Nicole Kidman at Cannes: The Secrets of Dressing the Festival’s Biggest Star

Kidman’s longtime stylist Julia von Boehm tells  about outfitting the Oscar winner for Cannes.

This week,  Nicole Kidman arrives on the Promenade de la Croisette as the belle (and busiest star) of the Cannes Film Festival, with four projects to premiere:  Jane Campion’s Yorgos Lanthimos’s Sofia Coppola’s and  John Cameron Mitchell’s Kidman’s packed schedule requires the Oscar-winning actress to walk the famous Palais red carpet four times, appear at four press conferences and photo calls,  attend countless other events. That means Kidman needs over a dozen high-fashion looks flown to the French Riviera that meet the star’s unrivaled red-carpet record. How in the sartorial hell will she pull it off?

How Cannes Is Different from Other Red Carpets

“I think about the Cannes red carpet as being more than the dress or the carpet itself,” says von Boehm. “I imagine the Croisette and the backdrop. The festival is in the summer too, so I love to see great colors.”

To honor the location, von Boehm favors European designers and takes advantage of the festival’s whimsy—dressing the star in a completely different way for each event on Kidman’s non-stop schedule. Von Boehm says that this year she pulled two designer gowns for each premiere—“I try to be overprepared,” she says—and is choreographing looks so that Kidman will be constantly alternating silhouettes, colors, and sparkling elements to keep each fashion moment exciting and surprising.

“She can really wear anything,” says von Boehm. “She gets a little chilly easily and likes to be covered, so I really like her in long sleeves. So we go a lot for that. A very deep, plunging neckline works perfectly on her because she has a beautiful chest. We also lean toward silhouettes that are tight on her shape. We like to accentuate the waist usually, because she has a tiny waist. Lengthwise, a lot of different lengths work on her.