The five most captivating times fashion went nude in 2016. Very, very nude.

2016 has unanimously been one of the worst on record. We’ve farewelled greats like Leonard Cohen, David Bowie and Carrie Fisher, not-so-warmly welcomed Donald Trump as President-elect of the USA, and Eagle Boys pizza shops are no more. Eagle Boys, guys.

Where fashion’s concerned? This year’s red carpets have been among the most captivating in recent memory.

Not because of high quality workmanship or fancy design innovations, but because it’s the year fashion went nude. Butt naked. Stripped off all of its clothing and did a gleeful nudie lap around every red carpet event. Pretty much.

Case in point. Image: Getty

In 2015 the original “naked dress” (a tight floor-length gown with cut outs and mesh panelling across belly buttons and cleavages) started popping up everywhere. But 2016 saw that and raised it ‘Side Vag’, bare butts and no pants.

These are the five moments that defined the nudey rudey movement of this year...

1. Pants became optional.

At a New York Fashion Week soiree, Orange Is The New Black’s Dascha Polanco walked down the red rug looking fabulous in a monochrome bodysuit and a coat. No side of pants was added to this delicious outfit. No sh*ts were given. Mamamia’s Holly Wainwright said her thighs were “grateful” for Dascha’s get-up and the women of the interwebs clapped along in agreeance.

2. Side Vag ruled.

Why go pantless when you can show the world a tasteful glimmer of your vagina? For the uninitiated, Side Vag is what happens when your trendy high-waisted swimmers, with scant fabric covering your bits, rides up a little showing a teaser of the fleshy bit of your side vagina.

Now an official fashun term, Side Vag has become as ubiquitous as tinsel at this time of year. You’ll see it at the beach. On Instagram. And if you followed the Venice Film Festival this year, you would’ve noticed it was right at home there too.

Italian models Guilia Salemi and Dayane Mello rocked up in orange and pink flowy dresses complete with a healthy serving of side vag.

There were only two questions running through my head upon seeing these ladies;
1) Who is their laser hair removalist and where can I get their number?
2) HOW… undies or… what is going ON there? (Post continues after gallery.)

Turns out these two were wearing bodysuits so there was no real chance of a full frontal flash, but according to celebrity stylist Mariel Haenn, most of the time celebrities wear stick-on G-strings to avoid any accidents.

“It’s the most basic thing in our entire kit. It’s basically a thong that has no sides. You can buy them at any costume store. It’s what they use for movie sex scenes,” Haenn told ELLE US.

Sounds comfortable.

Listen: We need to talk about side vag - so we did on our podcast Mamamia OutLoud. Have a listen.

3. Total vag made an appearance.

Possibly the most talked about red carpet moment of the year goes to Chrissy Teigen at the American Music Awards. She skipped Side Vag and went, well, Total Vag in a dress held together with safety pins.

Yes, she flashed her “hoo ha” (or vagina to you and me). Yes, she’s a model and yes, she got more attention than any of the actual musicians in attendance. It was a totally calculated publicity move. And it worked.

We need to talk about Chrissy Teigen's wardrobe "malfunction". (Post continues after audio.)

4. Full butts.

We like big butts (and small butts and saggy butts and round butts, etc, etc, etc) and we cannot lie. Case in point? Madonna at the MET Gala donned what can only be described as a bodysuit with an arse-less component, a thin layer of lace and a black panel the only things shading her bare derriere from the harsh glare of the cameras.

The 58-year-old singer clearly sparked a trend, with three attendees at the MTV Europe Music Awards later on in the year also neglecting to cover their booties sufficiently.

Image: Getty

5. The Veronicas went topless… sort of.

At the ARIA Awards, Lisa and Jessica Origliasso performed their single ‘In My Blood’ in what appeared to be nothing but red glitter on the top half of their bodies. Jess Watson Miller who was largely responsible for the ensembles told Yahoo Be that latex prosthetics were involved.

“We were actually using special prosthetics on their breasts which are made by a company in New Zealand, so they were custom made for them,” she told the website.

“They are prosthetics that can glued on and covered and because of the glitter we were able to blend them in seamlessly. They give a seamless finish and a bit better coverage.”

So what can we expect from next year? Time will tell, but I’ll watching the red carpet intently, popcorn in hand.