Not too long ago, the Cannes Film Festival had a strict red carpet rule: No flat shoes. The festival’s longstanding requirement stated that women must wear heels, but in recent years many stars have rebuked the idea that formal dress must include stilettos. In 2018, for instance, Kristen Stewart famously kicked off her sky-high Christian Louboutin stilettos, and walked the step and repeat barefoot. “I feel like you can’t ask people that any more,” Stewart said in 2017. “If you’re not asking guys to wear heels and a dress, you cannot ask me either.” While the shoe rule is no longer in effect—it quietly dissolved sometime after 2018—leave it to a style icon like Isabelle Huppert to bring back the debate on red carpet appropriate footwear this weekend.
Attending the Killers of the Flower Moon premiere last night, the French actor wore a black Balenciaga lace turtleneck gown with the label’s “Pantabodysuit” underneath—but it was her barely there shoes that stole the show. Huppert finished off the look with Balenciaga’s nude Anatomic heels, which have a cheeky molded toe design; The polarizing shoe style is meant to resemble the anatomy of a naked human foot. While Huppert did, in fact, wear stilettos on the carpet, her choice of non-shoe shoes could be seen as a way to poke fun at the former requirement. She chose the most forward-thinking, not to mention divisive, version of a heel that she could possibly find! Then again, she’s always been a fashion risk-taker.
