When Isabelle Huppert’s stylist tells you it’s going to be a “big one,” you know you better buckle in and get the popcorn ready. When Venice Film Festival is involved, second helpings are required. This is, after all, the 71-year-old Parisienne, who basically birthed French insouciance and is now too cool to meet the gaze of the paparazzi, so wears flash-shielding Balenciaga sunglasses instead. “It says, ‘I’m here, but like whatever,’” says her longtime dresser, Jonathan Huguet, of her “twisted” premiere looks that define nonchalance.
“What we had in mind for the opening night of Venice was something bold, but with all the classicism of Italy,” shares Huguet, who found his answer in Demna’s first Balenciaga haute couture collection: an opera coat dress that, for him, conjured up the image of ’50s divas frequenting the theatre. Realized in a vivid “Italian-pope red,” and accompanied by white elbow-length gloves and Cartier jewelry, there was no doubt this was a look befitting the head juror of the 2024 festival. Beetlejuice, who? Huppert’s red-carpet peers didn’t stand a chance.
