If Cannes Film Festival wants to be seen as a fashion – or at least fashion-adjacent – event, then Bella Hadid is perhaps the most important name on this year’s red carpet. That is because she is the embodiment of everything the sun-soaked Croisette represents: yachts, diamonds, and striking beauty. I would argue that Hadid plays an even more symbolic role than all the actors and filmmakers for this reason, because it is, after all, possible for a movie star to be too good-looking. And so she functions as the symbolic substitute. The myth and the muse in a Tom Ford-era Gucci dress. Its clean, carved lines the only rival to the model’s cheekbones.
And yet, it is Hadid’s inner essence that stirs the spirit. It is the equine grace with which she moves before the photographers, and the regal waves she offers unto the public from the balcony of the Hôtel Martinez. We’ve seen it this week when she arrived in an (almost) nude autumn/winter 2024 Saint Laurent dress and low-cut vintage Gianni Versace. And then there were the gilded Schiaparelli lungs and the archive Chanel ball gowns of 2021 and the thigh-slit Roberto Cavalli dresses and Jean Paul Gaultier corsets before that. For further proof that Bella Hadid is always at her best at the Cannes Film Festival, take a look back at some of the supermodel’s most memorable appearances here.