Cannes Film Festival Packing List: Advice from Halle Berry’s Stylist
Halle Berry, wearing Dior, arrived for the closing ceremony at Cannes last year.
MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images
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Dressing a star client for awards season or a film’s media tour requires careful planning. But dressing a star for the Cannes Film Festival is a next-level challenge — especially if that star is a juror who must navigate every day of the world’s most prestigious cinema showcase.
Just ask Maryam Malakpour. She signed on to be Halle Berry’s stylist just before the 2025 festival, which meant she had to hit the ground running. As a juror, Berry appeared at multiple events throughout the fest, from the first day’s jury photocall and the opening ceremony — each required separate looks — all the way through to the closing ceremony 12 days later.
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Gala affairs in between included high-wattage premieres of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning and The Phoenician Scheme and splashy dinners hosted by Chopard and L’Oreal Paris and the Kering Women in Motion Awards. Malakpour’s final designer roster for Berry included day and evening looks by Chanel, Dior, Jacquemus, Elie Saab, Alexandre Vauthier and Gucci.
Throw in a couple of curveballs, such as last-minute switches because of Cannes’ late-game rule banning voluminous gowns with trains on the Croisette, and Malakpour’s inventive curation of Berry’s looks was nothing less than impressive. That’s why The Hollywood Reporter knew the star stylist was perfect to not only ask about her memories of that round-the-clock assignment but also to suggest style and packing advice for anyone planning to make the trek to the South of France for this year’s event.
How much time do you need to plan for Cannes, especially when dressing someone who’s on the jury?
It is hard to say how much time in general you need to plan for Cannes. I only started the prep less than a month from the scheduled travel date to Nice, which felt pretty full on. As soon as I received the call, I started. Even though the final schedule was not in place, we had to set ourselves up and be ready for anything. None of us really knew how big and rigorous the schedule would become. On the final schedule, we had approximately 10 major gown or event looks and about the same amount of daytime and photo-call looks.
From left: Halle Berry in Chanel during the jury photocall at Cannes on May 13, 2025; in a striped gown by Jacquemus for the opening ceremony that evening; and in a lace-embroidered column gown by Dior Haute Couture for the May 24 closing ceremony.
From left: Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images; Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images; Daniele Venturelli/WireImage/Getty Images
Aside from the multiday aspect of the festival, how does Cannes differ from a style perspective compared with, for example, planning for awards season?
There is something about traveling and being in a foreign country, adapting to the environment and culture, that makes a big difference.
How does the location play into your planning?
Location plays a major role — it influences not just aesthetics, but attitude and mood. From the moment we started the prep, the conversation and our goal was clear: We are going to embrace everything we love that is French, especially from the South of France. We referenced some of the most memorable style icons, i.e., Jane Birkin and Brigitte Bardot. We even had a French playlist throughout our fittings to set the mood. Our single goal was to reinvent and compose the ultimate effortless style with great confidence and poise, a total look, from the French bob haircut to the most chic and unpredictable looks.
Halle Berry attended the ‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ red carpet wearing a high-low gown from Celia Kritharioti’s spring 2025 haute couture collection.
Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Does South-of-France glamour differ from Hollywood glamour, and if so, how?
South-of-France glamour and Hollywood glamour are different, mainly because they come from very different cultural roots. For the South of France, the vibe is effortless, sunlit, colors are more neutral, breezy, [with] oversized sunglasses, slightly undone ha