Cannes Film Festival

‘Why Cannes? Easy. It is the place to be’, Donatella Versace responded to the question why she presented the collection she designed together with singer Dua Lipa at Cannes. In between the film premieres, the duo debuted ‘La Vacanza’, a collection that aims to ‘translate the classic codes of the house to the next generation’. Tight cropped trousers and bright prints combined with pastel colors had to convince those present to purchase their favorite silhouettes on the spot.

Cannes is no longer just about films, according to Versace: ‘It’s about the culture; the actresses, the sixties, the glamour. It just makes sense that those two things (the film festival and fashion, red.) merge.

It also shows how important the film festival on the French Riviera has become for the fashion world. With some big blockbusters – like the last one Indiana Jones– the presentation of a couture line by jewelery brand Chopard and an exclusive birthday party by Naomi Campbel, the festival was the moment for many stars to make a fashion statement. Some of the most striking looks:

The Swedish model Elsa Hosk appeared before the performance The Passion of Dodin Bouffant in a dress from the latest couture collection by Dutch designer duo Viktor and Rolf. The duo is known for their surreal designs, such as the large round holes in the tulle ball gowns of 2010, or the model that almost disappeared in a sea of ​​collars in 2003. Distortion and taking concepts out of context is where the duo best known for. That was also the case with the dress that Husk wore: a powder blue prom dress was attached to a skin-colored slip dress. Only that dress doesn’t seem quite done. A technical tour de force. It was also the first time that the dress appeared on the red carpet.

Actress Natalie Portman in a reworked version of the famous Dior dress, which Christian Dior himself drew for his winter collection for 1949-1950. Opinions were divided online about the dress: the original copy – which can be viewed in the New York Met museum – is much more detailed. That means a lot more hours of manual work (a consideration that current designer Maria Grazia Chiuri must also have made). It made fans of the house question whether the dress lived up to the original.

Model Bella Hadid appeared several times on the red carpet of the film festival with the most talked about look of the film festival: last year the model signed for L’Innocent in vintage Versace. Although her most talked about appearance in Cannes will still be 2021, when the model appeared on the red carpet in a Schiaparelli dress with only a gold chain in the shape of the blood vessels of two lungs that covered her bosom.

This year it was sister Gigi Hadid who came to Cannes for the first time. She appeared on the red carpet in a dress by Zac Posen.

In the list above it is also striking: Gigi and Bella Hadid did not appear on the white screen themselves. Nevertheless, the film festival is also an excellent opportunity for them to generate attention. This has not gone unnoticed by the large fashion luxury concerns. It is no coincidence that Kering is one of the two main sponsors of the film festival. Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Gucci, among others, fall under the umbrella of the group. But it is also an excellent opportunity for smaller designers to gain brand awareness. Model proved that Irina Shayk in a Mowalola brand design.

Naomi Campbellwho celebrated her 53rd birthday during the film festival, was very successful in a red-pink creation by Valentino.

But against all that glamor there are also dissenting voices. This also applies to one of the most talked about looks of the festival. It came from Jennifer Lawrence.

For Anatomie D’une Chute, the actress wore a blood-red Dior. And a pair of black flip flops. The latter was more about the tongues online than the dress. That has everything to do with the fact that the Cannes red carpet has long had (or had?) an unwritten rule: women must wear heels on the red carpet. That rule was first discredited when a group of women were refused to attend a movie in 2015 because they allegedly wore rhinestone-encrusted flip-flops. Whether the story is true or not was never confirmed, but since then several women have flouted the rule.