By Rachel Tashjian, CNN

(CNN) — The year’s biggest trend was barely there. It crested Margot Robbie in slim strands of beads and rhinestones; it draped Julia Fox, Sandro Botticelli-style, in little more than strands of brunette curls; and, through an empire waisted layer of sheer white mesh, it revealed Sienna Miller’s new pregnancy to the world.

We’re talking, of course, about the naked dress.

In 2025, countless actors, musicians and influencers appeared on red carpets in naked dresses – dresses with fabric so sheer or minimal that the wearer looks as if she’s wearing nothing, or dresses designed to create a trompe l’oieil appearance of nudity.

Why did so many designers make these dresses this year, and why do celebrities continue to reach for them?

Designers say they are expressions of freedom and our changing relationship to nudity. Critics say they are an indulgence of the male gaze. Are naked dresses the parable of the emperor’s new clothes come to life, or a dream-come-true for body positivity?

Liberté, egalité, nudité?

“Any style that comes into fashion is going to be overdetermined, to use a psychoanalytical term – it’s going to be caused by a lot of things,” said Dr. Valerie Steele, the director and chief curator, The Museum at FIT. “There’s no one thing, like the conservative mood sweeping the world politically, or a new form of sexual liberation. Big world historical events are often in the background, as are individuals, like a particular actress. But in between is where you find most of the catalysts for changes in fashion, and that means the world of craft or lifestyle.”

Designers are constantly looking at each other for ideas, noting what peers or rivals make that generates publicity – and this past year, that meant the guaranteed virality of the naked dress, Steele said.

The designers behind many of the most popular variations say they have one goal in mind: to celebrate the power of the woman zipped (or thinly veiled) within.

“The naked dress has never been about exposure for me, it’s about liberation,” LaQuan Smith, the New York-based fashion designer behind several stand-out naked dresses at this year’s Met Gala, wrote in an email. “It’s about a woman choosing to show up exactly as she wants, in full control of her presence. When I design pieces that reveal the body, I’m thinking about confidence as an energy, not a flash.”

Smith’s Met Gala dresses demonstrate his modus operandi: for Halle Berry, he created panels of alternating black liquid-y bugle beads and sheer stretch mesh that fanned into a glorious, lengthy train; and for Ciara, he placed swags of crystals between an hourglass of black matte silk. With their mix of hard lines and softer materials, you could hardly say the women looked vulnerable (or cold).

Marcelo Gaia, who perhaps invented the contemporary form of the naked dress in 2019 when he launched his New York-based brand Mirror Palais, considers the gowns a celebration of femininity, spurred on by models’ reactions in early fittings to dresses made of one layer of fabric, without lining. “A woman’s body is just so beautiful. It’s like, the most perfect creation,” Gaia said. “If you want to make something beautiful, you really don’t have to do that much – you’re just showing what’s there.”

Still, naked dress designers say that provocation is part of the point. Christian Cowan’s crystal T-shirt dress, made in collaboration with designer Elias Matso as the finale look in his Spring-Summer 2026 show, became a sensation when actress and cultural lightning rod Sydney Sweeney wore it to a Variety party in late October. Some on social media criticized her braless, busty appearance as vulgar. “I loved that it was a bit controversial, and it sparked conversations,” said Cowan. “I think anything worthwhile upsets some people.”

Designers sense that wome

By Tricia Escobedo, Andrew Torgan, CNN

A detailed tip on Reddit helped lead investigators to the gunman behind the deadly Brown University shooting. Whether the person who posted it will ever receive the $50,000 reward is unclear — partly because of the way the FBI worded the offer.

Here’s what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.

1⃣ MAGA civil war

This weekend’s gathering of young Republicans and conservative influencers in Arizona offered a glimpse into the divisions already fraying President Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition even before he is out of office. Speaking Sunday at Turning Point USA’s annual conference, Vice President JD Vance not only addressed the friction, but he also encouraged attendees to embrace it. “Would you rather lead a movement of free thinkers who sometimes disagree than a bunch of drones who take their orders from George Soros?” Vance said. At the four-day summit — the first since Turning Point’s co-founder Charlie Kirk was killed — speakers bad-mouthed one another on stage, clashed over whether to engage with conspiracy theorists and argued over who belongs in the GOP and America.

