The official Cannes Film Festival dress code involves formal gowns, little black dresses, and any shoes but trendy sneakers. The unofficial dress code, unfolding outside luxury hotels and seaside boutiques, favors an all-white palette above all else. It's a time-honored tradition for stars like Bella Hadid and Selena Gomez to reach the French enclave in shades of ivory, cream, and ecru, and for me to cover them all at Marie Claire, wondering how I could ever get away with white-on-white in real life.
I've always loved the look of a crisp white sundress and have worn my share of white skirt outfits. Those looks hardly lasted 24 hours without a scuff mark or stain when I wear them, however. It's like there was a magnetic pull between the clean fabric and the nearest open bottle of Tabasco sauce. By the time a day of wearing white would end, I regretted ever deviating from patterns and prints. But as Bella Hadid touched down in Cannes for the festival's 2025 installment, I suddenly wanted to shelve my skepticism of the all-white summer look anyway.
