In the fashion world, 2023 is filled with skin-first clothing. Trends like see-through dresses, revealing underwear and no pants are popping up on the runways and red carpets.
But 20 years before the likes of Kendall Jenner, Florence Pugh and others normalized these "nude pieces," another fashion icon was paving the way for the raunchy aesthetic: Britney Spears.
In the early days, Spears was not legally regulated (as of 2008), so she had autonomy over her own clothing, with creative input from designer duo Kurt Swanson and Bart Mueller (aka Kurt and Bart).
In her new memoir, The Woman In Me , she writes: "I never knew how to play the game. I didn't know how to present myself on any level. I was terrible at dressing - hell, I still am A terrible dresser.”
So, with the help of Kurt and Bart, the pop princess experimented with unusual looks early on. Many of these have become ubiquitous trends today, such as revealing lingerie and see-through dresses, and this occurred in a less popular, more controversial environment.
Her signature look of the decade was the controversial whale tail, which has also seen a resurgence in 2023. Spears did it early and often.
Keep scrolling to see six of Britney Spears' sexiest outfits from the early 2000s. Like her music, her fashion choices tend to stand the test of time.
Dazzling built-in whale tail
At the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Spears wowed the crowd with a mashup of "Oops!... I Did It Again" and the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction." Her outfit was almost as memorable.
She kicked off the show with a bedazzled black pantsuit, which she ripped off to reveal a playful look underneath: a crystal-encrusted bra paired with matching flesh-toned low-rise pants. The sheer bottoms featured a built-in whale tail, one of the first of many revealing thong looks she wore.
Sheer lace and visible underwear
The following year, Spears returned to the awards show wearing the same revealing outfit. First, on the red carpet, she wore a black lace sheer mini dress paired with a peek-a-boo black bra and underwear. (More than a decade later, she recreated the look for the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.)
The lingerie-baring look is back in vogue in 2023, with celebrities including Dua Lipa, Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow trying out the racy style.
bra and live snake
She traded in lace dresses for form-fitting performance clothes that would cement her place in pop culture history.
To sing "I'm A Slave 4 U," Spears wore a green bra and barely there flashy shorts, and she upped the ante with her accessory: an albino Burmese python named Banana. Because what's more dangerous than using a real snake as a scarf?
Spears considers it one of her "favorite" performances of all time, but as she recalled in "The Woman Inside Me ," it was also "terrifying." "I just looked down because I thought if I looked up and saw its eyes, it would kill me," she wrote.
Peek-a-boo whale tail
In 2001, Spears attended the launch party for the *NSYNC celebrity album with her then-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake. She may have been a guest, but she stole the show when it came to her outfit, pairing a corset with dangerously low-rise jeans. The real star of her look, however, was the beige thong peeking out from her pants—a major 2000s whale-tail moment.
Naked thong moment
In 2003, Spears performed on MTV TRL 's Brand Spankin New Music Week, and her look inspired the return of low-rise pants 20 years later.
She wore a short, long-sleeved shirt with brown leather pants and a V-shaped belt hanging past her underwear. A metallic purple thong perfectly complements the raucous venue that is Times Square.
release nipple
According to Florence Pugh, although in 2023, freeing the nipple "makes people feel hurt," the trend goes back to at least the 1940s. Even so, it's not always socially acceptable.
In 2003, the singer showed off the look at an event at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. She wore low-rise flared pants with cutouts at the hips - a classic Spears style - paired with her go-to item: a strapless sheer top.