2⃣ 2028 election

As Turning Point’s conference wrapped with Kirk’s widow Erika endorsing JD Vance, a new CNN poll found that about half of Americans say they’ve already given the 2028 presidential election some thought — although most don’t have a specific candidate in mind. Those with a candidate in mind had no clear consolidation behind a single name. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 22% named Vance, 4% named Secretary of State Marco Rubio and 2% named Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Another 3% say they’d like President Trump to make another run, even though he’s barred by the Constitution. California Gov. Gavin Newsom came in at 11% among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, followed by former Vice President Kamala Harris at 5%.

3⃣ Venezuela tanker

The US is pursuing another oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela after attempting to intercept it, a US official said. The ship, which was sailing toward Venezuela to pick up oil, is under US sanctions for links to Iranian oil. When US Coast Guard personnel attempted to board the tanker, however, the vessel kept sailing, the official said, leading to the pursuit. It was the second such operation conducted over the weekend. The interceptions mark an escalation in Washington’s efforts to squeeze Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who President Trump has accused of flooding the US with illicit drugs and migrants.

4⃣ 60 Minutes controversy

CBS News’ “60 Minutes” is facing a credibility crisis after it abruptly shelved a segment featuring the accounts of Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador. The correspondent who reported the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, said in an internal memo that “the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship.” According to Alfonsi and two CBS sources who spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity, the story had been fully fact-checked and legally vetted by the time the network publicized it on Friday. But CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss weighed

Por CNN en Español

Estados Unidos intensifica su presión sobre los activos petroleros de Venezuela. La vida de los inmigrantes en Chile tras las elecciones. Submarinos de Corea del Sur. Esto es lo que debes saber para comenzar el día. Primero la verdad.

• Suscríbete aquí para recibir el newsletter cada mañana en tu correo
• Escucha las 5 cosas de CNN

EE.UU. persiguió una embarcación en aguas internacionales cerca de Venezuela este domingo tras intentar interceptarla, informó un funcionario estadounidense, mientras el Gobierno del presidente Donald Trump endurece su ofensiva contra la industria petrolera de ese país. El carguero, llamado Bella 1, navegaba hacia Venezuela para recoger petróleo. El sábado, la Guardia Costera de EE.UU. interceptó el petrolero Centuries en aguas internacionales frente a la costa de Venezuela.

• Estados Unidos incauta otro buque frente a la costa de Venezuela a medida que el Gobierno de Trump aumenta la presión sobre Caracas
• Lula dice que una intervención militar en Venezuela sería una “catástrofe humanitaria”

“Kast aún no asume la presidencia y sus discursos de odio Read more

By Samantha Delouya, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) — Often strung from utility poles or buried beneath our feet, copper wire has played a critical role in powering America’s electrical grid for more than a century.

But brazen thefts are threatening the grid, with thieves climbing onto car roofs to cut down telephone lines or prying open manholes in broad daylight to strip copper wiring.

The effects have been felt nationwide: roads and bridges going dark, 911 calls that fail to connect and higher utility bills as replacement costs get passed on to consumers.

The price of copper has driven the thefts, said one detective at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department who requested anonymity due to the undercover nature of his role.

This year, copper prices have reached all-time highs on a jump in new data center construction and speculation about new tariffs by the Trump administration, according to JPMorgan. In the United States, copper prices have climbed more than 30% this year.

Los Angeles has become one of the nation’s hot spots for copper wire theft. As the city recovers from its most destructive wildfires in a generation and prepares to host the World Cup this summer and the Olympics in 2028, it’s struggling in many places just to keep the lights on. The city and the utility companies spend millions each year repairing the damage.

