Uma Thurman at the 77th Cannes Film Festival
While promoting Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga this past Thursday at the 77th Annual Cannes Film Festival, actress Anya Taylor-Joy sported a midriff-baring skirt suit—two contradictory concepts Jil Sander’s Luke and Lucie Meier fused in a manner few could achieve. The ensemble from the Fall ‘24 collection featured an ultra-cropped jacket and mid-length coordinating skirt in a textured creamy silk bouclé knit with shredded trim. On the runway, the designers layered in a shirt, which Taylor-Joy and stylist Law Roach chose to forgo (though they kept the bedazzled headpiece).
Anya Taylor-Joy at the 77th Cannes Film Festival
Courtesy of Jil Sander
Diane Kruger at the 77th Cannes Film Festival
Courtesy of Balenciaga
Diane Kruger took a different approach to the idea with a bright blue wool Balenciaga number cut in an avant-garde ’80s silhouette while attending the 2024 Kering Women In Motion Awards and Cannes Film Festival Presidential Dinner. This haute couture set featured an exaggerated neckline and a thigh-high slit rather than a slashed hemline.
Uma Thurman channeled Christian Dior’s New Look with an hourglass blazer and matching full skirt from Erdem rendered in floral-printed black and white tweed. (Coincidentally, French musician Yseult sported a literal rendition of the house’s iconic ensemble with a white blazer and black skirt from Dior.) Model Cindy Bruna donned a grey Laruicci maxi skirt and coat with Balenciaga-ified proportions. Zoe Saldana donned one of Saint Laurent’s pencil skirts paired with a blazer of a similar hue. And similar skirt sets appeared on the bodies of Selena Gomez and Tess Barthélemy.
Yseult at the 77th Cannes Film Festival
Courtesy of Dior
Cindy Bruna at the 77th Cannes Film Festival
Getty Images
The strict black-tie dress code on Cannes red carpets has instigated many controversies in the past for its rules around high heels, jackets, and ties. Still, a level of sophistication has become de rigueur on and off the red carpet. A skirt suit connotes elegance, channeling the grace of Coco Chanel and Princess Diana and the savvy of Melanie Griffith’s Tess McGill and any of the Heathers. However, the suits currently taking over the French Riviera wouldn’t fit in an episode of The Crown or Working Girl.
It’s not the first time the style has gotten funky. The house of Chanel is most known for its renditions of the set, notably worn with a youthful twist by Olivia Rodrigo on her visit to the White House in 2021 with a teeny tiny skirt and massive platform heels. That isn’t the MO in this case, either, though. The Cannes wearers championed the sophistication of a skirt suit, showing less skin in favor of larger portions and unique fabrications. Even Taylor-Joy complimented her bare stomach with a longer hemline, full sleeves, and a high neckline. Guests may have been drinking the Cannes Kool-Aid (or, should we say, French 75s), but the choices appear to have staying power beyond the red carpets of the French coastal town.