The Least Controversial Part of Bella Hadid's Latest Look Is Her Exposed Thong

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By

Tara Gonzalez

Published on June 9, 2022 @ 05:00PM

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Bella Hadid's outfits have so much character, they're practically a character in themselves. In recent weeks, Hadid has somehow managed to look like the senior soccer captain you idolized in high school, a starlet from the '30s on vacation in the south of Italy, and last night, a sexy secretary in head-to-toe Fendi who says 'F it' to the fashion rules handbook.

The look couldn't have been more perfect for the small cocktail party held by Fendi at its newest flagship store on 57th Street in New York City. The fashion house's Artistic Director of Womenswear and Couture, Kim Jones, with photographer Nikolai von Bismarck, celebrated their latest collaboration: a book titled The Fendi Set. It's a 230-page tribute to the Bloomsbury Set, a community of British writers, artists, and philosophers from the early 20th century that includes Virginia Woolf and Saxon Sydney-Turner.

Naturally, Hadid is featured in the book, alongside other Fendi friends and muses like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington, to name a few. And Hadid's look for the occasion didn't feel too far off from what an early 20th century intellectual would wear: a collared Fendi top with billowing puff sleeves, a three-row drop pearl Vivienne Westwood choker, and a matching Fendi top and pencil skirt set. The exposed thong detail and platform sandals worn with socks firmly place the outfit in 2022 territory, though, and feels like two trends that the Bloomsbury Set could have never seen coming.

If Hadid's outfits are characters, they're certainly controversial ones, as the supermodel loves a good trend that'll get people talking. She's been working overtime for months now bringing back the exposed thong trend, and her latest take on the highly debated look takes breaking fashion rules to new heights, literally. If you're going to wear an exposed thong, why not also prove that platform sandals worn with socks can be sexy, too? And if the Bloomsbury set were to exist in 2022, they'd likely wear a uniform like Hadid's — Virginia Woolf, "ghost narrator" of 2021's Met Gala exhibit, was a fashion icon too, after all.