The Current - Why the ban on nudity at Cannes red carpet is ‘hypocritical’

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

Halle Berry had an emergency outfit change at the Cannes Film Festival this week, after organizers implemented a new dress code that bans nudity and “voluminous outfits,” especially those with large trains. Fashion critic Katharine Zarrella says the new rules are hypocritical: demanding women cover up on the red carpet, while celebrating and commercializing nudity on screen.

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why the internet sucks now, whose fault it is, and my plan to fix it. Find Who Broke the Internet on whatever terrible app you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. Halle Berry had an emergency outfit change at the Cannes Film Festival this week. I had an amazing dress by Gupta to wear tonight, and I cannot wear because the train is too big,

so I, of course, I'm going to follow the rules, so I had to make a pivot. But the nudity part, I do think, is probably also a good rule. And those rules are the new dress code for the Cannes Festival. No nudity, as she was mentioning, and no voluminous outfits, especially those with large trains. Every spring stars descend on the French Riviera

to attend the festival and the Cannes red carpet style is known for being big and bold and cheeky, sometimes quite literally, with nearly naked dresses. People on the streets of Cannes wait in on the new rules. I think freedom of expression is fine. with nearly naked dresses. People on the streets of Cannes wait in on the new rules. I think freedom of expression is fine. I think you do you. I don't see the problem with it. I'm not a prude.

I think this is a formal event. We're all dressed nice. Let's show off our nice clothes. I disagree. I think any ban for women how to express themselves and how they want to dress is bad. And it's France after all, they love nudity here. No, no nudity, I say keep that for close doors.

Fair enough. Catherine Zarella is a fashion critic, writer and lecturer at the Parson School of Design in New York and Central St. Martin's Design College in England. She joins us from New York City. Catherine, good morning. Good morning. In a New York Times opinion piece, you called the new dress code in Cannes, quote, tone deaf at best and misogynistic at worst. Tell us why you feel that way.

It's 2025, and I don't believe it's appropriate to please women or frankly anyone, any adult human being, and what they're wearing. anyone, any adult human being, and what they're wearing. It's, the festival was launched, you know, on the idea of free expression. It was actually a move against fascism. And the whole point is to be free and express oneself. And that this is the absolute antithesis of that.

So, which brings me to the question, why now? And like, why now and who asked for this? You know, it's a little strange that it's happening right now. I mean, some people that I interviewed when I was writing my story suggested that it had something to do with the, you know, shifting political ideas to, you know,

being more conservative. However, there was also some controversy at last year's festival, as far as large dresses and, you know, two celebrities were stepped on, you know, one celebrity was stepped on, one got into a confrontation with a security guard about trying to show a train, and that received a lot of bad press. So I did ask the Cannes Film Festival Press Department why this was happening, and I didn't get a direct response, but I have to imagine that played into it in some small way.

But was there, were there people who were saying this has gotta be reined in? I mean, were there people who were going public with their complaints? Not to my knowledge. I think that there's always a lot of opinion about fashion and what people are wearing. I mean, there's fashion commentary,

that's the whole point of it. We all talk about what people wear at the Met Gala. Was it good? Was it bad? And was it appropriate? Which I think is a ridiculous word at this point in time. But I didn't hear anyone that I was in contact with, any of my sources or anyone in the industry saying, oh my gosh, the Cannes dress code is out of control.

You also see hypocrisy in these rules. How so? But you know, this idea about women, what they can wear on screen versus what they can wear on the red carpet. Well, it seems that, you know, when women have autonomy and want to have control over how they present their bodies in real life, it's, oh no, that's absolutely lewd. Don't show your areola. But if it's on the screen and the director,

whether it's a man or woman or otherwise, is saying, strip down, this is great for the art of the film, it's totally fine. So it just seems a little strange to police it in one place and not in another. We use that word policing. The Festival Press Office says, in the use of their words, the aim is not to regulate attire per se,

but to prohibit full nudity on the red carpet in accordance with the institutional framework of the event and French law. So that's a mouthful. What do you say to that? Well, first of all, the institutional framework of the event, as I mentioned previously, it was all about freedom of expression and rebellion. So I don't think that that really tracks. But also there's no definition, and I did ask them to clarify this, of what full nudity means. So is it a high slit? Is it a sheer talk by a fantastic French designer?

It's not fair to put these rules in place and then not give anyone any real guidance. From what I understand, and I understand very little about this, so I'll be very upfront about that, naked dressing is its own category of dressing now. So tell me, what is naked dressing? Naked dressing, there's a lot of manifestations of naked dressing now. But you know, Cameron Diaz did it in 2000, and Beyoncé really broke the mold when she did it, or in the 2000s, rather, and Beyoncé broke the mold when she did it at the 2012 Met Gala

in a Givenchy gown that actually had some modesty panels, but it was otherwise fully sheer and beaded, and it caused a huge sensation. And ever since then, it's been getting a bit more risqué and risqué and risqué, and now it's then, it's been getting a bit more risque and risque and risque. And now it's just there's no modesty panels. It's just you can be as sheer and nude as you'd like. You can layer it.

