Julianne Moore’s Best Cannes Red Carpet Style – The Hollywood Reporter

No one doubts Cannes’ credentials as one of the most glamorous places in the world but it can also be quite chaotic. Never for Julianne Moore.

“I always felt that there’s something very comforting about being around Julianne,” says veteran stylist Leslie Fremar, who styled Moore for years, including the majority of her couture-clad appearances up the steps of the Palais in Cannes. “She gives off an aura that nothing is going to go wrong, and she shines that light on her entire team. Everyone then feels that we’re good, we got this. She’s the captain of that and it’s really infectious and calming.”

That energy is the perfect accessory for the film festival and its fashion demands, especially for Moore who has made many an appearance in Cannes where she’s due back again this year to support her work opposite Natalie Portman in Todd Haynes’ competition title May December.

Ahead of her anticipated return, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Fremar who took a walk down memory lane to give the stories behind five of her favorite Cannes collaborations.

2014 in Chanel

Julianne loves feathers — she’s always been enamored by birds and feathers. When this dress arrived to the office, it was just so beautiful and when she put it on, I remember thinking that she looked like the most beautiful bird. There’s something really special about the light in Cannes and when she hit the red carpet, with her hair color and skin tone, she just glistened. I remember this moment like it was yesterday and it still is one of my all-time favorite looks I’ve ever done.

2015 in Armani Privé

Armani custom-made this for her and they sent over these incredible sketches that looked so much like Julianne that it was remarkable. Sometimes when designers send over sketches, you know exactly how the dress is going to look when it arrives and other times, it can be more abstract. But this look was incredible. It’s exactly how she ended up looking. When she put it on, she looked so beautiful as she always does in green tones and feathers. It was such a nice moment. The emerald earrings [from Chopard] really complimented her skin tone, hair color and eyes so we gravitated a lot toward emeralds and amethysts because they always look so beautiful on her.

2015 in Givenchy

This was incredible. We actually did the fitting with Riccardo [Tisci, former creative director] which is always such an amazing experience when you get to fit the dress with the designer. The whole process probably takes six weeks from receiving the sketches, giving feedback, going through swatches and fabrics and then having multiple fittings. It’s definitely a process. When she put it on, it was so magical. Velvet is such a rich fabric that absorbs so much light, so it just makes it read really rich and dark opposed to shiny and reflective. She had a matching shoe in velvet and the way she walked with the slit, I remember that when the pictures went live, it was a very special moment. She looked so confident and sexy. It’s definitely a standout for me.

2018 in Saint Laurent

This dress fit like a glove and was so simple and chic. When we received the sketches, there were different variations on the points and the asymmetry with the angle of the neckline. We ended up picking it as you see it. Sometimes it’s harder to do something simple as opposed to something that is over-the-top and larger-than-life. Making something simple and chic stand out in that environment is not necessarily easy to do. But I feel like she really stood out in that dress with that necklace [from Chopard].

2019 in Givenchy

She needed multiple looks that year and I had gone to the Givenchy suite in Cannes where I saw the dress and said, “Oh my god, what is that? That dress is amazing. She needs to wear it.” Sometimes brands prepare to go to Cannes knowing that things come up last minute for people or you add an event to your schedule so people need clothes. That way, the brands are set up to support those kinds of situations and they had this dress there and we’d never seen it before. They brought it to her room — I believe she was staying at the Martinez that year — and the entire Givenchy team showed up and we did a fitting. It was perfect and she was out the door.

This story first appeared in the May 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.