Berry at Met Gala.
Photo: Cindy Ord / Mg25 / Getty Images
During the Met Gala on May 5, Halle Berry wore a dress that showed bursts of skin and presented a dramatic train – so it was not a shock that her planned Cannes wardrobe was among the first to be affected by the new film festival code. “I had an incredible Gupta dress that I can’t wear tonight, because it’s too high train,” said Berry, who is on the festival jury this year, during a Cannes press conference on May 13. “Of course, I’m going to follow the rules. But I had to do a pivot.” The new Cannes clothing code prohibits nudity on the red carpet and at the “for decency” festival and declares that “bulky outfits, in particular those which have a large train, which hinder the appropriate flow of guests and complicate seats in the theater, are not allowed”, according to the official Cannes charter. To apply these rules, the “welcome teams” of the festival will not allow anyone on the carpet that does not follow the code.
In practice, the rule seems to interpretation. The May 13 floral dress of Heidi Klum has a ginormous train, and it was allowed to walk on the carpet. The new rule concerning nudity comes in the heels of Cannes’ outfit in 2024 by Bella Hadid designed by Saint Laurent, which was entirely transparent. As for “bulky outfits” in Cannes, there were countless – Fan Bing Bing in 2023 at Coco Rocha and Uma Thurman in 2024, everything that would now be prohibited on the Riviera. However, Cannes’ dress codes were broken. In 2018, Kristen Stewart removed her high heels on the red carpet in defiance of a technically unofficial canes Vogue. And in 2016, Julia Roberts went barefoot to protest the rule. France (Motorland by Christian Louboutin) and America (Motorland of Toms) are fighting on the feet of the feet. But it is a great sadness for the French, of everyone, to reject nudity.
