Navel - Navel Exposure in World Cultures - Western Culture - Fashion

Fashion

However, fashion exploits the navel through low-rise clothing that leaves the midriff or lower abdomen bare. These navel displays commenced with the introduction of the bikini in 1946 by Louis Réard. Réard could not find a model who would dare to wear his design. He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini, a 19-year old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris as his model. During the 1960s, Mary Quant's designs emphasized maximum exposure of the navel and bare midriffs.

This fashion later became increasingly popular through sporting styles comprising modified sports bras without additional outer garments, sports bikinis, and cheerleading style fashions developing largely from the styles originating with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in the early 1970s. The navel fashion returned in 1980s when a ban on exposing the navel in public was lifted. Actress Cher sported an Indian princess outfit with feathers and beads around her navel for the Academy Awards ceremony that year. California designer Christine Albers commented, "the look is good for anyone who has a great body but especially for women who do a lot of stomach exercises". The modern trend of exposing the navel has usually been confined to women, apart from a 1980s fashion male belly-button shirt fad, although males have long exposed their navels when going shirtless, such as when swimming.

This low-rise fashion started in the early 1990s when the British magazine The Face in its March 1993 issue cover featured Kate Moss in low-rise jeans. Models like Gisele have always flashed their midriffs. The display of the navel in women's fashion has partly grown out of the sportswear and swimwear styles that became popular during the twentieth century, themselves linked to successes of the feminist movement and developments in clothing technology. In 1994, Art Cooper, editor-in-chief of GQ magazine said that his big seller in 94' was February issue with Geena Davis on the cover where she wore an Armani suit opened at the hips to reveal her navel. It helped move around 400,000 copies. He points out the reason as quoted, "Part of the success is the navel factor. I think the belly button is really an erogeneous zone." The importance of the navel is very much emphasized that for Czech model Karolína Kurková who does not have a navel, the magazine and catalogue art directors routinely airbrush one in for her during post-production. They keep a collection of belly button shots in different positions, and Photoshop them on to her whenever she's doing a bikini picture. Similarly, Kelly Ripa also appeared in magazine covers of Shape with morphed navels.

Due to the current wide acceptance of navel display in Western societies, navel piercing and navel tattoos have become more common among young women. The trend of piercing or tattooing the navel became popular in the 1990s. This trend is popular among middleaged women like housewives too who bare their navels sporting navel piercings or tattoos. Actress Drew Barrymore has a butterfly tattoo beneath her navel. The growing popularity of belly dancing, where navel exposure is a necessity, has also added to the navel exposure trend. Among belly dancing instructors, the innie navel is preferred over the outie. During the late 1980s, Disney's heroines moved to a sexier trend. In the 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, the animated lead protagonist, Ariel, flashed her navel while wearing only fins & seashells. This is considered to be a first in Disney's history.

On the contrary, advice columnist Ann Landers once commented, "Navels are neither sexy nor obscene. I do not believe any female of good taste would wear an outfit where her navel shows. This does not include women in costumes or those on beaches in bikinis. The same goes for males. An adult male who wears hip-huggers so low rates zero minus 10 on the scale of taste - it's my opinion but it's one I feel strongly about". Similarly, fashion historian James Laver told that he hasn't quite caught up with the idea of exposing the navel. He once commented, "I have never regarded that as a particularly attractive part of the human anatomy". After 2010, the crop top fashion had a changeover by which women started wearing it with a high-rise skirts, jeans or shorts that are high enough to cover the belly button. This helps in avoiding the muffin tops.