News Desk |
For the last fortnight, the capital of the fashion world has shifted south from Paris to the red carpet of the Cannes film festival. We run our style ruler over some of the most spectacular dresses at the world´s biggest movie jamboree:
Tradition – and the needs of French fashion houses – demand a jury member who can double as a clothes horse to walk the red carpet two and sometimes three times a day for gala premieres.
Step forward, 21-year-old American actress and model Elle Fanning. She may be the baby of the jury, but “The Beguiled” star knows her arthouse onions as a Cannes veteran who made her debut aged seven in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu´s “Babel”.
Fashion-wise she is no dozer either, killing it on the red carpet in a series of stunning outfits that culminated in a Dior ensemble that channeled Grace Kelly 1950s New Look glamour. The slightly exaggerated silk organza bowed blouse, A-line black tulle skirt and a white-brimmed hat sat perfectly with Fanning´s knack for staying just the right side of almost cartoonish glamour.
Fanning fainted earlier this week in a “too tight” Prada prom dress, only to have Colin “Mr. Darcy” Firth dash to her aid. In a refreshingly frank touch, Fanning put it down to her “time of the month”. The New York Times´ guru Vanessa Friedman, a woman notoriously difficult to impress, said: “If Elle Fanning doesn´t come away… with a next-level fashion ambassador contract, something has gone seriously wrong with the celebrity style industrial complex.”
Another almost omnipresent American was, Chloe Sevigny, who despite a rather unsatisfying role in Jim Jarmusch´s opening night zombie film, “The Dead Don´t Die”, made the carpet her own for the fortnight. True, the indie queen attracted her fair share of snipers for a two-tone Mugler slash dress for her own premiere.
It didn´t help that Selena Gomez was in the same line-up in a slinky ivory silk Louis Vuitton bustier and skirt. But Sevigny kept to her own daring fashion line, doing it her way with Miu Miu, Loewe and a very natty off-duty look set off with a black beret, before cementing her avant-garde cred by supporting the cutting-edge Parisian designer, Marine Serre.
No nation turned more heads on the red carpet this year than India, with a battalion of Bollywood and cross-over actresses keeping the paparazzi very busy indeed. None more so than Deepika Padukone who provided one of the Cannes´ biggest fashion moments in a vast ruffled lime green Giambattista Valli tulle gown which was almost its own festival.
Priyanka Chopra, Diana Penty, Kangana Ranaut and the eternal Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also stopped the traffic on the Croisette, the latter in an acid yellow sheath dress.