At Cannes, the women over 50 are modernising French Riviera style
Uma Thurman, Andie Macdowell, Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert are showing the rest how it’s done off the red carpet at Cannes.
What a week and a half it’s been at the Cannes Film Festival, which brings opulence in spades to the French Riviera. Since 1939, the fortnight-long event has ushered cinema’s finest to the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, each dolled up in that Old Hollywood fashion — princess gowns, hair flips, red lips — that has become the Cannes signature. Think juror Elle Fanning in Dior’s New Look in 2019, Kate Moss in an angelic white slip dress in 1998, or of course, Princess Diana in 1987, wearing a blue Catherine Walker dress inspired by Grace Kelly’s chiffon frock in Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (1955).
In its 76th year, Cannes remains very much the same, its red carpet teeming with It-girls in It-dresses. But, and perhaps truer to the spirit of Côte d‘Azur, there’s been style of an equal calibre off the carpet and on the streets, spotted outside the famous Hotel Martinez, or touching down at Mandelieu Airport. And while younger stars like Iris Law and Laura Harrier have impressed in sweet knits and sunglasses, it’s the women over 50 who have been leading the sartorial charge, taking Riviera chic and turning it on its head.
Uma Thurman, in town to attend the screening of period romance Jeanne du Barry, was one of the first to offer her spin on French style. She was spotted on day one in a relaxed greige suit and kitten heels, slung over a white T-shirt and topped off with a straw boater by Christian Dior. Thurman followed it up a day later with an all-noir look: a bolero jacket and a drop-waist midi dress, accessorised with sandals and a mini bag. There’s an eternal pull to classic pieces, pared back with a casual shoe or headpiece. Thurman put as much on full display.
Andie Macdowell, meanwhile, channelled the je ne sais quoi of Cannes regular Jane Birkin, playing into the fantasy of the Riviera in two looks that were distinctly Gallic. She paired her first, a white pinstripe dress, with a beige tote and espadrille wedges — the French shoe of choice for the summer. The actress then swapped into wide-leg linen trousers and clogs. A ruffled white blouse and suede jacket completed the ensemble; again, there was more than a hint of Birkin’s bohemian influence.
And mixing the effortlessness of Cannes street style with the contemporary edge of streetwear? Why, none other than the Academy Award-winning Michelle Yeoh and film veteran Isabelle Huppert, showing the cool kids how it’s done in leather outerwear and chunky sneakers. Oversized cat-eyes have made frequent appearances in Yeoh’s Cannes closet, which she styled with baggy black trousers, louche white shirts and a silver Balenciaga micro bag. Huppert, on the other hand, pledged her loyalty to the baseball cap in a corduroy piece from Ami.
As Cannes fashion continues to evolve, expanding from Parisian jeans and ’50s silhouettes to runners, biker jackets and more, look to the wiser crowd for your cues on how to dress.