Managing to (mostly) slip under the radar of Instagram’s notorious censorship rules, these are the flesh-baring accounts you need to follow
Instagram’s notorious censorship rules have alienated many artists from the app, with anything deemed too revealing or sexual in nature – infamously including women’s, but not men’s, nipples – banned from the feed.
But despite the questionable regulations, today IG remains a place of creativity, connection and discovery. For the artists and designers who use the body in their work, specifically the female form, creative solutions have been made to find a way to skirt the line between the erotic and the explicit – sliding (mostly) past IG’s watchful eye while doing so.
Below, check out the accounts to follow for flesh-baring and bodies at their best.
JADE O’BELLE
Jade O’Belle, model, artist, creative director and now filmmaker – her short film Birthright was released in September – focuses on the body in everything she does. Through the use of sculpture, costume and rituals, O’Belle explores feminine identity with the aim to reclaim, reintroduce and decolonise.
GAB BOIS
Orange – the fruit, not colour – bras and lettuce shorts make up photographer Gab Bois’ Instagram account with the photographer and visual artist’s playful work, and the way they use the body within it, capturing the attention of brands from Balenciaga and Marc Jacobs to Isa Boulder.
MICHAELA STARK
Self-dubbed “that body morphing bitch”, London-based Australian artist Michaela Stark began creating lingerie to subvert the industry’s usual way of concealing and revealing flesh. Using her own body as her subject, Stark contorts her shape through the use of corsets, cutouts and chains, pushing flesh out in strange angles and turning her body into art. After years of building up a following online, Stark’s debut collection was released last week.
G HARPS
Georgia Harper is an Australian stylist, costume designer, graphic designer, textile artist and occasional model who uses their multidisciplinary skills to create the kind of unique, innovative and transhumanist work the industry Down Under has long been craving.
MISHA JAPANWALA
Artist Misha Japanwala began creating her signature breastplates in her bedroom, painting silicone and plastic onto her naked form. As her work is sculptures, not nudity, they’re undetected by Instagram’s censors, meaning Japanwala’s account is full of her unique way of blending fashion and art with the female form.
BEKA MOORE
New Zealand-based designer Beka Moore created her namesake label with humour in mind, highlighting and revealing parts of the body clothing usually covers up through cut-outs and paper-stuffed pouches that many women noted via Instagram are not only cheeky, but, when it comes to breastfeeding, practical too.
NUSI QUERO
Nusi Quero is best known by some for his 3D-rendered couture corsets; his part in Grimes’ “alien scars” back tattoo; and more recently, for adorning none other than Beyoncé for none other than her Renaissance album cover in chrome body armour. Surprisingly, Quero – who studied architecture and is a musician by trade – has no formal fashion training. Rather, he began creating the futuristic couture pieces he’s become known for simply via the blend of intuition and intention.
FOXXATRON
Daniel Foxx, known in the industry by the Instagram handle @Foxxatron, has had his most recent Instagram image removed three times. “Reposting with no 🍑,” he wrote on the latest upload, showing two women embracing, naked but for the thigh-high patent boots they’re wearing. The photographer has made a name for themselves in the industry for the way they photograph women’s bodies, recently working with Megan Thee Stallion and Future for the artwork on their song, “Pressurelicious”.
SLIMELORD
Who doesn’t love slime? The photographer and artist known only online by the name of ‘Slimelord’ makes colourful versions of the sticky liquid substance at home, then uses it on models to photograph the way the slime shapes around the figure as it softens from body heat. For those who want to try this at home, Slimelord also sells by the gallon.
JULIA SHOOTS
Swedish photographer and visual artist Julia SH has always been interested in the geometry and textures that make up the body, portraying her subjects often as sculptures, paintings or as part of the natural environment. Since relocating to Los Angeles, a city within a country where women’s bodies are highly politicised, SH’s work has become even more laser-focused.
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