with going undercover and befriending the daughter of a known terrorist on the CIA's kill list in order to bring down a terrorist organization and stop another attack in the United States.
Florence Pugh did more than debut a pink buzzcut when she arrived at the Valentino fashion show during Paris Fashion Week, wearing a light blue Valentino gown that showed more skin than anyone anticipated.
This isn't the first time the "Oppenheimer" star has caused a stir with her dress choice. She also made headlines in July 2022 when she wore another sheer dress to a Valentino show. The actress spoke to Elle U.K. in August 2023 about her fashion choices, telling the publication she has "always wanted to be bold and make a bit of a scene," and becoming more confident on the red carpet is "hugely linked to the clothes [she's] been wearing."
"When everything went down with the Valentino pink dress a year ago... It's the freedom that people are scared of; the fact I'm comfortable and happy. Keeping women down by commenting on their bodies has worked for a very long time," she said. "Unfortunately, we’ve become so terrified of the human body that we can’t even look at my two little cute nipples behind fabric in a way that isn’t sexual. We need to keep reminding everybody that there is more than one reason for women’s bodies [to exist].
Supermodel Naomi Campbell let it all hang out when she walked the runway at the Off-White fashion show during Paris Fashion Week. She strutted down the runway wearing a sheer black dress with a structured circular neckline and gold jewelry.
Campbell has never been shy about showing her body. She has posed topless a few times throughout her modeling career, including a 2021 photo shoot for i-D Magazine, in which she posed in the ocean wearing just pants and a feathered headdress. She recently posed completely nude as part of a photo shoot for Alexander Wang's 2024 resort collection.
In the photos, Campbell's body was completely covered in spikes, and she sported an edgy mullet, black stilettos and a black purse. She posted one of the photos from the shoot on her Instagram, writing "literally, nothing comes close to the radical and transformative approach of Alex Wang’s latest collection," before jokingly adding, "I think we nailed it."
Shakira wore two dresses to walk the red carpet at the 2023 MTV VMAs, where she was nominated for three awards and honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Her first dress was a backless shimmering skin-tight gold gown with a thigh-high slit and cutouts on the sides, and the second was a blue dress with a halter neckline, thigh-high slit and cutouts all around, and was held together with safety pins.
The Video Vanguard Award is given out each year to artists who have made a significant impact on music videos and pop-culture. Previous winners of the award include Jennifer Lopez, The Beatles, David Bowie, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears.
"I want to thank my parents and my kids, Milan and Sasha, who are here. Thank you so much for cheering me up and making me feel that ‘Mama can do it all,'" she said in her speech. "Especially I want to share this award with my fans, who always, always support me through thick and thin. Thank you so much for being my army and helping me fight all my battles."
As a musician, Dua Lipa has worn some crazy costumes when performing on stage, so it should have come as no surprise when she walked the red carpet at the "Barbie" premiere in a see-through silver metallic dress. The dress showcased her white underwear and bare chest.
The singer not only contributed to the film's soundtrack, but also had a role in the movie as Mermaid Barbie. Her song, "Dance the Night," is heard in the film during a big scene featuring a dance sequence. According to music producer Mark Ronson, the two had written a completely different song, but after seeing the scene, the singer told him, "We need to rewrite the whole thing to complement what’s going on."
"We got back in the the studio even though she was in the middle of a massive world tour. We went in my studio, turned the scene on and let the beat rock. Dua started to freestyle lyrics that fed right off what Margot was doing. I started to get goosebumps," he wrote in an Instagram post. "That’s why I f---ing love Dua so much… she was down to spend a hundred extra hours tweaking a word and a line here or there to make not just the song but the WHOLE SCENE better."
Selena Gomez wowed fans when she walked the red carpet at the MTV VMAs in a beaded red dress with a pattern making the dress look as if it's covered in red vines. The dress, which showed off her cleavage, featured a halter neckline and a skirt at the bottom with flowing vines and a thigh-high slit on one side.
The "Lose You to Love Me" singer was nominated for three awards that night for her collaboration with Rema on the song "Calm Down." Her appearance at the VMAs was only her second red carpet appearance of the year, her first being at the Golden Globe Awards in January.
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The VMAs took place only a few weeks after the release of Gomez's first single in over a year, "Single Soon." Prior to that, she hadn't released original music since the release of her album "Rare" in January 2020.
Amber Valletta wasn't afraid to bare it all when she posed for photos at the Saint Laurent fashion show during Paris Fashion Week. She walked the carpet braless, in a completely sheer halter-necked black gown, which also featured her black underwear.
