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Cannes Film Festival bans nudity after Ye, Bianca Censori's Grammys stunt. Is it a new era?

Sorry, Bianca Censori (and other celebrities inspired by her controversial Grammys look). If you want to attend Cannes this year, you're going to have to wear clothes.

The illustrious Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off May 13 in France, has released its dress code for this year − including an explicit instruction not to wear anything, well, explicit.

"For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the Red Carpet, as well as in any other area of the Festival," the festival's website reads.

The stipulation may come as a disappointment to some celebrities, especially those who've made waves recently for ultra-revealing red carpet fashion, like Censori, who hit the Grammys' red carpet in January with her husband Ye, formerly Kanye West, in an entirely see-through dress that pretty much exposed her entire naked body to photographers and anybody else nearby.

Fashion and sociology experts previously told USA TODAY the red carpet trend of nudity for nudity's sake speaks a lot to gender, agency and power in our culture. The fact it seems to have reached its extreme in Censori and Ye, however, may signal the trend is finally about to die − and that a new one could be on the horizon.

"The only thing you can count on in fashion is that what goes up must come down," Lorynn Divita, a professor of apparel design and merchandising and the author of the book "Fashion Forecasting," previously told USA TODAY. "Eventually, people will get tired and the cycle will change."

 

Kanye West and model Bianca Censori arrive for the 67th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2025.
Kanye West and model Bianca Censori arrive for the 67th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2025. Robyn Beck, AFP Via Getty Images

 

Is the Cannes dress code a signal of that change?

The significance of red carpet nudity

Nudity is a fraught topic, and it often means different things to different people. To some, it's a symbol of sexual empowerment and liberation. To others, a symbol of degradation and objectification.

Fashion and sociology experts previously told USA TODAY that, when examining the significance of any bold fashion statement, context is key − and with nudity it's no different.

For instance, remember when Rose McGowan wore a see-through dress to the MTV Video Music Awards in 1998? One of the first major advocates of the Hollywood #MeToo movement, McGowan said she went with the nearly naked look to reclaim a sense of agency over her body after she was assaulted by disgraced film producer, and now-convicted sex offender, Harvey Weinstein.

“It was my first big public appearance after being sexually assaulted," she told Yahoo! Entertainment years later. "It was like at the end of 'Gladiator' when he comes out and he's like, ‘Are you not entertained?’ And if you look at me, I did it with power. I didn't do it with my hand on my hip to be sexy."

Degrading or empowering? Why people can't stop talking about Bianca Censori’s naked dress.

She got a lot of flak for it at the time, but McGowan said her critics missed the point. Some of her supporters have too: "Most of the women that have done homages or dressed kind of like that on the red carpet, it's a calculated, sexy move to turn people on. Mine was like, 'I’m gonna (mess) with your brain.'"

Ye and Censori, however, likely had different intentions. Shira Tarrant, a women’s, gender and sexuality studies professor and the author of "The Pornography Industry: What Everyone Needs to Know," previously told USA TODAY that the image of a naked Censori next to a full-clothed Ye was likely meant to signal the rapper's power over her.

Not only did it show Ye's power over Censori, Tarrant added − it also showed his power over you, the viewer. After all, no one on the Grammys red carpet consented to seeing Censori naked when she decided to drop her coat. Neither did anyone who opened social media that week, only to be bombarded with images of the moment.

The Cannes dress code and why the nudity trend may be dying

If you're sick of seeing nude or nearly nude looks at major fashion events, the Cannes announcement is a signal that nudity for nudity's sake could be on its way out.

For decades, it seems clothing in American pop culture has grown more and more revealing − to the point where the last thing left to do that's shocking is appear naked.

With nowhere left to turn, fashion might finally need to find a new trend, something Divita calls "the pendulum of fashion." It's one of the only things you can count on in an otherwise fickle and unpredictable industry − that, once a trend gets exhausted, it means its opposite is probably on the horizon.

This isn't just happening on red carpets either; club attire is changing too. On TikTok, a new Gen Z fashion trend has taken hold: wearing long, flowing dresses− dubbed "milkmaid dresses" − out clubbing. Kendall Jenner even seems to have gotten in on it, turning heads in one of these types of dresses at Weekend 1 of Coachella.

"We have gotten to a point with clubwear that we are so used to tight, revealing clothing that we're fatigued of it," Divita previously told USA TODAY. "We've seen it. We've been there. We've done that."

More: Kendall Jenner's modest Coachella look and why Gen Z is wearing 'milkmaid dresses' to the club

The same thing also happened with skinny jeans, Divita said: They kept getting skinner and skinner until, seemingly all of a sudden, flared and baggy pants were back in.

Does Cannes banning nudity now mean that trend is over too?

"The one thing that we can always know is that nothing in fashion lasts forever," Divita said. "It's always in flux."

Author: Charles Trepany

Source: USA Today

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