Stephane Rolland, Matières Fécales, Miss Sohee, Julian Fournié and others are not the obvious Cannes fashion names we expect, but this year, as online discussion suggests that the festival is shifting in its attendees, fashion firmly remained a huge focus. The shift in fashion was clearly evident, with a move away from purely established luxury houses. It was very clear that this year, stylists, stars and power players looked to different names to dress some of the biggest names in what were once called “motion pictures”. Plus, the diverse assembly of people and personalities surrounding the film colony was fascinating.
I was in the wonderful position of knowing about Dame Joan Collins wearing a white orchid gown by Stephane Rolland, since our mutual friend David Downton had let me into the secret. I had even seen Monsieur Rolland’s original sketch for the design. How’s that for insider knowledge?
Other choices were also wonderfully surprising, keeping us on our toes to spot and credit a huge range of designers from literally around the world. The wisteria blossoms embroidered by the ateliers of Miss Sohee graced Sharon Stone, worn with its sweeping black cape coat cover-up, also twinkly with embroidery. It epitomised glamour. The actress also wore Sophie Couture in a black mermaid silhouette, with a sweeping train, and a gown by Dubai-based designer Michael Cinco in fragile white lace, in an hourglass silhouette with embroidered and appliquéd flowers cascading from the high neckline down the contours of the body to gradually disappear.
Self-Portrait, the London-based label of designer Han Chong, created a brilliant, deepest sapphire blue gown for Demi Moore in silk moiré. The elegant design was based around a single huge bow suspended around a slim column dress, with the ends of the bow extending out into a train. It was stunning and, to be from such a small name, although it was established over a decade ago, was exciting to see.
Yoko Apasra wore a beautiful corseted, full-skirted floral brocade dress by Flynow, which merged the 18th century, Dior and the New Look silhouette with timeless beauty. Meanwhile, Waad Aloqaili Couture poured azure sequinned fringes from Art Deco patterns on a slim dress worn by Grace Elizabeth in a truly Cannes resort mood.
French actress Elena Berbinau wore Franck Sorbier in palest beige ruffles. Gillian Anderson and Zar Amir Ebrahimi both wore divinely elegant gowns by Paris-based designer Alexis Mabille, both demonstrating how the classic small waist and big skirt silhouette can take endless variations, one with a point d’esprit and lace top, the other shirt-style with a bow-tied sash.
Demi Moore twirled in neon pink by Matières Fécales, with its wonderful combination of 1950s Dior and Barbara Cartland, yet totally 2026 in the superb seaming and shaping of the satin panels with frayed, uneven edges. Milena Smit also wore Matières Fécales, but for her it was slender, Morticia Addams black, with a silhouette as though drawn by a fashion artist. Truly superb.
The duo of Thibaud Delapart and Justine Delaport wore Julian Fournié, sparkling and shimmering, as both their YouTube channels would suggest. French online stars in their separate fields, this pair exemplified the idea that Cannes is not just about film stars and the publicity for the films. It is about embracing a broad range of people and designers across the days and days of events.
Ebony wore Pressiat, a slender dress of ribbons seemingly constructed from leather. We saw stars dressed in Ashi Studio, including Maika Monroe, and Demi Moore, who also wore Jacquemus and Nina Ricci, showing that brand loyalty and only the famous names are no longer the criteria for events like Cannes.
We saw amazing 1977 vintage Yves Saint Laurent worn by Helena Bordon, and also spotted archival-inspired Roberto Cavalli on Carla Bruni. Note all that. Carla Bruni also wore a stunning Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford black dress with a white lining that was truly chic, elegant and, in the best sense of the overused word, “timeless”.
Returning to Cavalli, they dressed several women, including Chiara Ferragni and Helena Christensen. Penélope Cruz wore archive George Chakra in a superb fit-and-flare, and flare again, silhouette of black tulle embroidered with tiny white feathers in rococo curlicues. In spite of this look coming on the very last day of Cannes, it still nearly stole the show for best dressed for some observers.
Beyond archival was the black sequinned look with white collar and cuffs by Loewe that Isabelle Huppert wore, which, according to French Vogue, was a tribute to the Arnold Scaasi look worn by Barbra Streisand in 1969. Check out the history if you’re interested.
Surprise designer names included Halsey wearing Ann Demeulemeester and Lucile Marquis in WEISE Atelier. True Whitaker wore one of my personal favourites by Loewe designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. A slender column of black, the fabric was threaded through a solid silver metallic collar to form a question mark around the neck, sculptural but quietly clever and elegant.
ArdAzAei dressed Suzi de Givenchy in a stunning black skirt with georgette godets fanning out, and teamed it with a belted classic black leather jacket. So elegant and chic. Chic was also to be seen in Celine by Michael Rider for Juliette Binoche, in a black and white dandyesque suit and shirt with a trailing cravat tie.
