Though the Cannes Film Festival is known for many things, its archaic dress code has become a talking point in recent years. Since its beginnings in 1939 in response to political interference in the Venice Film Festival—a veto from Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler prevented the French war drama, La Grande Illusion, from winning that year—Cannes has billed itself as Europe’s premier showcase for cinema. Set against the backdrop of one of the French Riviera’s most famous resort towns, its rules about dressing stem from the eveningwear norms for guests at the luxury hotels and casinos that line Cannes’s streets. For men, a jacket and tie were standard, while the expectations for women involved high heels and long dresses.
In 1946 when the festival launched officially (World War II resulted in a seven-year gap between inception and opening ceremony), the highly regulated approach to after-hours dressing wasn’t unusual. Still, even in the early days of Cannes, there were…