Celebrities 2014 Nipples-Rihanna, Cara Delevingne, Suki Waterhouse #freethenipple

May 2024 · 4 minute read
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Hellin Kay

Photo: Getty Images

Back in June, we made a daring proclamation: 2014 is the Year of the Nipple. And while the vadjacent has already made a play for 2015 and the butt put up a good fight—from Nicki Minaj's tush to Kim Kardashian's oil-slathered, cover-starring behind—the nipple reigned supreme. Celebs flaunted their areolas on the streets of New York, showcased nips in sparkly, sheer gowns, and even slipped them into Instagram posts until the photo-sharing service caught wind. Which only added to the buzz. Their point? Skin is skin, and if it ain't no thing for a guy to go topless, why should it be so obscene, outrageous, and offensive for a woman to do the same?

To celebrate this nipply year, here are all the times celebs tried to #freethenipple:

Kendall Jenner

Of course, Kendall Jenner's were the nips seen 'round the world. Making their debut at New York Fashion Week, along with Jenner herself, Kendall's nipples were visible under a semi-sheer sweater on Marc Jacobs' fall 2014 runway. And people reacted.

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Hellin Kay

Rihanna

When it comes to the year of the nipple, Rihanna is the nipple. The singer kicked off Nipplegate with her controversial Instagram post—well, controversial in the opinion of Instagram, at least—which revealed her bare breast on the cover of Lui magazine. Insta took swift action, removing the image and eventually banning RiRi, who only made her triumphant return last month.

And while Rihanna was never shy about showing off her nipples—in restaurants, at basketball games, etc.—she came out swinging at this year's CFDAs, wearing a sparkly naked dress that made a statement, drew a whole lot of attention, and proved she has nothing to hide when it comes to her nakedness. And why should she?

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Hellin Kay

Photo: Getty

Cara Delevigne

"Nipples are just another part: They're like lips, they're like noses, they're like eyeballs; you should be able to have them out all the time if you want," Cara told us when we ran into her at an event in June. "Nipples are beautiful things, don't hide them." And she didn't.

Starting her own campaign on Instagram, Cara went for puns, practical arguments, and, as you do when all else fails, nipple-patterned bikini tops. She also, like Rihanna, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Miley Cyrus before her, went the nipple bling route, wearing a Tom Ford dress that features boob paillettes from the designer's spring 2015 collection. Because who doesn't love a little nipple sparkle?

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Hellin Kay

Photo: Getty Images; Splash Images

As Cara would say, "Nipple-liciousssss."

Suki Waterhouse

Suki, one of Cara's besties, jumped on the nip bandwagon with her pal, publishing matching #freethenipple posts to Instagram and sporting a sheer, nipple-exposing Burberry Prorsum spring 2015 dress to this year's British Fashion Awards. It got her point across nicely: You can wear a beautiful, elegant dress that's sheer ... and still be a lady.

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Hellin Kay

Photo: Getty Images

Scout Willis

Scout Willis was perhaps the celeb who most walked the walk, literally, when it came to the #freethenipple campaign. The middle Willis sister actually took to the streets of New York, topless, to take a stand against Instagram's strict no-nipple policy.

And she wasn't the only Willis to come out as pro-nip. Rumer Willis also championed the cause, teaming with Russell Simmons (because, sure?) to host a fundraiser back in June.

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Hellin Kay

Photo: Lina Esco and Rumer Willis, via Getty

Nicki Minaj

Not every nipple that was freed this year was freed intentionally. Nicki Minaj suffered not one, but two wardrobe malfunctions in 2014: first at the VMAs, when her dress burst open— "God is good," she wrote on Instagram after the incident. "As long as a nipple didn't come out to play, I'm fine."—then a second time, whilst talking about the previous incident on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live—and this time, unfortunately, there was nipple at play. Whoops.

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Hellin Kay

Photo: Getty

Miley Cyrus

It's funny to think that #freethenipple isn't the brainchild of Miley. The 22-year-old Instagram enthusiast has jumped on the nipple train hard, first wearing a slew of pasties—ice-cream cone nipple pasties to Alexander Wang's spring 2015 after-party, more demure nip covers at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, and festive disco ball pasties earlier this month—and then Instagramming up a nipple storm on her social feed.

In addition to some odd images of Elvis with blurred-out breasts, a nippleless Barbie, and breasts with a photo of herself as a kid used as a censor, Miley posted this rather lovely shot of herself topless, this weekend, which she captioned: "Some lame ass deff gonna

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