The secret of sexy at 50 – and beyond
They tried to ban selfies, sought to banish flat shoes (I like Kristen Stewart even more after she navigated that dumb rule by removing her cartoonishly high heels on Tuesday night, to go barefoot) and they don’t like Netflix… can’t you just picture the Cannes Film Festival’s governing body as a bunch of King Canutes, waving their fists at the fag-ash flecked Med as it laps against their ankles?
They may be dinosaurs fighting the questionable fight (like the Académie Française standing firmly but impotently against the hideously clumsy Franglecisms that keep invading their language) but the ever evolving display of modern female fabulousness – and male marvellousness – on the Croisette is a joy.
I’m not talking about the folderol of tackiness that has always been a deliciously entertaining spectacle, ever since Simone Silva flung off her bikini top to pose beachside with
Robert Magnum in
1954 (if only Instagram had been around she’d have been invited to host the 1955 Met Ball – see Bella Hadid’s efforts last week). I mean the 10-day
passeggiata of ageless style.
Thanks to Cannes, ageless has acquired an extra nuance this past week. The many older women who have been getting it so right this Cannes (Cate Blanchett, Isabelle Huppert, Julianne Moore, Khadja Nin) aren’t trying to look younger, necessarily. They’re not borrowing outfits that make you wince slightly, because they’d look better on a younger woman, nor do they seem hell bent on capturing some of that Kardashian radioactive sales pitch that passes for sexiness.
Even Jane Fonda bade farewell to her usual slightly too-tight, slightly desperate looking mermaid dresses – the ones that make her look like a mummy, of the embalmed variety – and looked a thousand times more radiant for it.
But they’re not going gently into that good night in safe neutral muumuus either. As professional Parisian and style plate Caroline de Maigret told me, “Sometimes I think women confuse slutty with sexy. Sexy is not about putting it all out there. It can be a white cotton shirt. It’s the way you button, or unbutton it…”
The mesmerising glow emanating from those older women in Cannes comes from the fact that they’re choosing the outfits that work best for them. They’ve been round the shopping block a few dozen times now, and they know what suits. Jane Fonda’s Mary Katrantzou kaleidoscope ballgown was a masterclass demonstration of the right gown matched to the right attitude (diva). Isabelle Huppert’s sheer blouse and tuxedo suit (quintessential Saint Laurent) was a prime display of look-don’t-come near sexiness. Julianne Moore’s Saint Laurent asymmetric bodiced gown was everything a woman of 57 is supposed to fear: sleeveless and bra-unfriendly; while her white flapper Givenchy number firmly revealed her knees. As for Cate Blanchett – the woman keeps wearing fairy-tale ballgowns – and looking amazing.
The point is that with rules, most bets are off now. You wear what works in the room, not in some dusty, generic manual.
Chanel famously said, “Nature gives you the face you have at 20. Life shapes the face you have at 30. But at 50 you get the face you deserve.” And the confidence you’ve worked for.