At Valentino’s glittering haute couture show in Rome this weekend, Florence Pugh sported one of storied Italian designer Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Barbie-pink tulle gowns.

With her short blonde hair tucked neatly behind her ears and her make-up smoky and pared-back, Pugh’s ensemble was the epitome of refined fashion, the sort that’s a firm fixture on the front row. Except, there was one small point that put the figurative cat among the pigeons: Pugh wasn’t wearing a bra, and the Valentino dress she was wearing was sheer. 

It’ll come as little surprise to anybody that in the hours after Pugh posted to social media of her outfit, the criticisms of her outfit started to flood in. 

“Listen, I knew when I wore that incredible Valentino dress that there was no way there wouldn’t be a commentary on it,” Pugh wrote on Instagram to confront the criticism. “Whether it be negative or positive, we all knew what we were doing. I was excited to wear it, not a wink of me was nervous. I wasn’t before, during or even now after.” 

The criticism is unfounded for one simple reason: every human on earth starts their life in utero with nipples, so what on earth is the problem with showing them? Men can run around in the warm weather without a top, nipples fully on show, and nobody bats an eyelid, but a woman wears a dress in which her nipples are fully on show, and every eyelid the world over bats. 

The key difference? One is a man, one is a woman; one can show their nipples as freely as it’s humanly possible to be, while the other cannot without being policed, criticised and publicly crucified.

Among the stars who have publicly supported Pugh are Jessica Chastain, who wrote on social media: “Why is it so threatening for some men to realise that women can love our bodies without your permission? We don’t belong to you.” Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page has similarly commented on how “vulgar” it was “for men to totally destroy a woman’s body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see”.

Pugh deftly conceded in her post: “It isn’t the first time and certainly won’t be the last time a woman will hear what’s wrong with her body by a crowd of strangers, what’s worrying is just how vulgar some of you men can be. I’ve lived in my body for a long time. What’s more concerning is…. Why are you so scared of breasts? Small? Large? Left? Right? Only one? Maybe none? What. Is. So. Terrifying.” Here, here.

Images: courtesy of Getty