If the Cannes Film Festival would like to be seen as a fashion-adjacent event, then Bella Hadid is arguably the single most important person on its red carpet. The embodiment of everything the sun-soaked Croisette has come to represent—yachts, diamonds, striking beauty – she, in many ways, occupies a more symbolic role in the cultural imagination of Cannes than the actors and filmmakers the festival ostensibly honors. There is, after all, such a thing as a movie star being too beautiful, too untouchable—which is where Hadid comes in: an apparition posing in a cut-out Tom Ford-era Gucci dress.
And yet, it is Hadid’s aura that stirs the spirit. It is the equine grace with which she glides before photographers; the regal balcony waves she offers from the Hôtel Martinez, recalling Sophia Loren in 1959. Consider 2024, when she arrived on the red carpet in an (almost) nude fall 2024 Saint Laurent gown before drifting down the Croisette in vintage Gianni Versace and licking ice cream on the shores of Plage du Midi in a Hushidar Mortezaie dress patchworked from keffiyeh fabric. Or the Chanel fall 1986 ball gowns and gilded Schiaparelli lungs—one of the most important looks in contemporary red-carpet history—of 2021, and the thigh-slit Roberto Cavalli dresses and Jean Paul Gaultier corsets that came before.
Last year brought yet another headline-making Cannes chapter for Hadid. Less than 24 hours before the opening ceremony of the festival’s 78th edition, organizers issued a surprise amendment to the dress code. “For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival,” read the official guidance. “Voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theatre are not permitted.” And yet there was Hadid, stepping onto the carpet in a slit-up-to-there silk-satin gown whose cross-back construction hinted, still, at impropriety. (Proof, perhaps, that the model, and the brands she represents, might have more power than the festival itself.)
Now, the model has touched down at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Even in her off-duty look—a 1999 Prada Sport set—she reminded us who runs this town. Here, revisit some of Bella Hadid’s most unforgettable appearances from 2016 to now in the gallery below.
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