From capes to plunging necklines, all the fun fashion from the Cannes festival | Fashion

An unofficial fashion week, the Cannes Film Festival has transformed the southern French city into a major photo opportunity this week.

Still considered the hottest film festival of all, the connection has been confirmed this year: fashion house Saint Laurent's relatively new film production division will premiere three titles.

With balmy weather and an unabashed zeal for pomp, it's an opportunity for many of the world's most in-demand celebrities to walk the red carpet multiple times in a crescendo of operatic outfits. Because while the red carpets of awards season and the Met Gala offer just one night of glamour, Cannes offers fifteen.

Through interviews and press calls, as well as crowds of paparazzi outside hotels and near Nice airport, the festival also offers celebrities the opportunity to show off their daytime outfits: sunglasses sun, casual sailor tops, jeans and sneakers.

And while the Croissette might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of inspiration for your own wardrobe this summer, it's also been home to plenty of relevant fashion moments, from Kristen Stewart ditching her heels and going barefoot in 2018 in Jennifer. Lawrence in flip flops last year.

With aspiration and relativity comes inspiration. As fashion writer Vanessa Friedman once said: The opening ceremony is the equivalent of Pavlov's bell: it rings and we start getting dressed. After all, it was in Cannes that Jane Birkin launched decades of basket bags, now a summer perennial.

With week one well underway, here's what's stood out sartorially so far, what might carry over, and what might stay on the Riviera.

Capes

Cheeky and larger than life, the cape is, crucially, not a train, which is the most common way to telegraph red carpet drama. From Helena Christensen looking like a Tolkienesque princess in Vivienne Westwood to French producer and executive Nicolas Seydoux in pink flowers, the stars of this year's festival wore capes that were brilliantly silly or elegant and ornate. Jane Fonda even wore a one-shoulder dress, making her coat into a cape. The chance to be photographed like a superhero makes for good old-fashioned red carpet spectacle.

Ancient

While it doesn't seem like there's been much vintage fashion on the red carpet yet, this archival look is worth mentioning. At the premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, model Naomi Campbell wore a Chanel couture dress that she originally wore for the Chanel haute couture show in 1996, styled by celebrity stylist Law Roach. Having your own catalog to fall back on is a serious advantage in an age when vintage hunters are increasingly called upon to find obscure looks in the annals of fashion for such events.

Hats

In terms of statement daywear, hats dominated, including Anya Taylor-Joys' pizza-sized Jacquemus straw hat, ideal for protecting the neck. Meryl Streep against the backdrop of palm leaves in a white suit, striped shirt and sun hat is the perfect inspiration for summer 2024. And French singer and model Yseult showed how a well-chosen hat can be the film perfect for Mediterranean sun worshipers who blend their makeup as an option.

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Clothing for men and women

Traditional gender boundaries in fashion have thankfully liquefied, and women in suits as well as men in nail polish and skirts are not a problem, if they ever were. It's worth noting, however, that a few names chose to wear costumes that seemed to ignore preconceived notions of what a woman's costume should look like, including Lebanese director Nadine Labaki in a bow tie and French actress Emmanuelle Bart, president of the jury. of the Camera DOr. , who wore a Paul Smith suit with a nonchalantly wonky tie. Perfect inspiration for wedding guests this summer.

Extreme sweetheart necklines

From actress Elsa Pataky and Greta Gerwig in Armani Priv to French model and former Miss France Mava Coucke, the coy, wouldn't-melt sweetheart neckline, its place in art history assured by John Singer Sargents 1883-4 portrait of Madame X, caused the mercury to rise this week. Not content with just getting a little drenched, celebrities are wearing belly button-grazing sweethearts. It also, in line with a broader moment for clothing that was part Man Ray and part haute couture, adopted a sculptural orientation.

Disconcerting dressing

From the waist up, French actor and comedian Omar Sy's suit might have looked standard, at least by Cannes standards, but from the waist up the print looks like a magic eye. Model Alton Mason looked like a walking static belle in his Louis Gabriel Nouchi suit. Italian director Roberto Minervini appeared almost pixelated. In our screen-saturated age, playing with the idea of ​​visual representations, especially during one of the most photographed and shared events in the world, seems refreshingly playful.