Unforgettable Fashion Moments From The Venice Film Festival Through The Years

Imagine you’re a long-standing security guard on the Venice Film Festival red carpet. You have a front row seat to all the hype, hysteria and hairspray surrounding celebrities who grace the gilded entrance of the time-honoured event year after year, one that not only unites the world through the art of cinema, but has also endured as a global fashion spectacle. Lucky you. The 80th edition of the festival has already served up its fair share of glittering galas and star-studded premieres, as it has done for decades. Join us as we walk (or paddle, if you prefer to take a gondola) through the archives to relive the crème de la crème of red carpet looks the world is still swooning over today. 

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When someone says Venice Film Festival, the words history, heritage, and maybe even Harry’s Bar often come to mind. The 1950s and '60s gave us some timeless monochromatic fashion moments, as silver screen stars glittered in Bulgari chokers on the red carpet, and posed in corseted gowns high up on hotel balconies. White was obviously the colour of choice, from Gina Lollobrigida’s ravishing halter-neck and fur ensemble by Bettmann, to Grace Kelly's ethereal chiffon gown by Edith Head, to Sophia Loren's hourglass Christian Dior lace gown and white opera gloves. Viva la diva. 

Hemlines rose, colours intensified, and hair only got higher on the Venice red carpet during the '70s and '80s. Elegant feminine silhouettes shifted towards more daring couture ensembles, as stars including Isabella Rossellini and Elizabeth Taylor had onlookers gasping wearing ensembles by Gianni Versace and Valentino. Fast forward a few years, and the '90s and early 2000s signalled modern sophistication and minimalist elegance, epitomised by the likes of Uma Thurman's sleek bias-cut Prada gown with low-V front and shoestring straps. 

The 2010s were a mixed bag of frocks and fashion moments, with many looks showcasing the artistic prowess of the world’s most celebrated couture designers and houses. It was an era of creative diversity and exploration, as celebrities started to consciously cultivate their own red carpet ‘style’ reflecting their personal creative vision and collaborative relationships with designers. Sharon Stone ravished hungry eyes in a high-sheen leopard print dress with ‘of the moment’ cutaway shoulders (2000), as did Salma Hayek, who channelled Frida Kahlo-meets-50s pin-up girl in a racy see-through black lace number that left little to the imagination (2002). 

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Gwyneth Paltrow on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival back in 2011. Photo: Getty

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Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky walked the Venice Film Festival red carpet together in support of their 2017 movie, "Mother!"

Scarlett Johansson revealed a glimpse of her feminine, sensual red carpet style that would evolve over years to come, looking every inch a modern screen siren in a backless black silk gown with flounce details paired with a Bulgari multi-coloured gemstone choker back in 2004.

Certain white gowns in Venice are hard to forget. While the Devil might wear Prada, the angel - Anne Hathaway in this case - was resplendent in a white Grecian Alberta Ferretti gown (2006). Straight from the couture runway to the red carpet, Czech model Eva Herzigovina stunned in a white strapless Valentino Haute Couture gown with a ruched cut-out bodice and a sheer skirt made from thick floral lace patches (2008) - with a touch of Old Hollywood and a lot of magia artigianale (artisanal magic).

Italian haute couture houses and designers such as Valentino, Prada, Giorgio Armani and Alberta Ferretti are names that top the Venice red carpet ‘fashion moments’ list year after year. In 2010 Alberta Ferretti had us doing pirouettes when she dressed model and actress Elisa Sedanoui in a voluminous, feather-trimmed black strapless gown for the Black Swan premiere. The ethereal vision of Gwyneth Paltrow in rose-pink Prada still makes us blush (2011), as does that of Keira Knightly wearing a long-sleeved gold and beige Valentino gown that looked like a flourish from a Gustav Klimt painting. Of course, we're just getting started on Valentino’s regal red carpet legacy in Venice; from Emma Stone in deep forest-green tulle (2014) to Diane Kruger’s operatic tiered black lace masterpiece (2015), the Maison and its ateliers consistently infuse the red carpet with inimitable grace, glamour and hundreds of hours of hand-crafted artistry that go into creating each garment.

