From Bella Hadid in see-through Saint Laurent in 2024 to Elle Fanning in a dramatic Alexander McQueen train in 2023, some of the most memorable looks from the Cannes Film Festival in recent years have been voluminous or sheer. But on Monday, just a day before the 2025 Cannes Film Festival opened, organizers updated the dress code for the main venue, the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Now, anyone wearing sheer clothing or large trains won’t be able to walk the carpet at this year’s event.
The dress code section of the Cannes website now reads: “For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival. 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. The festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.”
“A lot of the stylists that I’ve been talking to are really freaked out,” says cultural critic Louis Pisano, who writes newsletter Discoursted and is packing for Cannes when we speak. He flags that Cannes always been conservative and that, in recent years, they’ve been clamping down on the rules. First came the mandatory heels rule, made apparent when women were denied entry to the festival in 2015 for their flat footwear, then the 2018 selfie ban. (“Elegant shoes and sandals with or without a heel” are now permitted, per the dress code guidance.) Still, many are surprised, and this year’s last-minute ban on sheer and extravagant looks has stylists scrambling to adapt.
Stylist Rose Forde, who styles talent including The Substance director Coralie Fageat, actor Britt Lower, and actor Emma D’Arcy, found out about the change via social media, before a client reached out about it. “Cannes has always been a stickler for the rules and enforcing etiquette with dressing, so I am not totally surprised. I have spent many an evening Googling ‘is X allowed on the Cannes carpet’ in the past, even with menswear looks,” Forde says.
It’s understood that the banning of large trains and skirts is meant to speed up the flow of red carpet arrivals, as people wearing large gowns take a while to get down the carpet, and talents reportedly have a fixed 10-minute slot. In recent years, the carpet has become crowded with influencers looking to disrupt and cause a scene by wearing the “craziest, most insane, biggest thing they can find,” says Pisano, who has attended the festival for the last 14 years. “They take up the most space on the red carpet and everybody gets clogged up,” he says. “You’ve got 2,000, 3,000 people that have to get into this theater.”
As for sheer dresses, the rationale of “decency” is a little murkier. Though Pisano understands the long train regulation, he says that this rule reads as reductive and restrictive. Online, commentators agree. “They only allow nudity when the industry is profiting from it, I guess,” stylist and commentator Beyzanur Apaydin tweeted. “I understand big gowns and dresses with trains complicate the seating arrangements—but why nudity when it also exists on the screen of the theatre that they will be sitting at?”
Forde sees both sides. “I understand some logic in keeping the focus on the films rather than the fashion, but this is a festival about artistic expression, so you should be able to express yourself as an artist, with your style however you feel,” she says. Stylist Maeve Reilly, whose clients include singer and actor Coco Jones, actor Eva Longoria, and actor and personality La La Anthony, says the last-minute change is a disappointment. “Cannes is one of the most glamorous and exciting red carpets, and I’ve always loved seeing the extravagant gowns and couture pieces that grace the Palais steps.”
The lack of specifics in requirements could cause issues, says fashion critic Luke Meagher (known online as HauteLeMode). “You’d have to have measurements of what is too long or too voluminous of a gown. And with the nudity element, is it up to each red carpet official’s discretion? Is it certain rules that will be applied, whether it’s bare bodice nudity versus full nudity?”
For most brands, the grey area won’t be worth the risk. Cannes is a major opportunity, and nailing red carpet looks at the festival can drive brand awareness. Last year, Cannes Film Festival garnered $86.3 million in earned media value (EMV) on Instagram, according to influencer marketing platform Lefty. Saint Laurent was the buzziest brand, generating $14.1 million EMV, of which 10 per cent was driven by Bella Hadid’s caramel colored naked dress, that would now be forbidden.
The last-minute changes to the rules could hurt brands that have planned voluminous or sheer looks for this year’s event. Red carpet looks are planned months in advance. And many stars wear couture looks that take hours of craft to produce, at huge cost. Though none of Forde’s opening looks are impacted, she’s conscious that many could be. “I’m sure that some people who have spent months on custom are panicking, which is a shame after so much hard work,” she says. “It s very late in the day.”
Reilly agrees. “Thankfully, it doesn’t impact any of the looks we styled and prepared in advance. However, it could have caused a major issue, especially since my client has already arrived in Cannes,” she says.
It’s especially tricky for young designers who may have created a look for this year’s carpet and, unlike the larger brands, aren’t able to financially (and logistically) support a last-minute change. “Then they’re losing out money, losing out on press,” Meagher says.
Some of the expected big names on the carpet this year include Emma Stone, celebrating new film Eddington, and Jennifer Lawrence, who stars in Die My Love (and caused a stir in flip flops in 2023). Both stars have worn dramatic skirts and trains at several red carpet events from the Golden Globes to the Oscars. Scarlett Johansson is also expected to be in attendance for her directorial debut Eleanor the Great, and her leading role in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme.
If the 2025 Met Gala is anything to go by, it’s likely naked and voluminous looks were on the cards for Cannes, as underwear as outerwear, sheer fabrics, plunging necklines, and dramatic cutouts have become a red carpet staple in recent times.
That said, when you scroll through Getty Images galleries of Cannes Film Festival, there are actually far fewer naked and crazy dresses than other awards shows and red carpets, from the Grammys to the Met Gala. The average festival attendee—including those appearing in the film—tends to wear a lower-key gown, Pisano says. “It’s mostly just brand ambassadors and influencers that this is going to affect,” he says.
There may well be some unlikely winners, Pisano says: the PR firms that set up showrooms on La Croisette. “It’s a big moment,” he says. “They can sort of play into this, [saying] OK, well, come by the showroom.”