The supermodel enjoyed the show, while sitting next to model and actress Shalom Harlow. After the fashion show, the two gave fans a peak at what it was like inside, posting a video of the two of them at the show, captioning it "twisted sisters."
Valletta first broke out in the modeling world in the 1980s when she was 15 years old, going on to appear on 13 US Vogue covers and becoming a household name. When speaking with Julia Von Boehm in 2018, Valletta called it "crazy" to think she's been modeling for "more than half [her] life."
"I think the secret is that I had a great agent in the beginning, who had amazing taste," she said. "He taught me and instilled in me that it is better to sometimes say ‘no’ – that [some offers] were either too overexposed, or maybe they were just not the right team. ‘No’ is sometimes more powerful than ‘yes’. That was a huge lesson from the very beginning."
Jennifer Lopez showed off her toned abs when she walked the red carpet at the 2023 Met Gala. She attended the annual event in a pink and black Ralph Lauren dress with a fluffy velour halter neckline, with a cut-out in the midsection, showing just a little bit of underboob. She paired the look with a black hat with an attached veil, black heels and a pink clutch.
It was a big year for Lopez, as she celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary with Ben Affleck, whom she married in July 2022. The two first dated from 2002 to 2004, before reconnecting in May 2021, not long after she ended her engagement to former baseball player Alex Rodriguez, and a few years after his divorce from Jennifer Garner.
"To keep it sacred. You have to do what feels good to you all the time. But at the same time, you learn from the past, you do things better the second time. There’s a part of it that, yes, we’re together. But there’s a part of it that’s not, you know, being so open the way we were when we were so young and in love many years ago," she told The New York Times in February 2023 about what they learned from their breakup in 2004.
Heidi Klum took a major risk when she wore this yellow Zuhair Murad gown with sexy cutouts and a thigh high slit to the Cannes Film Festival red carpet. At one point, the dress, which featured a criss-cross neckline and cutouts on her chest and stomach, shifted, causing an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction in which part of her nipple was exposed.
The model also made headlines this year for her elaborate Halloween costume. She walked the red carpet at her Halloween party dressed as a peacock, even employing multiple Cirque du Soleil dancers to pose with her and form the animal's signature colorful tail.
"I always try to find things that people naturally wouldn’t do," Klum told People in October prior to the party. "Most people do nurses or police officers, but I was always looking for something that I hadn’t seen."
Zendaya shut down the red carpet when she arrived to the Louis Vuitton fashion show during Paris Fashion Week in a white dress with a plunging neckline and a slit up the middle. The neckline and the slit were made possible by two gold zippers running the entire length of the dress, left unzipped at the top and zipped up high on the bottom.
The actress is known as one of the few in the industry who always knock it out of the park when it comes to her style. Some of her best fashion moments include the Cinderella dress she wore to the Met Gala in 2019, the spider web dress she wore to the "Spider-Man: No Way Home" premiere in 2021, and the strapless pink gown she wore to the 2023 SAG Awards.
"I’ve always loved fashion and I’ve found that it’s an incredibly fun way to express myself," she told Harpers Bazarr in February 2022. "I definitely have a strong point of view on what I’m wearing and love to collaborate with my stylist Law [Roach]."
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Leni Klum proved she's growing up when she stepped out wearing a red trench coat with nothing underneath except black short shorts and thigh-high red boots, when she walked the red carpet at the Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet fashion show.
The young model has been following in her mom's footsteps in the modeling world, and has even participated in a few campaigns with her famous mom, Heidi Klum. The two were photographed together in a lingerie campaign for the first time in November 2022, and despite facing backlash, they continue to pose together in their partnership with Intimissimi. Their latest collaboration with them was in October 2023.
"I think the best advice I’ve given my daughter for being a model is to always be happy with yourself when you look in the mirror, I think that’s most important. Don’t try to ever please anyone," Heidi Klum told Fox News Digital in August 2023. "Also, I think it is important to say ‘no,’ because I feel like we people just in general, we want to please, and you know, say ‘yes’ more than ‘no,’ but I wanted her to know that if there’s something you don’t want to do, you just have to say no."
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Charlize Theron turned heads when she walked the red carpet at the Rome premiere of "Fast X," wearing a sheer black Dior dress that showed her bra and underwear, while highlighting her fit figure. The actress paired the look with a beret, a diamond ear cuff and a dangling necklace.
The actress joined the established franchise in its eighth movie, playing the character of Cipher, the main antagonist in the film's franchise. Joining her as a villain in the latest movie was Jason Momoa.
"It was just really nice to get to work with Jason. He was so lovely," Theron told Variety in June 2022. "And I get to do some different things in it, so I’m really excited about that. It’s a different Cipher."
