What The Cannes ‘Nude Dressing’ Ban Says About Purity Culture

Cannes is an annual French film festival and a major event in the fashion calendar. It is a cultural phenomenon that celebrates film, art and style. Year after year, viewers tune in to see a myriad of ensembles worn by the most renowned actors, filmmakers, models and musicians.

This year is no different; but with a new strict dress code being enforced it proves that conservatism has unfortunately reemerged.

As stated on the official Festival de Cannes website, nudity on the red carpet and anywhere else is prohibited “for decency reasons.” This inevitably rules out sheer dresses and nude looks showing body parts, which primarily affects women attending the festival.

Many female celebrities have worn sheer outfits on the Cannes red carpet such as Bella Hadid, Irina Shayk and Julia Fox. These women, among others, have been lauded for their daring fashion choices that defy the traditional modest and puritanical roles foisted upon women.

 

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France is a country long renowned for its cinema and specifically, nudity on screen. There are many factors that contribute to this historically laissez-faire attitude.

Primarily, the French New Wave saw directors like Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut create films that were frank and politically engaging in their inclusion and expression of sexuality and the naked form. French culture is somewhat synonymous with freedom and sexual expression. So why the sudden change in the Cannes Film Festival ethos?

It is undoubtedly symbolic of an unnerving direction that culture seems to be taking. The banning of nudity to promote ‘decency’ perpetuates the archaic idea that a woman’s naked body is somehow ‘indecent.’ It is an extreme rule that should not be enforced in the year 2025; a time when women’s rights worldwide are being threatened every day.

 

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Women in Afghanistan living under Taliban rule are not allowed to show their faces or speak in public. In the United States, Donald Trump’s presidency has called for restrictions on reproductive rights nationwide. Along with the nudity ban at Cannes, all these issues point to a rising purity culture.

We can’t look at any one of these issues as separate from one another; while varying in extremity they all contribute to a culture where women’s freedom of expression, therefore their fundamental rights as human beings, are restricted.

So, what is purity culture? Purity culture is part of the belief that women should be chaste and not participate in sexual activity or express their sexuality in any way. This includes the way women dress and express themselves visually.

It is particularly harmful because it foists the responsibility of men’s sexual thoughts, behaviours and actions onto women, which we know is dangerous as it can lead to a culture of blame and sexual assault. While commonly associated with American Christianity, it is not specific to it because as we know, “gender and sexual control upon which purity culture stands is global, cross-religious, and cross-cultural.”

 

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Additionally, the festival has banned “voluminous outfits, particularly those with a long train” due to their impracticality both on the red carpet and with seating within the theatre. This rule bears on restrictive but at least has a practical reason for being established.

The nude dressing ban, on the other hand, doesn’t hold the same significance as its limitations are primarily related to covering the naked body, which is simply a natural part of life. Come on, Cannes; why so prudish?

We can only hope that celebrities and their stylists will not totally succumb to the dress code; after all, where’s the fun in that?

Words by Sarah Hanrahan