Traditionally during the beginning of May, there is the much-awaited Cannes Film Festival and just as importantly the festival’s red carpet, which has been known for its stringent dress codes and fresh-faced crop of French actresses. But due to COVID-19, it has been canceled this year, which makes for a good opportunity to look back at Cannes red carpets of yore, especially the red carpets from the nineties and noughties. There are some stellar early-’90s gems, including a baby-faced Cameron Diaz in 1994 wearing an elegant suit and a bombshell Sharon Stone who wore a curve-hugging dress with daisies plastered on the chest in 1992.
But what would Cannes be without the French actresses? In the mix is the hypnotic, gap-toothed Béatrice Dalle in a corseted dress from 1999, 19-year-old Charlotte Gainsbourg in an easy black dress from 1990, and a smoldering Ludivine Sagnier in 2003, who wore a slinky white dress and arrived arm in arm with costar Charlotte Rampling, who sported a suit.
When Naomi Campbell attended the festival as an actor (not a model) in 1996, she stepped onto the red carpet in a tight neon green dress alongside her costar Theresa Randle and Spike Lee, the director of the film Girl 6. In the film, Campbell iconically wore a shirt that read Models Suck. Call both looks something to remember.
Here, see the best throwback noughties moments from the Cannes Film Festival.