What's the boldest fashion choice Emily Ratajkowski has ever made that completely broke the internet?
Emily Ratajkowski has made numerous daring fashion choices throughout her career, but one of the most talked-about moments came when she appeared at various high-profile events and red carpets in outfits that pushed the boundaries of conventional celebrity dressing. However, the moment that arguably generated the most internet conversation was her appearance at the 2021 Met Gala, where she wore a custom Vera Wang gown that featured a dramatic cutout design and a sheer element that had people debating whether it was brilliantly avant-garde or simply too revealing for the prestigious event. The combination of her confident presentation and the daring construction of the dress made it one of the most screenshot and shared looks from that evening.
Beyond the Met Gala, Ratajkowski has consistently used fashion as a form of self-expression and commentary, particularly around themes of bodily autonomy and female sexuality. Her choices often spark debate precisely because she frames them within a feminist context, arguing that women should be able to dress however they choose without it being reduced to a simple provocation. This intellectual framing around what might otherwise be dismissed as attention-seeking has made her fashion moments more culturally layered than those of many of her contemporaries.
Her street style has also generated enormous online discussion, particularly her habit of wearing barely-there tops, low-rise trousers, and minimal coverage in everyday settings rather than just on red carpets. There is something about seeing a celebrity dressed that boldly while simply walking through New York City that tends to generate more viral energy than a planned red carpet appearance, because it feels unscripted. Paparazzi photos of her in crop tops and bikini-adjacent outfits during ordinary errands have routinely circulated widely across social media platforms.
Ratajkowski also made waves with her pregnancy fashion choices, deliberately wearing form-fitting and revealing clothing while visibly pregnant in ways that challenged the more modest conventions that have historically surrounded pregnant bodies in public life. She spoke openly about reclaiming her pregnant body as still sexual and still her own, and the fashion choices she made during that period generated significant conversation about how society polices the bodies of pregnant women. That combination of a physical statement and a verbal articulation of its meaning gave those moments a cultural weight that extended well beyond simple shock value.
What makes Ratajkowski's boldest fashion choices particularly effective at breaking the internet is that she rarely lets them stand alone as purely visual statements. She has written extensively about her relationship with her own image, most notably in her essay collection My Body, where she grapples with the complicated dynamics of being a woman whose appearance has been both her platform and a source of exploitation. This self-awareness means that when she makes a daring fashion choice, there is usually a broader conversation attached to it about ownership, gaze, and power, which gives media and audiences more to engage with and debate than a simple photograph would otherwise provide.