by Nathaniel R
How did we ignore the gowns from Cannes red carpets for the entirety of this year's run in the South of France? As penance we've collected our favourite gowns (i.e. anything that isn't pants) in two giant red carpet posts. Herewith the 72 greatest gowns from the Cannes Festival ranked in rough order of our appreciation. The order is for entertainment purposes only and we shan't stand by the arbitrary rankings if grilled about them. The order would change every five minutes as this was pieced together bit by bit over several days and our favourite color might be champagne in five minutes whereas at this very second it happens to be red (weird) and usually it's blue or purple.
72 ELLE FANNING
71 AISHWARYA RAI
We'll call these two numbers the 'trying too hard' duet. Elle can usually sell any editorial fashions but this is the first time that we think we've ever seen the clothes wearing her. Aishwarya Rai looks more like a superhero than a movie star in this particular metallic glam nearly Mamma Mia ready gown. Nevertheless these are two of the most beautiful women in the world and they always look like a million (or ten million) bucks, even on their weakest red carpet outings which is why we're ranking them last. They'll borh reappear much higher up the lists as the red carpet is a marathon and not a sprint.
68-69-70 LEA MORNAR, JASMINE TOOKE, CARLA BRUNI-SARKOZKY
The love/hate suite. i.e. something bugs about these gowns but they're also perfect so never mind.
66-67 ADRIANA FERREY and HINA KHAN
65 BLANCA BLANCO
64 EMILY BEECHAM
We've loved Emily since her relatable flummox in that "would that it'were so simple" scene in Hail, Caesar! And you can currently see her as an evil diva/villain flipping around and slaughtering people whilst wearing high heels in AMC's Into the Badlands. So thrilled she won Best Actress for Little Joe. Can't wait to see it. This dress almost feels like a Gibson Girl/Edwardian thing only not given the silhouette of the lower half. But is the hair right for it? No, but whatever. CONGRATS ON THE WIN.
62-63 KIMBERLEY GARNER and FATMA AL REMAIHI
60-61 ELLE FANNING and PRIYANKA CHOPRA
58-59 ELODIE BOUCHEZ and CATRINEL MARLON
Catrinel is risking a swan dress, 19 years after Björk
55-56-57 ELODIE BOUCHEZ, SARA LEGGE, MARGOT ROBBIE
Had to put Legge & Robbie side by side because this is peak maximalism/minimalism in color decisions but both look amazing.
54 ELLE FANNING
Like a fairie princess floating up the iconic steps- sadly this dress was much more of a generically beautifully thing once the tulle cape/cloak was removed.
53 JULIANNE MOORE
We've seen her wear variations of this gown for years -- which is the only reason it's not higher -- but it it aint broke dont' fix it. Nobody wears this color like Julianne.
51-52 AMBER HEARD and XIAOTONG GUAN
50 CHLOE SEVIGNY
How Chloe got her groove edge back.
48-49 ZHANG ZIYI and NADINE LABAKI
47 AISHWARYA RAI
Even when Aishwarya is "off-duty" at Cannes she makes everyone else look like a civilian, as if she's the only movie star.
45-46 SARA FORESTIER and ELLE FANNING
Loved Forestier's style at every appearance though we weren't really familiar with this French actress before this particular Cannes ceremony. She co-stars in the new Lea Seydoux movie Oh Mercy!
44 PRIYANKA CHOPRA
43 SRIRITA JENSEN
40-42 VIRGINIE LEDOYEN and MAEVA COUCKE and SALMA HAYEK
Simplicity with intricacy. Three beautiful examples.
38/39 NADINE LABAKI and TONI GARRN
Love this Liz Taylor style gown on Labaki. Random celeb trivia: Apparently Toni Garrn, a German model, is Leonardo DiCaprio's ex girlfriend? And she has a role in the new Spider-Man movie.
36-37 NATASHA POLY and EVA LANSKE
34/35 MILLA JOVOVICH and ADELE EXARCHOPOULOS
32-33 COULEE NAZHA and MAIMOUNA D'DIAYE
29-30-31 MING XI and LI YUCHUN and SHAILENE WOODLEY
We have never in our lives thought of Shailene Woodley as a red carpet kind of actress but she looked amazing and ready for her next big career chapter, don't you think? Big Little Lies has been good to her.