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Blonde Angelina! Beetlejuice! Loewe! The 81st Venice Film Festival draws to a close today. Following a more muted 2023 season amid the Hollywood strikes, the event returned bigger than ever.
From Loewe to Bottega Veneta, brands invested heavily, dressing returning A-listers, as well as up-and-coming stars across the 10-day festival. We break down the fashion moments and brands that had the most impact.
Angelina Jolie and Tamara Ralph: A double comeback
Angelina Jolie returned to the red carpet this edition after a three-year hiatus, driving the most social media buzz of any star throughout the event. She stepped out for the premiere of new film Maria, a biopic of opera singer Maria Callas, wearing a beige draped gown and a fur stole by Tamara Ralph (previously co-founder and creative director of now-shuttered London-based couture brand Ralph Russo, Ralph launched her own label this year).
Along with her return to the red carpet, Jolie’s faux fur stole drove a lot of conversation. Posts about Jolie received the highest visibility on Instagram across the festival, generating $4.41 million in earned media value (EMV), equivalent to over 44 million views, according to influencer intelligence platform Lefty. (Lefty surveyed 946 media and cultural commentator accounts to identify Venice Film Festival-related content, valuing one impression at $1.)
Jolie’s heightened visibility extended to Ralph, too. Posts mentioning both Ralph and Jolie achieved an average engagement rate of 3.8 per cent — the highest among the nine viral moments Lefty analysts tracked during the festival. Ralph’s Instagram has gained 19,000 followers since Jolie’s appearance, and posts about the partnership drove $3.8 million in media impact value (MIV) for the brand, according to intelligence firm Launchmetrics. This was higher than any other celebrity-fashion brand moment. (MIV determines the monetary value a brand would have to spend to engineer the same level of online exposure.)
Rising talents raise the stakes
Alongside Hollywood mainstays, young stars that drove buzz during the Venice Film Festival this year included Jenna Ortega, who attended the premiere of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice wearing a red custom Dior couture gown — reminiscent of the iconic red dress Winona Ryder wore in the original 1988 version of the film.
Ortega gained “significant attention” on social media during the festival, Lefty says. Posts about the star garnered 28 million views on Instagram alone, driving $2.8 million in EMV. The 21-year-old star has driven $3.4 million in MIV for Dior since the appearance, according to Launchmetrics.
Rising talent and jury member Taylor Russell made multiple appearances at this year’s festival, marking her second time at the event and driving impact for multiple brands. Russell drove $510,000 in EMV for Alaïa at the premiere of Pedro Almodóvar film The Room Next Door, per Lefty, wearing a sculptural white two-piece with a voluminous skirt.
The 30-year-old Canadian actor became a global Loewe ambassador in February, so naturally, she wore Loewe for two out of her four appearances, driving $1.7 million in MIV for the brand, per Launchmetrics. First, she wore a butter yellow Loewe gown for the premiere of Maria. Then, a black silk hooded gown for the premiere of Luca Guadagnino film Queer, which tapped Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson as costume designer.
“Loewe has this great ability to be quite malleable in the fashion arena, which I think in theory feels easy, but in practice isn’t as much,” Russell told Vogue. “You never know what direction it’s going to go in, and that’s what personally interests me. I love the variety and the surprises. And the ability to be flexible and shapeshift.”
The Queer premiere was a big moment for Loewe, as the brand outfitted the entire cast on the red carpet, including Guadagnino, Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey and Omar Apollo. Craig, who recently starred in a Loewe campaign, drove $546,000 in MIV for the brand in Venice. While rising actors Starkey and musician-turned-actor Apollo drove the most buzz, garnering $344,000 and $213,000 in MIV respectively, according to Launchmetrics. Overall, posts mentioning “Queer” and “Loewe” drove $829,000 EMV, Lefty notes.
“Loewe does a really good job at translating what’s funky and edgy into something very beautiful,” says fashion commentator Jack Savoie, whose videos about Venice Film Festival fashion have driven hundreds of thousands of views.
Paparazzi prominence
Brad Pitt and George Clooney made headlines throughout the first week of the festival, spotted around the city in water taxis, with their respective partners Ines de Ramon and Amal Clooney, and on the red carpet promoting their new action-comedy film Wolfs.
While Pitt and partner de Ramon don’t have official Instagram accounts, social media was active with conversations about the couple’s red carpet debut. The pair drove $1.93 million EMV during Venice, with posts referencing them garnering 19.3 impressions. While it wasn’t the most-talked-about viral event, posts mentioning it earned the second highest engagement when it comes to likes, comments and shares — behind only Jolie (Pitt’s ex-wife), per Lefty. Clooney’s wife Amal wore brands including Bach Mai and Atelier Versace across her appearances in Venice. At the Wolfs premiere, the human rights lawyer wore a lemon yellow Atelier Versace gown, driving $3 million in MIV for the house, according to Launchmetrics data.
Hollywood heavyweights Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman also drove much social media buzz this time around. Moore and Swinton appeared on the red carpet together on Tuesday for the premiere of their new film Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. Swinton wore an embellished vintage Chanel jacket, driving $1.3 million MIV for the house; Moore wore a gold sequin Bottega Veneta gown, generating $863,000, per Launchmetrics.
Kidman wore a cosmic, embellished strapless gown by Schiaparelli to the premiere of Babygirl, driving 12.1 million impressions on Instagram, Lefty found, with a particularly high engagement rate of 3.05 per cent. She generated $2.7 million in MIV for Schiaparelli, according to Launchmetrics. Her co-star Harris Dickinson wore a custom grey Prada Autumn/Winter 2024 suit, driving $540,000 for the maison, per Launchmetrics.
Unlike Cannes Film Festival and award shows, which attract scores of influencers and other types of celebrities, Venice is focused on actors, says stylist Ben Schofield, who styled Dickinson for the event. “It’s not necessarily a fashion event,” he says, “for that reason, the Venice red carpet felt quite classic this time, and people felt like themselves.” That said, Schofield saw more looks from Venice on social media this time than ever before. “Previously, there’ve been a few iconic moments, like Harry Styles in Gucci or Timothée Chalamet in Haider Ackermann [in 2022],” he says, “but this time around I’ve seen a lot more discussion on my feed.”
The backdrop of Italy and the cinematic water taxis to and from the events also makes for excellent content, says commentator Gabrielle Kropfl, whose videos concerning this year’s fashion have driven thousands of views on TikTok. “Venice’s historic architecture and canals provide a stunning backdrop that infuses the event with a sense of romance,” she says. “As one of the oldest and most esteemed film festivals, it draws a diverse international audience, establishing itself as a prime platform for global fashion exposure.”
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