Sequins Steal the Spotlight at Cannes 2025 Red Carpet
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 24: A guest attends the Closing Ceremony red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes ... More Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 24, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by)
Every year, the Cannes red carpet becomes fashion's most theatrical stage. And few embellishments command attention quite like sequins—those tiny discs of light that transform fabric into living, breathing spectacle. What began as ancient symbols of divine power has evolved into fashion's most democratic expression of glamour, capable of turning any wearer into a star.
The story of sequins begins not with Hollywood glamour, but with humanity's earliest impulse to adorn and elevate. As luxury fashion consultant Amanda Jane Valentine explains, "The embellishment of clothing is deeply tied to human development." Our earliest civilizations used beads and shells to create the foundational language of decorative fashion that would echo through millennia.
Fashion designer Ira Lysa notes that while sequins started as simple embellishments, they eventually became full-body statements, especially during the Art Deco era of the 1920s through the disco-influenced looks of the 1970s. This evolution reflects sequins' unique ability to transform not just garments, but entire silhouettes.
Stylist Khushnoor Verma captures the enduring appeal that keeps sequins relevant across decades: "I have always found myself instinctively including sequins into my work, not just for their sparkle, but for the texture, depth, and story they bring to an outfit. They evoke emotion and can transform a look from simple to striking with subtle placement."
This transformation—from simple to striking—represents sequins' fundamental power. They don't merely decorate; they elevate, creating what Verma describes as "opulent textiles that mark special occasions." Thanks to advances in textile design, Lysa observes, sequins have become more fluid and wearable, evolving from evening wear accents into high-fashion necessities.
Though the French government updated Cannes' dress code this year to prohibit nudity and "voluminous" gowns, the recent resurgence of sequins on the red carpet represents more than cyclical fashion trends—it reveals sequins' enduring allure and adaptability.
This year at Cannes, celebrities embraced sequins as power pieces, favoring monochromatic metallics and dramatic silhouettes. "Sequins definitely provide a great solution for creating the sense of drama and sophistication that Cannes looks are known for while maintaining the updated guidelines," Verma explains. "It's evidently visible how the naked dresses turned into sequined dresses on the carpet."
Dakota Johnson exemplified this shift, wearing a custom light pink Gucci dress that layered sequins beneath the garment's longline fringe, finishing the look with complementary silver earrings. Her ensemble demonstrated how sequins can create impact while respecting new guidelines, proving their versatility as both spectacle and sophistication.
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 19: Dakota Johnson attends the "Highest 2 Lowest" red carpet at the 78th annual ... More Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by)
Irina Shayk delivered gothic glamour in a custom black Elie Saab creation, where sequins met feathers in perfect harmony. With wet-look hair, crimson lips, and sheer opera gloves, she transported the red carpet into a deliciously dark romance territory into a moody sophistication.
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 15: Irina Shayk attends the "Dossier 137" (Case 137)" red carpet at the 78th ... More annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 15, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Elle Fanning bloomed in Giorgio Armani Privé, wearing a teal masterpiece where sequined roses climbed from her modest train to the top of her strapless bodice. The floral motifs created a garden of light against the shimmering teal backdrop for a dramatic, yet delicate look.
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 21: Elle Fanning attends the "Affeksjonsverdi" (Sentimental Value) red carpet ... More at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 21, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/WireImage)
Toni Garrn chose architectural drama in Elie Saab Haute Couture, featuring an intricate sequined cutout corset and cape styled with wide-leg trousers. Classic diamond jewels completed a look that balanced structure with sparkle.
Toni Garrn at the "Vie Privée" Premiere during The 78th Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals ... More on May 20, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images)
Eva Longoria proved that confidence trumps cost in a chocolate brown sequin slip dress with spaghetti straps and plunging neckline. Her sleek updo let the dress speak for itself, and her revelation that the stunning piece cost just $40 reminded everyone that style isn't about price tags—it's about presence.
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 20: Eva Longoria and José Antonio Bastón are seen at the Hotel Martinez during ... More day eight of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/GC Images)
Alexander Skarsgård broke gender boundaries by pairing a pinstripe wool Magliano suit coat with dark blue sequin pants from British designer Bianca Saunders. Working with celebrity stylist Harry Lambert, he proved that men can command red carpet attention with unexpected, bold choices.
