"High heels" mandatory in Cannes: Isn't this rule long outdated?

Film festival 2021 in Cannes: Many stars do without high heels

It was one of the most memorable moments at the Cannes Film Festival when Kristen Stewart took off her Christian Louboutin pumps and walked barefoot on the red carpet at the premiere of "BlacKkKlansman" in 2018 to protest the dress code. That made headlines. To this day, Cannes has a longstanding, albeit unofficial, rule that women must wear heels. "If you can't tell men to wear heels and a dress, you can't tell me either," Stewart said in 2017.

Stewart wasn't the first to make such a statement, however. In 2016, Julia Roberts and Sasha Lane went barefoot at the film festival. Nevertheless, high heels clearly dominate the red carpet in Cannes to this day. This year stars like Jodie Foster and Mélanie Laurent presented themselves in high stilettos at the start of the film spectacle. Maybe it was her own decision, but one wonders: Isn't the "high heels" rule long outdated?

The paragraph rule at the Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes red carpet paragraph rule has never been written down, but rather is an unspoken command. The formal dress code is mentioned on the invitations, but there is no mention of heels. But Cannes requires a high degree of glamour. "The rug [at Cannes] is the rug," said Chloë Sevigny. "But it's an old-fashioned archaic rule. Women should be able to wear whatever they want."