Bella Hadid Has Always Been at Her Best In Cannes

If the Cannes Film Festival wants to be viewed as a fashion-adjacent event, Bella Hadid is undoubtedly the most important thing on the red carpet. In many ways, for everything the sun-soaked Croisette represents—the yachts, the diamonds, the breathtaking beauty—she occupies a more symbolic role in Cannes’ cultural imagination than the actors and filmmakers the festival ostensibly honors. After all, there are movie stars who are too beautiful and too untouchable—and that’s where Hadid comes in: the ghost in a Tom Ford-era Gucci cutout dress.

However, it was Hadid’s aura that inspired people’s spirits. The equine grace with which she glided in front of photographers; the palatial balcony she presented at the Hôtel Martinez recalled Sophia Loren in 1959. Think 2024, when she hit the red carpet in an (almost) nude Fall 2024 Saint Laurent gown, then drifted down the Croisette in vintage Gianni Versace, licking ice cream on the shores of the Plage du Midi in a Hushidar Mortezaie dress patchworked from turban fabric. Or the 2021 Chanel Fall 1986 ballgown and gilded Schiaparelli lobe—one of the most important looks in contemporary red carpet history, and the thigh-slit Roberto Cavalli dress and Jean Paul Gaultier corset that preceded it.

Last year, Hadid once again made headlines at Cannes. With less than 24 hours to go until the opening ceremony of the 78th annual film festival, organizers have made an unexpected change to the dress code. “For reasons of decency, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet and in any other area of ​​the festival,” the official guidelines read. “Substantial costumes, especially those with large trains, are not allowed as they impede the normal flow of guests and complicate seating within the theatre.” Yet Hadid took to the carpet in a slit silk satin gown, whose crisscrossed back construction still suggested inappropriate behavior. (Perhaps proof that the model and the brand she represents may be more influential than the festival itself.)

Now, the model has landed at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Even in her casual look of a 1999 Prada tracksuit, she reminds us of the king of this town. Here, relive some of Bella Hadid’s most memorable appearances from 2016 to now in the gallery below.