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 19: Alexander Skarsgård attends the "Eagles Of The Republic" (Les Aigles De La ... More République) red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by)
Ciara embodied effortless elegance in a white sequin asymmetric dress with cascading ruffles. The piece struck the perfect balance between comfort and red carpet glamour, proving sequins can feel both relaxed and refined.
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 21: Ciara attends the "The History Of Sound" red carpet at the 78th annual ... More Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 21, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Alia Bhatt brought cultural sophistication in a bespoke sari where nude tones shimmered with sequin embroidery. Gucci's signature GG monogram was rendered in delicate mesh, creating a stunning fusion of traditional Indian craftsmanship and Italian luxury that celebrated both heritage and innovation.
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 24: Alia Bhatt attends the closing ceremony red carpet at the 78th annual ... More Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 24, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by)
The range of use of sequins during the 78th Cannes Film Festival this year has proved that this embellishment remains interesting, innovative, and at the forefront of a fashion revolution gracing the red carpet.
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The perfect man exists. He's called a ‘book boyfriend.'
He's respectful. He listens when she talks and remembers what she says. He would probably kill for her — and he would definitely die for her. Needless to say, he would not have to be begged to take out the trash. He is what romance readers call a 'book boyfriend.' On BookTok and Bookstagram — the thriving social media communities dominated by romance and fantasy readers — the term has become ubiquitous. 'Book boyfriend' describes characters who seem to have strode, galloped or brooded onto the page from somewhere in the recesses of the reader's deepest desires. If you have ever closed your eyes and imagined waking up in Pemberley to a shirtless Fitzwilliam Darcy asking if you would do him the honor of accompanying him on a turn about the park, you could say that you've had a book boyfriend. Simply put, a book boyfriend is a character you can't stop thinking about — and longing for — beyond the page. Conversations about book boyfriends tend to be as wry and playful as two protagonists flirting on a yacht off the coast of Italy. Readers use the term as shorthand to convey a particular reading experience. It does not describe imaginary friends. 'We know what we read is fiction,' said Jeanette Moreno, a BookToker whose running list of top book boyfriends features 49 carefully selected names. 'We're not delusional.' 'When we read a romance book, and the main character is a billionaire who takes a woman on a date and flies her to France, we know that's not real,' she said. 'We don't care that he's a billionaire or that he buys her jewelry. We care that he remembered she doesn't like pickles in her sandwich, and he takes her coffee to bed. It's the little thoughtful things that really stick with us.' Romance book sales continue to soar, bolstered in part by readers who pass around these lists of fictional men as if sharing the details of a particularly gentle dentist or a skilled massage therapist. Publishers market new romance books with the words, 'Let me introduce you to your new book boyfriend.' The phenomenon seems to speak to a new, or more heightened, way that some readers are fulfilling their emotional needs through fiction. It also seems to reflect strain in heterosexual dating dynamics: Men are from Mars, women are conducting emotional affairs with fictional astronauts. 'If you want to talk about what romance really is, it is a genre that tells us about how people want to live their lives,' said Marcela Di Blasi, an assistant professor in the Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies Department at Dartmouth who is working on a book about the politics of romantasy, the popular genre that combines romance and fantasy. 'People who don't read romance or romantasy might hear the term 'book boyfriend' and come to the same conclusions that people came to when 'Madame Bovary' came out,' she said. In Gustave Flaubert's classic 1857 novel, Emma Bovary reads so many romance novels that she 'became herself, as it were, an actual part of these imaginings,' slowly ruining her life by living as if she were a romantic heroine. But book boyfriends aren't just an escape into fantasy, Di Blasi said. They give readers a blueprint for talking to their loved ones about how they want to be treated and how they don't. Consider Malakai, the romantic lead in the 2022 novel 'Honey & Spice' by Bolu Babalola. Malakai has a 'lethal' smile, and he makes the protagonist laugh. He appreciates her mind and tells her, 'I like me better when I'm with you.' Babalola said that hearing that her character has been heralded as a book boyfriend is 'the biggest honor.' But she doesn't see the man she wrote as an exercise in fantasy. 