The meaning behind Cannes’ ‘naked dress’ red-carpet ban

There is a complex label and a rich story behind the prohibition of the red carpet of the French film festival or the “naked” or “bulky” dressing. We decipn the “decency” clothing code of the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.

That must be rigid of the red carpets becomes a little more rigid: on Tuesday, the Cannes Film Festival announced that: “For decency, nakedness is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in another area of ​​the festival.”

It feels striking because naked dresses have become a basic element of the red carpet in recent years, even in Cannes. Last year, for example, the Bella Hadid supermodel had a 10 deniers Saint Laurent Halter spill, while over the years, the stars of Isabelle Huppert, Naomi Campbell and Kendal Jenner have opted for the oximoronic trend.

Landing at a time when there is an increase in cultural conservatism, it feels according to an increase in the surveillance of women’s bodies, in this case, in the name of “decency.” “God does not allow someone to serve a nipple,” he wrote boring, not com, Anonymous counts famous in fashion circles, on Instagram, continuing, “the silent return of conservation is real.”

And many observers also pointed out the double standard. “The naked skin is prohibited on the carpet, but once inside, it is right on the screen. Almost always a woman, of course,” he wrote no. “Let’s not forget that this is the same festival that rejected women for using floors in 2015. Everything while continuing to display the red carpet for Roman Polanski [who in 1978 fled the US ahead of sentencing for the rape of a minor]. “

Other commentators made the broadest point that Cannes is the home of another famous rule, paradoxical, that define what women use: the prohibition of Burkini 2016, that Muslim women Burkinis could be a threat to public order. “A woman who dresses modestly and that covers her head for religious reasons is not allowed and a woman with a transparent dress is also Sene like ‘bleeding.” You need to dress conservatively but not also Conservatively. It is a lost situation, “Shahed Ezaydi wrote in a stylist.

But the festival’s prohibition does not stop in nudity, it also decrees that “the bulky attire is not allowed, in particular those with a large train, which bother the proper flow of the traffic of the guests and complicate the seats in the theater.”

What, or rather who, people have been an essential question, Joan Rivers first framed it as such on the red carpet of the Golden Globes in 1994. In recent years, red carpets have bone for huge ads; Marketing exercises where celebrities are paid a lot of money to use a work of a certain designer, Arguffy changing the focus of fashionable movies. In many cases, with the gala as the most extreme example, they have become an increasingly dramatic sartorial show platform destined to attract as much attention as possible; It turns out that great trains do exactly that. If that is good or bad it is subjective.

But Cannes could remain a bit different. According to privileged fashion information, cited in The Guardian in 2023, “the main US Awards. They are heavier, Blow Financial Backed, with $ 100K+ rates [£75.4k+] For an appearance of red carpet, so there is much more pressure. “In contrast”, in Cannes, there is less obligation [to wear certain brands and certain things]”

Althehugh Cannes is to thank on the part of Sartorial Freedom, this is also part of the problem. The French festival has become a week of unofficial fashion. For many, excess fashion is almost as remarkable as the films themselves. For a festival that takes your film very seriously, this must gall.

But for others, which perhaps have a more generous vision of fashion art, that is not the most prominent point. Since the announcement on the ban was made only one day before the festival, when the outfits will have that the bone was planned for months, some commentators avoided a thought for the workers of the fashion industry. “Thoughts and prayers to all stylists,” wrote the writer Louis Pisano on Instagram. “It’s a low blow,” said Kissovic. “Show how much you do not respect the people who are at the festival … especially the stylists … Couldn’t you have done this two months ago?” Halle Berry, herself fanatic of a naked dress on the red carpet, is already missing; According to the reports, he had a voluminous dress planned that “he can’t use because the train is too large.” However, the United States star added: “I had to make a pivot. But the naked part that I think is probably a good rule.”

For some, he thought, the side of the prohibition that deals with volume makes more sense than nudity. As described by the veteran of Cannes Pisano, speaking with Vogue’s businesses, in recent years, the hashes of the carpet, the bones, the thin with influencers intentionally use the “craziest, most crazy and more important than they can find … they carry the greatest amount of space for the space to obtain and, the cinemas,” all those who all take over. ” implemented a 201tal acceleration prohibition. [the red-carpet experience] And of the festival as a whole. “

So, will Cannes really monitor this prohibition? While the festival has outlined that “welcome teams will be union to prohibit the access of the red carpet to anyone who does not respect the rules,” remains to be so well applied. Because, despite establishing such strict guidelines in the past, it has always been democratically to apply them. In 1953, the special dispensation of Pablo Picasso Obline to use a sheep skin coat in violation of the night’s clothing code. A journalist of the same year did not receive such privilege. On another occasion, such assignments for Henry Miller were not made, who, in 1960, refused to obey the code and, despite being a member of the jury, he was rejected from the opening night because he was not a dinner jacket.

The fact that all this information is courtesy of the Cannes Festival website suggests that at least there is a pride of creating a uproar through a clothing code that they know very well that some will choose, and it will be allowed less than boast.

“It is rumored”, according to the style does not come, which “won is applied to the real stars of the carpet. The models and ambassadors of the brand that are presented to the photo, omit the Signing and slip from the back. What there are, let’s be honest, it is most of them.” Most likely, some influential people, who wear dresses the size of Citroën cars, show the red carpet out of ramp.

If the story tells us something, those who disobey and leave their own will be judged in the public eye. Because disobeying a clothing code considered draconian, Esnob or Patriarchal has accumulated in the past congratulations on the Hollywood stars that, at that time, indicate their learning. Let’s take Julia Roberts, who was barefoot in 2016, a year after flat shoes were rejected. The measure won the title of “America’s Sweetheart” in Vanity Fair. Then, in 2018, Kristen Stewart started his Louboutins on the red carpet, after having said before The Hollywood Reporter: “If you are not asking the boys to wear courses and a dress, you can not ask me either.” Those who release the nipple, and will come out with their own, will they receive similar praise?