Jane Phare catalogues the response from stars on the red carpet at Cannes following a change of dress code rules.
Quelle horreur! No naked bits, long trains or voluminous gowns are allowed at the Cannes Film Festival this year, according to new rules introduced 24 hours before one of
The new rule sent American actress Halle Berry, a member of this year’s competition jury, rushing back to her stylist after being forced to ditch her voluminous dress and train, designed by Indian designer Gaurav Gupta. Instead, she opted for a sleeker option, a black-and-white striped trapeze dress with a tulle bustle by Jacquemus.
Not everyone was so compliant, particularly around the voluminous trains rule, which organisers introduced to prevent a guest traffic jam and a seating nightmare in the theatre.
Model Heidi Klum arrived on the red carpet swathed in an impressive amount of pink frou frou and finished with a train several metres long.
And in a backward nod to the naked flesh rule, a very high slit to make sure plenty of leg was on show.
Eva Longoria, too, ignored the new directive, strutting past the Cannes dress code in a shimmering rose-gold beaded metallic gown offset in black velvet and with a long, outlawed train by Australian designer Tamara Ralph.
But it is the naked dresses that the Cannes good-taste police are no doubt on the lookout for, well aware of the furore Bianca Censori caused at the Grammy Awards in February.
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Advertise with NZME.The wife of Ye (once known as Kanye West) upstaged the awards by flaunting an outfit made from translucent netting, sans underwear, on the red carpet.
Save that nonsense for the Oscars, the Academy Awards or the Met Gala is the message from Cannes. Festival organisers want the world to be talking about, and watching, films, not gawking at naked flesh.
And they may have a point. American model Bella Hadid caused a stir at Cannes last year, arriving in a Saint Laurent dress with a see-through halter-neck top that wouldn’t have made it past the nipple police this year.
Hadid again pushed the boundaries this year, but was a little more modest, wearing a black Saint Laurent dress featuring a high leg slit, a plunging open back and flesh-revealing revealing side panels.
Russian model Irina Shayk turned heads at the 2023 film festival when she wore a revealing leather outfit by Nigerian-born designer Mowalola Ogunlesi.
This year she wore a more demure full-length, polka-dot Armani Prive gown.
The revealing vintage Chanel dress British model Naomi Campbell wore to Cannes last year wouldn’t have been let through the door this year either. Neither would the white tulle dress Kendall Jenner wore to Cannes in 2018, its see-through top leaving little to the imagination.
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Naked dressing on the red carpet is hardly a 21st-century phenomenon. Back in the 1970s and 1980s singer Cher bared all, or nearly all, in Bob Mackie dresses, first at the Met Gala (1974) and then at the Oscars (1986).
But although women are permitted to sunbathe topless on beaches along the Cote d’Azur, the same rules don’t apply at the film festival.
However just who will decide which dress is too see-through, or which train is too long is a mystery. And, after this year’s abrupt ruling, will anyone take notice in the future?
When glamour clashes with stuffy dress rules
The Cannes Film Festival has long been known as the French Riviera’s showcase of glam. Think Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot.
But it’s also known for its somewhat stuffy dress rules that A-listers can’t resist flouting. Women were banned from wearing flat shoes on the red carpet in 2015 - some were turned away that year – causing Julia Roberts to gleefully remove her high heels the following year after posing for photos. Up the steps she strode in bare feet, lifting the hem of her black Armani Prive gown to give photographers a flash of her toes.
And in 2018 actress Kristen Stewart kicked off her Louboutin heels in front of scores of photographers in a gesture of flat-heeled solidarity.
Now organisers have relented, allowing “elegant shoes and sandals with or without a heel” but no sneakers. And men, formerly required to wear black tie (even the photographers dress up) are now allowed to wear a normal tie.
The 78th Cannes Film Festival runs until May 24.
Jane Phare is the New Zealand Herald deputy editor of print.
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