Last Week, Couture and Cool Girls Reigned Supreme

Haute couture demands a rarified occasion, and last week there were many such evenings for the world’s most stylish. At the Cannes Film Festival archival pieces proved the surest way to make an entrance and a pointed fashion statement. After portraying Sharon Tate onscreen in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Margot Robbie dug into the Chanel archives and chose a look that echoed Tate’s modish personal style: a gamine, a-line mini dress paired with crystal embroidered leggings from spring 2011 couture collection. Robbie delivered a thoughtful homage rather than retro mimicry.

Likewise when Cannes’ doyenne Isabelle Huppert returned to the festival carpet to mark her first English-language entry in competition since 1980 she did so in clothes that reflected her role. In Ira Sachs’s Frankie, Huppert’s movie star character tackles the complexities of fame. So for the film’s premiere the actress dressed as matinee idol in a vibrant and glamorous dress of reflective paillettes by Armani Privé.

But not all eye-popping fashion need be made-to-measure. At the launch of her Fenty Paris pop-up store and the debut of her LVMH-partnered collection, Rihanna paired a tan anorak and mini-skirt that managed to be utilitarian and sultry. The annual amfAR’s gala at Cannes usually means ballgowns galore, but model Adesuwa Aighewi gave the event much needed edge in Danish-South Korean designer’s Hyun Mi Nielsen’s eyelet dress. And the original rule-breaker Chloë Sevigny looked utterly smashing in a full Marine Serre ensemble for her final day at Cannes.