Heads were scratched in 2025, when the Cannes Film Festival announced it was banning naked dresses on its red carpet. What exactly would Bella Hadid - queen of the Croissette, pioneer of the groin-grazing dress slit, lover of nipple-revealing sheer Saint Laurent - wear on the most provocative red carpet of them all?
For the sake of the viewing success of our best-dressed galleries, we'd ideally like the rules of the Cannes red carpet to be broken, (thank you Kristen Stewart who has already worn sheer Chanel and strictly prohibited trainers, twice!), but it seems that in 2026, the most titillating body part to be exposed on the red carpet is not the boob (see Kendall Jenner in 2018) or the butt (cast your mind back to Victoria Abril in 2005), but the calf!
Back in 2021, ITV proposed the introduction of an exclusive "Calves Cam", which would track the movements of Jack Grealish's much-adored lower legs, during the Euros. A similar initiative could be installed on the pontoon of the Hôtel Martinez. Cue: Demi Moore wearing black Magda Butrym pedal pushers and a matching peplum jacket - plucked from the seven suitcases her stylist Brad Goreski packed for Cannes. Plus Leïla Bekhti sporting Alaïa shin slicers, paired with an autumn/winter 1992 buckled jacket from Gianni Versace's Bondage collection. Back in Blighty, Claudia Winkleman became the first woman to take to the winners podium at the BAFTA Television Awards in capri pants, accepting the Best Reality TV gong on behalf of The Celebrity Traitors earlier this month, in black clam diggers and white heeled pumps.
