Florence Pugh hits back after being body-shamed for sheer Valentino dress: ‘Free the f****** nipple’

‘Why are you so scared of breasts?’

Florence Pugh has addressed the “vulgar” backlash she received over her decision to wear a transparent pink Valentino gown this weekend.

Pugh, 26, picked a sheer tulle dress for Valentino’s haute couture show in Rome on Friday (8 July) and posted photos of the look on social media, alluding to Instagram’s ban on photos of female nipples in her caption.

“Technically they’re covered?” the Lady Macbeth actor wrote, before congratulating “absolute genius” Pierpaolo Piccioli – Valentino’s creative director – for a “stunning evening” at his show in Rome.

However, Pugh was later forced to respond to “commentary” about her outfit in a separate Instagram post on Sunday (10 July) after “so many of you wanted to aggressively let me know how disappointed you were by my ‘tiny t***’, or how I should be embarrassed by being so ‘flat chested’”.

Sharing more pictures of the ensemble, Pugh said “not a wink of me was nervous” to wear the gown “before, during or even now after” being body-shamed.

“What’s been interesting to watch and witness is just how easy it is for men to totally destroy a woman’s body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see,” the British actor wrote, adding, “It isn’t the first time and certainly won’t be the last time a woman will hear what’s wrong with her body by a crowd of strangers.

“What’s worrying is just how vulgar some of you men can be.”

Florence Pugh in Valentino (Instagram/@florencepugh)

Pugh told her followers that she’s comfortable with “the intricacies of my body” and content with “all of the ‘flaws’ I couldn’t bear to look at when I was 14”, before calling out social media users who body-shamed her.

“I’ve lived in my body for a long time. I’m fully aware of my breast size and am not scared of it,” she wrote. “What’s more concerning is… Why are you so scared of breasts? Small? Large? Left? Right? Only one? Maybe none? What. Is. So. Terrifying,” Pugh hit back at her detractors.

“It has always been my mission in this industry to say ‘f*** it and f*** that’ whenever anyone expects my body to morph into an opinion of what’s hot or sexually attractive,” she said.

Florence Pugh addresses being body-shamed over her decision to wear a sheer gown (Instagram/@florencepugh)

Addressing the Instagram users who left derogatory comments on her post, Pugh wrote: “Grow up. Respect people. Respect bodies. Respect all women. Respect humans.

“Life will get a whole lot easier, I promise. And all because of two cute little nipples… Oh!,” she finished, directing those that were offended over her nipples to “the last slide” of her carousel post in which she’s covered “that inch of darker skin”.

“#F******freethef******nipple,” Pugh signed off, using the topfreedom hashtag.

Pugh has previously spoken out against criticism over her relationship with Zach Braff, 47, after fans speculated they had broken up earlier this year when photos of Pugh hanging out with her Midsommar co-star Will Poulter in Ibiza surfaced online.

In her Instagram story, Pugh addressed the “trolls” who poked fun at Braff over the couple’s 21-year age gap, after the Ibiza photos surfaced.

“There’s no need to drag people through this,” she wrote at the time. “Regardless of your opinion on who I should or shouldn’t be with, at the end of the day if you’re complimenting someone by trolling another person... you’re just bullying.”