There were more than 15,000 destructive attacks nationwide on domestic communication networks between June 2024 and June 2025, with copper theft a major driver, according to the TV and internet industry trade group, NCTA. More than 9.5 million customers were affected, with California and Texas alone accounting for over half of the incidents.

“This doesn’t happen just once a week or once a month,” the LASD detective said of copper thefts. “These things happen daily.”

Seven miles of copper wire, gone

When Los Angeles unveiled its newly built Sixth Street Bridge in 2022, it was hailed as a new city landmark. At night, the 3,500-foot bridge, with wide pedestrian walkways, would light up in shifting LED colors.

Three years later, the bridge sits dark.

Thieves have stolen more than 38,000 feet, or seven miles, of copper wire from the bridge, causing $2.5 million in damage, according to Mark González, the local assemblymember who represents the area.

“We have multiple incidents just in our areas each day. It adds up,” the undercover LASD detective said, adding that construction sites in LA, where homes are being rebuilt after January’s Palisades and Eaton wildfires claimed more than 16,000 homes and structures, are frequent targets for thieves.

It’s very hard to trace stolen bare copper, the detective told CNN. While some telecom companies use colored paper coating to help identify their wires, city wiring is less easily identifiable. Any fix would be expensive for the city.

“For now, it’s kind of the Wild West,” the detective added.

The Sixth Street Bridge isn’t an isolated case. As copper prices climb, streetlight outages have become a persistent problem across Los Angeles. Theft- and vandalism-related outages increased tenfold between 2017 and 2022, according to the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called copper wire t

CNN

By Samantha Delouya, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) — Often strung from utility poles or buried beneath our feet, copper wire has played a critical role in powering America’s electrical grid for more than a century.

But brazen thefts are threatening the grid, with thieves climbing onto car roofs to cut down telephone lines or prying open manholes in broad daylight to strip copper wiring.

The effects have been felt nationwide: roads and bridges going dark, 911 calls that fail to connect and higher utility bills as replacement costs get passed on to consumers.

The price of copper has driven the thefts, said one detective at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department who requested anonymity due to the undercover nature of his role.

This year, copper prices have reached all-time highs on a jump in new data center construction and speculation about new tariffs by the Trump administration, according to JPMorgan. In the United States, copper prices have climbed more than 30% this year.

Los Angeles has become one of the nation’s hot spots for copper wire theft. As the city recovers from its most destructive wildfires in a generation and prepares to host the World Cup this summer and the Olympics in 2028, it’s struggling in many places just to keep the lights on. The city and the utility companies spend millions each year repairing the damage.

There were more than 15,000 destructive attacks nationwide on domestic communication networks between June 2024 and June 2025, with copper theft a major driver, according to the TV and internet industry trade group, NCTA. More than 9.5 million customers were affected, with California and Texas alone accounting for over half of the incidents.

“This doesn’t happen just once a week or once a month,” the LASD detective said of copper thefts. “These things happen daily.”

Seven miles of copper wire, gone

When Los Angeles unveiled its newly built Sixth Street Bridge in 2022, it was hailed as a new city landmark. At night, the 3,500-foot bridge, with wide pedestrian walkways, would light up in shifting LED colors.

Three years later, the bridge sits dark.

Thieves have stolen more than 38,000 feet, or seven miles, of copper wire from the bridge, causing $2.5 million in damage, according to Mark González, the local assemblymember who represents the area.

“We have multiple incidents just in our areas each day. It adds up,” the undercover LASD detective said, adding that construction sites in LA, where homes are being rebuilt after January’s Palisades and Eaton wildfires claimed more than 16,000 homes and structures, are frequent targets for thieves.

It’s very hard to trace stolen bare copper, the detective told CNN. While some telecom companies use colored paper coating to help identify their wires, city wiring is less easily identifiable. Any fix would be expensive for the city.

“For now, it’s kind of the Wild West,” the detective added.

The Sixth Street Bridge isn’t an isolated case. As copper prices climb, streetlight outages have become a persistent problem across Los Angeles