Venice Red Carpet Makes Movies Actually Exciting Again

The movie star is back. To Hollywood, fashion says, "You're welcome."

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If you had asked me eighteen months ago which international film festival would generate way more excitement for movies than this year’s Oscars, I certainly wouldn’t have said, “I know! The Venice Film Festival!” However, an onslaught of red carpet fashion moments at this year’s festival have been both delightful and worthy of discussion, even for those with an average interest in fashion. Hell, they may actively be looking for “VENICE” headlines in the Daily Mail sidebar. I know I am.

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A post shared by Timothée Chalamet (@tchalamet)

Julianne Moore gave the proceedings an early kick in the seat with a black sheer Valentino dress and coordinating cape emblazoned with silver fireworks. Those fireworks foreshadowed things to come: Cate Blanchett in a black Schiaparelli jumpsuit with flowers growing from the bosom; Jodie Turner-Smith in an abstract crayon-printed Christopher John Rogers gown; Taylor Russell in green Balenciaga couture; Natasha Lyonne in a black mini with with feather trim and then a white mini with sparkly trim, both Miu Miu; Timothée Chalamet in a shiny red, slim-cut, backless Haider Ackermann jumpsuit, resembling the most divine stick of red foil-wrapped gum you ever did behold. Also in Ackermann (and then Loewe) was Tilda Swinton, whose hair was neon yellow, she said, to resemble the Ukrainian flag. Each look is its own tasty hors d'oeuvre. It’s kind of like one of those weddings with a huge feast for cocktail hour, where each food you pass looks better than the last, and then you round a corner and find a caviar and vodka bar.

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Then comes dessert, which here was the Don’t Worry Darling crew, stirring up fashion drama in equal measure to actual drama. Florence Pugh wore both surprisingly comfortable-looking purple pajamas and frothy star-spangled black couture, both Valentino. Harry Styles appeared in his Ha Ha Ha line for Gucci, which was rather demure by his standards, despite the nipple-skimming lapels. Maybe that was a choice in order to keep the spotlight on his purported girlfriend, the film’s director Olivia Wilde, who chose for the premiere a memorable bright yellow Gucci gown with strands of crystals that wrapped around her body and cascaded off her shoulders. Chris Pine wore a Ralph Lauren tuxedo with a jacket that was such a mesmerizing flat shade of brown I can’t unsee it. And Gemma Chan looked marvelous in a super-sparkly silver column with floral embellishments, despite it being by Louis Vuitton.

This fashion is creating buzz and excitement for movies — that withering genre of entertainment — that Hollywood has needed for years.

More than a decade ago, I took an assignment from a woman’s magazine meant to decode the fascinating and surprising ways celebrities were using stylists. Celebrity stylists were kind of new at the time — Rachel Zoe was the name everyone was starting to know — and the whole cottage industry of styling was something the masses were just beginning to understand. The magazine wanted the story to be about how celebrities employed stylists to dress them before they did average things like walk to their cars or grocery shop, which I guess was kind of an average person’s fantasy of what being famous and having a stylist must be like. (Because true luxury is having every possible choice, and then having the choice made for you.)

Only, through copious reporting, I learned that most celebrities didn’t actually do what the magazine wished they were doing.