Croisettiquette: Your Guide To The Dos And Don’ts Of The Strictest Red Carpet In The World – Cannes Film Festival
Since it had a major redesign in 1984, when it took inspiration from the Academy Awards in Hollywood, the Cannes film festival has been synonymous with its famous red carpet, a 60-meter stretch of fabric that covers the 24 steps leading up to the Palais. Originally changed three times a day and nowadays just the more eco-friendly once, the carpet is actually two slightly different shades of red: Rosso in the center and Teatro at the sides. Fiercely patrolled by French security guards, the red carpet is a micro-state within a city, complete with its own set of rules and regulations.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Cannes Do: Put your phone away.
Cannes Don’t: Take a selfie on the steps.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux first waged war on the selfie in 2015, before instituting an outright ban in 2018, referring to the practice as “touristy”, “ridiculous” and “vulgar”. He specifically cited the logjam effect that it created when 2,300 people were trying to take their seats. “At the top of the red carpet,” he said, “the triviality and slowdown of flow provoked by the disorder of selfies ruins the quality of the red carpet, and thus the festival entirely.” Naturally, this rule tends not to apply to celebrities.
MENSWEAR
Cannes Do: Wear a tux.
Cannes Don’t: Rock up in smart casual.
In Cannes, there is a strict dress code for men. As the festival says on its website, “Out of consideration for the artists and film crews who have come to preview the culmination of their long work, the festival asks you to come in a dinner jacket with bow tie or in evening dress.” This applies to everyone, as American novelist Henry Miller found in 1960 when the 68-year-old turned up in his tweeds and was turned away from opening night, despite being a member of the jury. Pablo Picasso knew the score when he gained admission to a screening of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear in 1953. His outfit was made of corduroy, and he had a sheepskin jacket on top of it, but it was a tux. He was also wearing a bow tie, part of the fledgling dress code that was first established in 1949. To give attendees time to change, not every major screening in those days required a tie, causing producers to complain if their films weren’t deemed worthy. Certain journalists, meanwhile, called it “snobisme”, much as they still do today.
WOMENSWEAR
Cannes Do: Whatever you want (sort of).
Cannes has a reputation for being a festival that is much tougher on men than it is on women, insisting that male photographers wear black tie for the red carpet, without even going into the auditorium. The festival is much more vague on sartorial matters for women, saying, “You can wear a cocktail dress, a dressy top with black trousers [or] a black dress.” There are no accounts of female celebrities being turned away, even in 1988 when Italian porn star Ilona Staller, A.K.A. La Cicciolina, arrived almost naked, holding a plush toy and wearing strips of material that left her breasts exposed ( French newspaper Télé Star witheringly described it as a “dress” in inverted commas).
Nevertheless, this year the festival has decided to clamp down, saying that “For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival.” A spokesperson later clarified this, adding that “the aim is not to regulate attire per se, but to prohibit full nudity on the red carpet, in accordance with the institutional framework of the event and French law.”
But wait! If you’re planning to go the other way, the festival is ahead of you. Reacting to the kerfuffle that was caused by French actress Massiel Taveras—who tried to ascend the stairs in a long white dress with a large, hand-painted picture of Jesus Christ on the train—Cannes is, likewise, taking issue with outfits they consider to be “voluminous”, and not just for reasons of taste. Said the spokesperson, “The Festival reserves the right to deny access to individuals whose attire could obstruct the movement of other guests or complicate seating arrangements in the screening rooms.”
Still, part of the fun of having so many rules is finding new ways to break them. French male DJ Kiddy Smile struck a successful blow for sartorial equality in 2019, walking the red carpet in a silver glitter jump suit and a bright orange floral gown the next. “There’s something very old school about Cannes,” he said. “I’m a cis man but if you’re gender-fluid or nonbinary, there is no space for you to exist within this protocol.”
FOOTWEAR
Cannes Do: Use common sense.
Cannes Don’t: Come straight from the beach.
Read the digital edition of Deadline’s Disruptors/Cannes magazine here.
Cannes being a classy joint, has a simple policy for men: no trainers. But for women, the issue of footwear lay dormant for many years until it exploded in 2015 — appropriately enough, at a screening of Todd Haynes’ feminist drama Carol. That night, a number of women were refused entry on the grounds that they were wearing flat shoes. The pushback caused the festival to rethink the issue going forward, and at the 70th edition in 2017 the festival made fun of itself by issuing a promotional badge with the words: “My dream: to walk the red carpet in flip-flops” (this actually happened in 2023, when Jennifer Lawrence slipped out of her designer shoes for a photo opp, moments before the premiere of Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall).Today, the festival insists that the “no flats” protocol came from a rogue doorman acting alone, and the official line is simply that “elegant shoes, with or without heels, are required.”
ACCESSORIES
Cannes Do: Think Chanel, Gucci, Versace or Louis Vuitton.
Cannes Don’t: Think North Face.
Although guests of all persuasions may well be tempted to smuggle a pair of comfy shoes or a sweater into the cinema, attendees are warned to avoid bringing “rucksacks, tote-bags or large bags.
