A fresh code of conduct prohibits see-through outfits and nudity.
Cannes has long balanced cinema’s ceremony with a sideline fashion marathon, its steps awash with chiffon, beadwork, and the occasional barely-there panel. This year that spectacle meets a new boundary. The festival’s fresh “festival-goers charter,” effective for the 2025 edition, bans nudity “on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival.” Welcoming teams, the document adds, “will be obligated to prohibit red-carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.”
The guidelines land just as designers ready gown shipments to the Croisette, and they arrive with point-blank dress notes. A little black dress, a cocktail number, or a dark trouser suit passes muster. So does a dressy top paired with black pants. Footwear may be heeled or flat, but it must read “elegant.”
What will no longer sweep up the famous staircase is the drama of excess tulle and cathedral trains. Voluminous dresses, the charter explains, “hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating.” That ruling alone could redraw a red-carpet playbook that, in recent years, prized acreage as much as sparkle.
Fans and stylists have already begun to weigh the fallout. Without sheer panels or mega trains, the festival’s photo calls may pivot from poster-ready flourishes to refined tailoring and precision detailing—a subtler visual language against the Riviera flashbulbs.
Still, Cannes thrives on interpretation. Expect stylists to test the grey areas—perhaps with illusion liners, strategic cutouts, or sculpted suits—all while staying on the right side of the new charter. The game, as ever, is to look unmistakably Cannes, only now with a bit more fabric in play.