The chic of tuxedo and men’s black tie style also cropped up on Demi Moore in a Thom Browne curvaceous white satin dress, with a long untied “black tie” drifting across the row of dozens of tiny self-covered buttons all the way down the front of the dress to the floor. Palomo Spain had very much the same idea, and Paz Vega wore their soft, long white dress, but in this look the immensely long bow was indeed tied.
Gaurav Gupta dressed Coco Rocha, Lennie Hanne and Dipali Mathur Dayal in his wonderful couture, as always inspired by his heritage and culture, and as always with sculptural modern glamour and beauty. Robert Wun, after his huge success at the Met Gala, dressed Lizzo in a brilliant blue curved and sculpted look, with a glistening nipple-to-nipple “necklace” on the strapless bustier, while she also wore several real necklaces. Reminiscent of a style he had shown in his couture collection at Le Lido in Paris in January, she looked amazing.
Amongst the big names, establishment houses and luxury brands, we saw Gucci dressing Jane Fonda, Demi Moore and Salma Hayek. Saint Laurent, under the creative direction of Anthony Vaccarello, dressed Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu in silk, in a shade between violet and fuchsia, a floating, billowing and ruffled statement piece. Adèle Exarchopoulos wore an Infanta silhouette claret lace dress by Saint Laurent and looked amazing.
For Balenciaga, Demi Moore’s final look of the week was an ice blue bubble of matte duchesse satin worn over a deep emerald column dress. It was very much Pierpaolo Piccioli colour play, but with the heritage of the proportions Cristóbal Balenciaga loved to play with.
Prada and Schiaparelli pieces were worn by several attendees, and there were several looks from Louis Vuitton and Dior. Chanel offered some wonderful Mathieu Blazy designs, from slim, soft black asymmetrical eveningwear to Art Deco South of France style in black sashed in white for day, both worn by Penélope Cruz, to an explosion of spiky blossoms or sea anemones as a “jacket” over black on Sandra Hüller.
Tilda Swinton wore a controversial tunic and pants in dévoré silk velvet, re-embroidered and feathered to mimic the blurs of both brush strokes and birds in flight, and a sculptural red dress with, again, Art Deco lines and a dropped waist. Marion Cotillard wore a black crochet lace dress by Blazy for Chanel, which was cut close to the body, then trailed and swept onto the ground. She also wore a Chanel drop-waisted dress with a full skirt, very reminiscent of 1920s dresses with its soft silhouette and lacquer surface. In fact, it was an extraordinary combination of leather with raffia fringe at the hem.
But it seemed that newer names, alongside unusual and smaller houses, were the order of the day, and often designers whose cultural influences are other than simply European. Willy Chavarria dressed Barbara Palvin in an amazing rose pink cloqué dress with huge ballooning romantic sleeves and a softly bell-shaped skirt swinging out from an empire waist. The Mexican inspiration his work contains was clearly behind this entire silhouette, as well as the joyous colour, and she looked stunning.
Haitian-born designer Jovana Louis, whose label is actually named Jovana Benoit, is another great example of this cultural mixing. With her first boutique in Vietnam, her work between Paris and New York, and her clients striding across the entire world, she wore her own graphic design to Cannes, looking perfect in severe yet fluid monochrome. She also created an almost Paul Poiret silhouette of a bell-shaped tunic over a slim, straight, floor-length skirt in crushed red for filmmaker Jaime Lewis.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wore Cheney Chan white-on-white couture, combining strict tailoring with a cloud of white feathers zigzagging in shape and encircling her. It was characteristic of his work and showed a very specific aesthetic in its juxtaposition of style, weight and emotion. It enhanced the wearer while still being a very strong statement. It is fashion embracing new attitudes and approaches based around myriad cultural influences.
Fashion, by the very definition of the word, changes, and Cannes indicated something of the direction this change may take.
So, to sum up this season, I’d say change was in the air, from the attendees and the general discussions about the festival taking place, to the many serious films premiered. In fashion terms, it was simply all about shape, from miles of trailing tulle drifting across the red carpet to the slimmest of body-conscious silhouettes, from bell-like constructed skirts to sexy, slim and split, and from severely tight bodices to softly fluid Art Deco lines.
I’d finish, however, with one star and one outfit: Catherine Deneuve looking splendid and appropriate at 82 in a black outfit with a softly curving top, a long slim skirt and a single softly folded bow placed perfectly on the top. Michael Rider, now the designer at Celine, must take a bow for creating a look which was not referencing Yves Saint Laurent directly, but was in the spirit of the great designer for this client in 2026. In a word, brilliant.
