Few red carpets are as strictly formal as the Cannes Film Festival. Yet while men are asked to adhere to the relatively painless tuxedo and dress shoes, women are still expected to wear a dress and—more controversially—heels.
When you’re Julia Roberts, though, such conventions are made to be broken. In 2016, Roberts walked the entire length of the red carpet in a floor-skimming Armani Privé gown, before lifting her skirt to walk the steps up to the Palais des Festivals to reveal she’d done so barefoot. (Sacre bleu!) And to mark her first time returning to La Croisette since 2016 earlier this evening, Roberts chose once again to bring her own, distinctive twist to Cannes—red carpet customs be damned.
Attending the premiere of the Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins-starring Armageddon Time, Roberts and her stylist Elizabeth Stewart went for a razor-sharp Louis Vuitton jumpsuit that riffed on the formal elements of the tuxedo. (The playfully androgynous piece even featured a set of tails.) To finish the look, Roberts accessorized with a pair of strappy stilettos and a dazzling Chopard necklace featuring a 100-carat yellow diamond.
Later in the evening, to present the Chopard trophies to the breakout acting talents Sheila Atim and Jack Lowden at a star-studded gala dinner, Roberts switched into another timeless tailoring staple, this time in the form of a classic Dior bar jacket with a glittering brooch in the shape of a rose tucked into its sleek satin lapel.
Roberts has never been afraid to rip up the sartorial rulebook, after all. At her whirlwind wedding to the country singer Lyle Lovett in 1993, Roberts also went barefoot, while at the 1999 premiere of her rom-com classic Notting Hill, the actor caused a stir by posing in her sleeveless sequined Vivienne Tam dress with unshaved armpits. As a master of boxy, oversized tailoring—her David Byrne-esque Armani suit at the 1990 Golden Globes being a particular highlight—Roberts’s various takes on the tuxedo today are just the latest in her long history of borrowing from the boys.
Plus, if one of the bouncers had even tried to turn her away for not ascribing to the standard of a frothy ball gown earlier today? Roberts would have been able to repeat one of her greatest on-screen lines, as told to a snooty shop assistant in Pretty Woman. “Big mistake. Big! Huge!” And as far as I see it, she’d be well within her rights to do so.