There's complicated etiquette and a rich history at the back of the French movie competition's pink-carpet ban of "naked" or "voluminous" dressing. We decipher the "decency" get dressed code of the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.
That most rigid of crimson carpets just got a touch bit greater rigid – on Tuesday, the Cannes Film Festival announced that: "for decency reasons, nudity is illegitimate at the purple carpet, in addition to in any other place of the festival."
It feels hanging due to the fact bare attire have turn out to be this kind of purple-carpet staple in current years, which include at Cannes. Last year, as an example, the stick insect Bella Hadid wore a 10-denier Saint Laurent halter neck get dressed, while over the years stars from Isabelle Huppert, Naomi Campbell and Kendal Jenner have all opted for the oxymoronic fashion.
Landing at a time when there is a rise in cultural conservatism, it feels in keeping with an uptick in the policing of women's bodies – in this instance, in the name of "decency". On Instagram, an anonymous fashion-related account known as Boring Not Com wrote, "God forbid someone serves a nipple" and continued, "the quiet return of conservatism is real."
And many observers also pointed out glaring double standards. "Bare skin is banned on the carpet, yet once inside, it's right there on the screen. Almost always female, of course," wrote Boring Not Com. "Don't forget that in 2015, women were turned away from this festival because they were wearing flats. All the while, the red carpet was still extended to Roman Polanski, who fled the United States prior to his 1978 trial for raping a minor. Other commentators made the wider point that Cannes is home to another famous – paradoxical – rule defining what women wear: the 2016 burkini ban, which decreed that Muslim women wearing burkinis could be a threat to public order. "A woman dressing modestly and covering her head for religious reasons is not allowed and a woman in a sheer dress is also seen as 'indecent'. You need to dress conservatively but not too conservatively. It’s a lose-lose situation," wrote Shahed Ezaydi in Stylist.
But the festival ban does not stop at nudity, also decreeing that "voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theatre are not permitted". It strikes at the heart of the question: what is the red carpet actually for?
What – or rather who – people are wearing has been an essential question ever since Joan Rivers first framed it as such on the Golden Globes red carpet in 1994. In more recent years, red carpets have been likened to enormous adverts; marketing exercises where celebrities get paid big money to wear a certain designer's work, arguably shifting the focus from the films to the fashion. In many cases – the Met Gala being the most extreme example – they have become a platform for increasingly dramatic sartorial spectacles intended to garner as much attention as possible; big trains, it turns out, do exactly that. It depends on who you ask whether that is a good or bad thing.
But Cannes has arguably remained a little different. According to one fashion insider, quoted in the Guardian in 2023, "the main US awards are more heavily financially backed – with fees of $100k+ [£75.4k+] for a red carpet look – so there is so much more pressure". In contrast, "at Cannes, there is less obligation [to wear certain brands and certain things]".
Although Cannes is to thank for some of the sartorial freedom, this is perhaps part of the problem, too. The French festival has become an unofficial fashion week. For many, the blockbusting fashion is now almost as noteworthy as the films themselves. This must be disappointing for a festival that takes its films very seriously. That isn't, however, the most important point for others, who may have a more generous view of fashion's artistic talent. Given the announcement about the banning was made just a day before the festival, when outfits will have been being planned for months, some commentators spared a thought for fashion industry workers. "Thoughts and prayers to all the stylists," wrote style writer Louis Pisano on Instagram. Besovic stated, "It is a low blow." "It shows how much you don't respect the people who are attending your festival… especially the stylists… You couldn’t have done this two months ago?" Halle Berry, herself a fan of a naked dress on the red carpet, has already fallen foul – she reportedly had a voluminous dress planned that she now "can't wear because the train is too big". However, the US star added: "I had to make a pivot. But the nudity part I do think is probably also a good rule."
However, for some, the nuanced portion of the ban makes more sense than the volume portion. As Cannes veteran Pisano described, speaking to Vogue Business, in recent years the carpet has been overwhelmed with influencers intentionally wearing the "craziest, most insane, biggest thing they can find… They take up the most space on the red carpet and," with thousands of people needing to get into the cinemas, "everybody gets clogged up". This is not the first time the Cannes Film Festival has implemented a ban designed to speed things up. In 2018, the festival’s artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, banned the selfie, telling Le Film Français magazine that, "on the red carpet, the trivial aspect and the slowing down provoked by the disorder which these selfies create tarnishes the quality of [the red-carpet experience] and of the festival as a whole".
So will Cannes really police this ban? While the festival has outlined that "welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red-carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules," it remains to be seen how evenly that will be enforced. Because, despite setting such strict guidelines in the past, it hasn’t always been democratically good at applying them. Pablo Picasso was granted special permission in 1953 to wear a sheepskin coat, breaking the dress code for the evening. In the same year, a journalist was denied this privilege. On another occasion, no such allowances were made for Henry Miller, who, in 1960, refused to obey the code and, despite being a member of the jury, was turned away from the opening evening because he wasn’t wearing a dinner jacket.
The fact that all of this information is courtesy of the Cannes Festival website hints that there is at least some pride in creating a fuss via a dress code that they know full well a few will choose – and fewer will be allowed – to flaunt.
"Rumour has it," according to Style Not Come, that "it won't apply to the real stars of the carpet. When they show up for the photo op, the models and brand ambassadors skip the screening and sneak out the back. Which, let's be honest, is most of them." It is more likely that a few influencers will be shown the red carpet off-ramp in dresses the size of Citron cars. If history is any guide, those who break the law and get away with it will be praised by the public. Because Hollywood stars who, in that moment, signal their approachability have historically received praise for disobeying a dress code that is thought to be draconian, snobbish, or patriarchal. Take Julia Roberts, who went barefoot in 2016, a year after flat shoes were disallowed. She was dubbed "America's sweetheart" by Vanity Fair for this move. Then in 2018 Kristen Stewart kicked off her Louboutins on the red carpet, having previously said to the Hollywood Reporter: "If you're not asking guys to wear heels and a dress, you cannot ask me either." Will those freeing the nipple – and getting away with it – receive similar praise?
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