We Need to Talk About This Bodysuit Peekaboo Thing

In December, Fifth Harmony’s “Work From Home” was named the most watched music video of 2016, with more than a billion views. In addition to a hard hat (the video is set at a sexy construction site), Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello wears a green bodysuit in it, the leg holes peeking out over her low-slung jeans. The show of skin is especially prominent when Cabello does a dip and booty pop next to a concrete mixer (as one does). In mid-December, Cabello announced that she was leaving the girl group.

I’ve been wondering if there is a connection between these events. Cabello shows verboten upper-thigh skin; Cabello is cast out of Fifth Harmony? But maybe I have it backward—maybe it was more like: Cabello shows verboten upper-thigh skin; Cabello creates worldwide sensation; Cabello decides to pursue lucrative solo career? Because I fear showing this particular crescent of skin is becoming a thing.

Bodysuits have been a mainstay at trendy women’s retailers from Reformation to Topshop for the past year or so. To back up a little, this is a bodysuit:

It’s like a leotard or a one-piece bathing suit, and you can wear a bodysuit tucked into pants or a skirt, like so:

But why, why would you wear a bodysuit instead of a normal shirt? Because it looks good, mainly, and will cling closer to your body than a normal top. And also because fashion is an endless process of confusing reinvention.

So bodysuits are here to stay, and I’d mostly made peace with that. But then in the past few weeks, I started to notice a troubling trend of more and more bodysuit leg holes peeking out of pants, Cabello-style.

In a recent piece where Slate staffers predicted how America will change under President Trump, Michelle Goldberg prophesied, “Big hair, painful thong underwear, and spike heels will all have a comeback.” What if the bodysuit skin peek is the new version of a whale tail for our twisted new era, the latest beauty standard that seemed to pop up out of nowhere to oppress us anew? Call it the hip slip. The VLH (visible leg hole). The side moon. It’s part of a larger plague of holes and cutouts in all our clothing, of course—but it’s altogether more discomfiting.

If this is indeed a thing, we’ve got to make some changes. From now on, you’ll have to make sure your upper thighs are perfectly tanned. You’ll have to carefully choose underwear that will allow your leg holes to peek out without also peeking out itself (forget about shapewear), or perhaps you will have to abandon underwear altogether. You will have to add 30 seconds to your bathroom routine to account for the extra time it will take to disrobe, a notoriously difficult process unless you’ve managed to find the rare snap-crotch bodysuit. Before long, barre classes will offer specific moves for toning the tiny swath of muscles a hip slip reveals. This is our reality now. Start tucking, ladies.