You cannot. It's whatever your level of comfort is. And I did kind of explode a bit after the pandemic or as we were emerging from lockdown, I think, as we all were sick of wearing our pajamas and wanted to go the complete opposite direction. Can has a has a history of controversy around fashion rules. You know, women must wear heels and now apparently men must wear tuxedos, uh, as part of these new dress codes. So, you know, what, is this just not a continuation of what has been longstanding policies?

I don't necessarily think that those have been explicit policies. I mean, when there was the controversy about women wearing heels and both Kristen Stewart and Julia Roberts rebelled against that and walked the red carpet barefoot. But that was never an explicitly written rule. People were just being allegedly turned away from the red carpet. So I don't think it's a really a continuation of rules that have been in some kind of fashion charter somewhere, dictating what people should or should not wear to respect the integrity of the festival. Although French law allows women to go topless on beaches, so some people are thinking, well, if you can,

if it's okay on the beach of Cannes, why is it not okay on the red carpets of Cannes? I couldn't agree more. I think it's, you know, there's a great image, and I'm not sure what year it was, but I believe Monica Bellucci, you know, at the Cannes Film Festival next to a nude model who's sunbathing.

And I think that's just kind of the antithesis of the freedom of what Cannes should be about. Is this just- Not the antithesis, sorry, an example of what the Cannes should be about. Is this just a Cannes thing, or do other film festivals have strict rules about dress as well? To my knowledge, and this wasn't something

I researched very deeply for the story, there's nothing quite this explicit and it's caused this much of a ruckus. I think because Cannes is arguably the most prestigious film festival in the world, all eyes are on Cannes. It has fashion sponsors, and that means that there's going to be

a lot of explosive fashion on the red carpet. People pay the most attention to it. Like, yes, you have the Venice Film Festival as well, where there's great fashion, but I think the Cannes, you know, gets, it's quite a bit more attention to that. So I think that's why we're so fixated on the rules that they've come out with. And yet some people have welcomed these rules because in their opinion, the fashion, especially those nearly nude moments, have really put the focus on the clothing and not the films. What do you think about that logic? Well, if they really don't want any focus on the clothing, don't accept sponsorship from massive fashion brands and don't accept the press coverage and the prestige the festival

gets from that coverage from celebrities and models and what they're coverage and the prestige the festival gets from that coverage from celebrities and models and what they're wearing on the red carpet. You can't have it both ways. Either accept the fashion element of all of this and all of the good that it brings the festival as far as exposure, or shut it down, don't have a massive red carpet

with tons and tons of photographers and celebrities. Just quietly walk in and see the film and talk about the films. Tell me about what you've heard from the celebrities themselves, from the people themselves who will be walking that red carpet. How are they feeling? We heard Halle Berry talking about how she had to do a little bit of a costume or an outfit rejig before she went out there because of a long train. What else have you heard about other celebrities and their feelings about this dress code?

What I've actually heard is that no one cares. Everyone's going to do what they want to do and wear what they want to wear. I mean, oftentimes these outfits, these gowns, et cetera, are custom-made months in advance. So when you hear something a day or two before the festival saying there's these new rules, like there's not much you can do.

You're not going to completely have a new gown custom-made in 24 hours. It's a little bit wild to ask someone to do that. You know, some people listening might think this is not such a big deal. After all, we're talking about celebrities in a big fancy festival, red carpet. But what kind of impact do you think this could have beyond the red carpet in Cannes?

I think it's a bigger conversation about specifically women, but largely policing what people are wearing and also about supporting women. There was a controversy with the festival and Harvey Weinstein, obviously, and they made a lot of moves, I believe it was in 2018, to support women and highlight female directors. And there's a hotline for people to call if they felt like there was inappropriate behavior or sexual harassment. And that all just feels a bit false

if you're performative rather, if you're going to then say, oh, watch out everybody. Like let's clutch our pearls at your slightly sheer gown. So I think that it's sending a message. It's a global platform. People are watching this. And if you're policing women on this platform, it makes it seem more acceptable

in other realms of our lives. I guess I interpret from that the sense that you feel that it was probably men who were imposing these rules. Do we know whether it was women who actually had a voice in bringing in the stress code? I asked twice, actually, who actually made these decisions, and if it was a governing body, how many people on the body were, there were women, and I did not get a reply. So at this point, there's no way for me to know,

but I'm still trying to dig into it. What's your gut tell you? My gut tells me that it's probably not a bunch of younger women on this panel, if the panel even exists. But again, I don't know anything for certain. That's a heck of a story that we have uncovered here on The Current this morning. Catherine, thanks so much for your time. We really appreciate this. Thank you. This has been The Current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca slash The Current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.