Daring to bare on the street. Are we ready for risque street style?

There are looks that are unique enough to get picked up by street style photographers, and then there are looks that simply can’t be ignored. There’s no doubt that this completely see-through top (worn braless) is the latter, but the question is, how many people would be game to wear it?

This kind of look not only guarantees that an applause of camera clicks will sound, it also guarantees viral internet spread. There will be comments: some will say the wearer is an attention-grabber, some will praise her boldness, some will question if this is where street fashion is headed, some will simply ogle. That is the reality.

While we see this kind of display of skin in editorials and on runways frequently, we don’t quite expect the same from a street style look. Especially not when the wearer is, as the photographer of these snaps Mr Newton reports, going for a casual spot of lunch.

But a few points here: showing skin she may be, but the look somehow isn’t highly sexualised. There’s elegance to the spotted black tulle, the below-knee fishtail hem, the lack of any glamorous makeup. Secondly, the ease with which the outfit is worn coupled with the extreme confidence required to pull it off begs the question of whether a cultural divide comes into play. Is Italian Eleonora Carisi (the subject of the photos) simply evidence that the European view of nudity is more liberal than that of other parts of the world?

And, regardless of whether or not we expect to see something so sheer worn as daywear, so long as the wearer feels confident in it, does it matter?