'I want people to come away thinking that there's hope to find people like this in real life,' Babalola said. 'The things that I give a male protagonist, they are not far-fetched things: It's kindness, it's tenderness, it's seeing the woman as an individual and knowing her ambition.' Are fictional men, with their jutting cheekbones, thick wallets and bottomless wells of empathy turning women off flawed-yet-corporeal men? Female romance readers sometimes struggle with the question. Some men feel that book boyfriends have set an unreasonable ideal. Moreno said she hears from men all the time who tell women readers, 'It's so hard for us because you compared us to the book characters that you read!' But are men really suffering from comparisons to their fictional counterparts? Moreno says that in her actual dating life, few men do things as basic as offering to pay for coffee, holding a door open or texting her to ask if she got home safe. Reading about better men in novels, she said, 'makes you think, 'Wait — no, I do deserve better!'' 'Why do men get so frustrated about us having book boyfriends?' she wondered. 'Is it just because they can't step up?' Indeed, the real-life book boyfriend is not a contradiction in terms: On social media, a man who raises his girlfriend's chin to kiss her gently on the head, or a man who reads in bed, is labeled a real-life book boyfriend. And plenty of real-life couples keep lists of book boyfriends, while also staying true to their real-life boyfriends and husbands. Great book boyfriends who live in books may tell us about how we want to be loved. But they don't offer a set of instructions that can or should be followed precisely in life. Peeta Mellark of the Hunger Games series is considered an iconic book boyfriend for his yearning heart and strategic mind — so committed is he to Katniss that his love only waivers when the government injects him with a venomous mind-control substance. On the other hand, Rhysand from the mega-popular 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' by Sarah J. Maas is widely celebrated as an all-time great book boyfriend in part because he heals and protects protagonist Fayre. But he also sexually humiliates her and coerces her into spending time with him. Of course, neither the fantastical nor the problematic book boyfriend is new. In 1848, a literary magazine reported that 'New England States were visited by a distressing mental epidemic, passing under the name of the 'Jane Eyre fever.'' Boarding schoolgirls and governesses were the most likely to be afflicted, the writer reported, as well as young men who, inspired by the book's male protagonist, 'began to swagger and swear in the presence of the gentler sex, and to allude darkly to events in their lives which excused impudence and profanity.' This was, presumably, a result of women and girls expressing attraction to a made-up character who kept his wife in an attic and who, the text tells the reader repeatedly, isn't even handsome. Like today's book boyfriends, Mr. Rochester's impact seems to be a joint production of the writer's deftness and the readers' wild imaginations. As in 'Jane Eyre,' book boyfriends in the 'dark romance' genre commit acts that would send real boyfriends to prison. 'I think readers are very aware that there is a difference between a fictional man on the page written by usually a woman or femme, and an actual human man who has been shaped by society,' Di Blasi said of violent and controlling book boyfriends. 'Having these characters is a way for a lot of readers to explore those things in a safe way.' A more unique and recent trend, Di Blasi noted, is romance novels in which 'men learn from their mistakes.' In books such as those by the writer Adriana Herrera, 'they are accountable,' Di Blasi said. 'They don't wait to be educated by the women in their life.' This is quite a contrast to Jane Eyre who, 178 years ago, had to go crawling door-to-door begging for porridge and then nearly married her creepy cousin before Mr. Rochester was changed enough for the two lovers to reconcile. Recently, Babalola gave a talk about her books at a high school. A teenage girl raised her hand and said that she loved reading 'Honey & Spice,' and confessed: 'It made me not want to date these guys in high school.' If a guy wasn't going to act like her best friend, be fun to hang out with and add value to her life, what was the point? Babalola was happy to hear a teenager articulate that you don't have to just accept whatever a man offers if it isn't what you really want. 'At the crux of it, I just want women to maintain their standards,' she said. 'And here's the thing: I don't think it's necessarily 'high standards' to want a man who's kind, and loving, and tender.' Jenny Singer is a freelance writer in San Francisco.