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Lily Rose-Depp struck an impossibly-alluring silhouette in black-and-white Chanel (2016), a vision of classic cinematic glamour for the modern era, while Jennifer Lawrence’s sheer embroidered Dior Haute Couture ball gown (2017) was poetry in motion, an ode to the kind of classic Romanticism that makes the red carpet a spectacle of blissful escapism. On the rare occasion that Natalie Portman didn’t appear in Dior, she ruled the red carpet in Gucci (glitzy, golden Gucci). The Alessandro Michele-designed metallic sequin gown with a plunging neckline was arguably one of 2018’s most-loved red carpet moments, and Portman looked like a gilded Roman goddess as we'd never seen her before. Something else happened in Venice in 2018. In fact, some say that Lady Gaga ‘shut down’ the entire city in a mega-cloud of baby pink Valentino Haute Couture feathers, surely a red carpet arrival to end all arrivals (and one the security guards are probably still recovering from.)

While the word ‘iconic’ is often overused in regard to celebrities on the red carpet these days, the list of ravishing fashion moments in Venice goes on: there's Dakota Johnson in sculptural Dior Couture (2018), Anya Taylor-Joy anticipating Barbiecore (bonus points for the beret!) in 2021, Italian model Bianca Balti in billowing marigold puffs by Dolce&Gabbana (2021), Florence Pugh and Julianne Moore in sequinned ‘starry night’ showstoppers by Valentino (2022), and Gemma Chan, also in head-to-toe sequins, dazzling with effortless poise in custom Louis Vuitton. Naturally, we need to take a moment to acknowledge Cate Blanchett in Schiaparelli’s hand-painted flower corset last year, a vision that made us spring to our feet, grab the nearest bunch of orange lilies, and try something similar at home. Right?

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Natalie Portman stunned in Gucci at the 2018 edition of the Venice Film Festival. Photo: Getty

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Dakota Johnson walked the 2018 Venice Film Festival red carpet wearing Dior Couture. Photo: Getty

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Anya Taylor-Joy predicted Barbiecore back in 2021 with this red carpet look. Photo: Getty

And voila – 2023 is serving up a bouquet of its own so far. Olivia Palermo sent hearts aflutter in a soft pink silk crepe off-the-shoulder gown by Tamara Ralph, while Italian model Mariacarla Boscono was laced up and ready for action, channelling a vampish Little Red Riding Hood in her Dolce&Gabbana ensemble. Rita Ora wore a sheer black-and-white Stephane Rolland masterpiece with exaggerated proportions that blurred the lines between sculpture and couture, as did Kate Beckinsale, in her gold-trimmed Georges Chakra sheer gown-overlay.

Carina Lau, Sydney Sweeney, Jessica Chastain and Kerry Washington all shimmered in Giorgio Armani for the house’s hot-ticket One Night Only runway show and party, and Leona Lewis dazzled in scarlet Monique Lhuillier, reminding us all that a sensual red gown will always, always have a place on the red carpet, especially in Venice.

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Carina Lau attends the photo call for Giorgio Armani's Venice Film Festival party. Photo: Getty

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Sydney Sweeney attends the photo call for Giorgio Armani's Venice Film Festival party. Photo: Getty

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Jessica Chastain attends the photo call for Giorgio Armani's Venice Film Festival party. Photo: Getty

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Kerry Washington attends the photo call for Giorgio Armani's Venice Film Festival party. Photo: Getty

There’s just something about Venice in September. Whether it’s black-and-white photos of diamond-clad Elizabeth Taylor and Claudia Cardinale giggling over cocktails at an exclusive festival party, or the swish of a sequinned hemline sauntering down the red carpet, the Venice Film Festival continues to prove its sumptuous fashion legacy through the decades. This year is certainly no exception.