As the curtains finally fall on this edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the Croisette is catching its breath. The superyachts are unmooring from the harbor, the famous red steps of the Palais des Festivals are being rolled up, and fashion editors around the globe are aggressively auditing their best-dressed lists. This year’s festival certainly didn’t lack ambition. We saw miles of custom tulle, archival pull-outs from the fashion vaults, and the usual boundary-pushing avant-garde experiments. Yet, when you strip away the noise, one name completely dominates the style conversation. With just a pair of red carpet walks, Dutch supermodel Romee Strijd managed to deliver the most memorable, universally acclaimed looks of the entire fortnight, effortlessly claiming the crown as this year’s undisputed queen of style.
Cannes is notoriously a high-stakes, unforgiving playground. It is a sun-drenched amphitheater where old-Hollywood heritage slams headfirst into modern PR strategy. The red carpet here isn’t just a walkway, it’s a grueling physical stage where a dress has to look impeccable from a hundred different angles under the unforgiving flashbulbs of the Grand Théâtre Lumière. It is very easy to let a dress wear you, or worse, to look like you are wearing a costume.
Romee Strijd’s genius this season lay in her absolute mastery of narrative dressing. Having an incredible frame and a flawless runway walk is one thing, but understanding how fabric interacts with light, movement, and history is another. Throughout the fortnight, she crafted a specific visual signature for ÉCLAT that balanced high-fashion drama with an air of effortless, relaxed European sophistication. She successfully bypassed fleeting internet trends, choosing instead to look backward to the gold standards of cinema history to tell a brand-new story.
Her first major style play happened at the premiere of the film Karma. While many attendees opted for heavy, structural ballgowns that looked suffocatingly hot under the Riviera sun, Strijd went the complete opposite direction. She stepped onto the carpet in a custom pastel blue creation by Anastasia Zadorina Couture, a look that immediately sent the press into a frenzy.
The gown was a masterclass in mid-century cinematic glamour, directly channeling the timeless aura of Marilyn Monroe. Crafted from an incredibly light, vaporous chiffon, it featured a beautifully draped, off-the-shoulder Bardot neckline that perfectly framed her collarbones. The genius of the dress was its liquid-like movement; it didn’t rely on stiff corsetry or massive petticoats, but rather on immaculate pleating across the bodice that came alive the moment she walked. By pairing the gown with soft, retro side-swept waves that mirrored Monroe’s signature hair, she didn’t just reference the past; she modernized it. It was nostalgic, yes, but it felt incredibly fresh because of its sheer weightlessness.
If her first look was a gentle nod to retro elegance, her second appearance for the premiere of El Ser Querido (The Beloved) was a masterstroke of high-fashion theater. For this ascent of the famous Palais steps, Strijd pivoted into a look that felt like a direct, contemporary homage to Marilyn Monroe’s legendary wardrobe from the 1959 classic Some Like It Hot.
Wearing a breathtaking white creation by Caroline’s Couture, the gown masterfully echoed the exact design signatures of Monroe’s famous movie ensemble. The front of the gown delivered pure, 21st-century supermodel energy, sleek, heavily embellished with polished, bridal-inspired crystals, and grounded by a razor-sharp, daringly high leg slit. But the real drama happened when she turned around. The back featured a translucent mesh upper bodice combined with an incredibly low-cut back that dropped past the waist.
It was an exquisite balancing act by Caroline’s Couture. The front was polished and contemporary, while the striking, exposed translucent reverse side whispered secrets of old-world studio glamour. By blending these two eras, Strijd made a vital point that many modern stylists miss: true red-carpet impact does not require ten yards of heavy fabric. It requires a profound understanding of transparency, silhouette, and historical reverence.
But what truly separated Romee Strijd from the rest of the pack this year was her acute sense of restraint.
When you are wearing garments that carry so much historical weight and intricate detailing, the temptation is always to add more, more diamonds, heavier makeup, more dramatic hair. Strijd did the exact opposite, rigorously applying the rule of aesthetic subtraction.
Instead of competing with the bold, low-cut back or the intricate drapery of her gowns, her styling remained remarkably clean. Her beauty looked focused entirely on sun-kissed skin, a neutral lip, and a subtle bronze contour that felt authentically rooted in the relaxed luxury of the South of France. Her hair was polished but never stiff, looking as though it had been gently tossed by a Mediterranean breeze rather than locked down by a bottle of hairspray. This level of confidence is rare in the chaotic, high-pressure environment of Cannes, where stars usually shout for attention. Romee chose to whisper, and everyone leaned in to listen.
In an era where many red carpet looks are engineered solely to trigger a three-second viral moment on a phone screen, Strijd’s choices possessed a timeless quality. She understands that the Cannes red carpet is a three-dimensional experience. A dress must look just as flawless from behind as a star ascends the stairs as it does from the front during the initial photocall.
Every turn of her head, every extension of her leg through that high slit, and every calculated pause on the steps was perfectly synchronized with the geometry of her clothing. It revealed a deep respect for the designers who spend months crafting these one-of-a-kind pieces. She refused to let the clothes wear her, utilizing her extensive modeling pedigree to give intention and life to the fabric.
Ultimately, as the festival leaves us for another year, Romee Strijd’s style remains the definitive gold standard for modern elegance. For the readers of ÉCLAT, her Cannes archive serves as a beautiful reminder that true fashion excellence is achieved not by creating the loudest noise but by cultivating an undeniable presence through harmony, architectural precision, and an unwavering commitment to personal identity. Long after the ruffles and crystals have been packed away, this is the blueprint future attendees will be copying.
“If a woman is poorly dressed, it’s her outfit that gets noticed. If she’s impeccably dressed, it’s she who is noticed. -Coco Chanel
