Lights, camera, action! The Vogue World: Hollywood runway spectacular landed with a bang on the Paramount Pictures Studio lot—and given its intention to celebrate Tinseltown past and present, it was only fitting that the first star to walk the show should be a bona fide Hollywood legend. Enter Nicole Kidman: The Oscar-winning actor—and Vogue’s October cover star—kicked things off with a backstage rendition of “Put the Blame on Mame,” the classic song performed by Rita Hayworth as the titular femme fatale in the classic 1946 noir Gilda. (The performance, shot in black and white, came complete with backing dancers in tuxedos and vintage studio lights.)
Then, it was time for the show to begin—and Kidman’s look for her big Vogue World moment opening the runway? Chanel by Matthieu Blazy, of course. The star’s custom black draped satin bustier dress was adorned with black satin camellias and served as a playful allusion to the black dress worn by Hayworth in the Gilda scene where she performs the song that soundtracked Kidman’s walk. (The original dress, crafted by Columbia Pictures’s in-house costume designer, Jean Louis, was inspired by John Singer Sargent’s equally iconic Portrait of Madame X and has become one of the most iconic designs in film history, referenced in everything from Who Framed Roger Rabbit to Skyfall.)
Blazy, however, put his own twist on the silhouette: The asymmetric ruching echoed a handful of dresses from his knockout spring 2026 debut for the French maison, while the addition of camellia details speaks to one of Chanel’s most enduring motifs—the flower was beloved by Coco Chanel for its elegance and simplicity. (To finish the look, Kidman wore a Chanel Fine Jewelry Diamant Evanescent necklace, bedecked with hundreds of brilliant-cut diamonds.)
It’s only natural that Kidman would wear Chanel for her Vogue World moment. The actor’s longstanding relationship with the house is hardly a secret: who can forget that Baz Luhrmann-directed Chanel No. 5 advert from 2004, which Kidman recently honored by re-wearing her dress from the closing scene to the 2023 Met Gala. And naturally, Luhrmann and Kidman’s instinctive understanding of the synergy between fashion and film was on full display tonight, as Luhrmann joined Kidman on the runway from behind a vintage camera, barking directions through a megaphone. “Hold that thought, keep the focus… and, cut!” (Mere seconds later, Kendall Jenner hit the runway wearing an original costume worn by Kidman as Satine in Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, designed by Catherine Martin—talk about a full-circle moment.)
Plus, on the fashion front, Kidman is having something of a hot streak: just a few weeks ago, she was announced as an ambassador for Chanel while attending Blazy’s debut show in one of his ferociously desirable embroidered button-downs, made in collaboration with Charvet. Indeed, within her Vogue cover story, Kidman told writer Wendell Steavenson that she sees fashion as “a parallel artistic life,” noting that she views her red carpet looks as a genuine collaboration between herself, her stylist, and the designers she’s returned to work with again and again over the decades. “Sometimes it’s armor,” she said. “Sometimes it’s playful, sometimes it’s sexy. It just depends on my mood. Sometimes it’s androgynous, sometimes it’s kind of, screw you.”
So as for Kidman’s pitch-perfect fashion homage to an Old Hollywood legend at Vogue World: Hollywood? Don’t put the blame on Mame—put the blame on Matthieu.
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