The red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival is a forum for celebrating fashion’s status quo. An enormous expanse that dazzles under the sun of southern France, it demands a high level of glamour and is dominated by rules that are rarely broken: a strict and famously well-enforced dress code, including “elegant shoes,” as well as the less official, though no less serious, edicts of French fashion. Stars wear a seemingly endless parade of couture gowns and custom tuxedos. And as designers compete to dress the stars in their goods, talents who may not be household names can suddenly become one after wearing the right dress at the right premiere.