Léa Seydoux on Her Cannes Fashion, Best Red Carpet Tip, and Friendship With Adèle Exarchopoulos

Reported by Vogue.

At Cannes 2026, Léa Seydoux is pulling double duty — two films in competition, two completely different red carpet identities, and exactly zero apologies for drinking champagne before either. "I love to have a glass of champagne before I walk the red carpet because it puts me in a good mood," she told Vogue. "I think the secret is to be just as relaxed as possible." Noted.

The films themselves — Gentle Monster, a family drama dealing with pedophilia, and The Unknown, a psychological body-swap fantasy — are about as tonally different as two movies can get. Seydoux leaned into that contrast intentionally. "I wanted something feminine and a bit glamorous for the first one, and something more masculine for the second," she said. The through-line in both: clothes that serve her, not the other way around. "I don't want the clothes to own me," she said plainly. "I'm not a model, I'm an actress."

Old Hollywood, Two Ways

To execute the split wardrobe, Seydoux turned to longtime collaborator Louis Vuitton — working with stylist Alexandra Imgruth and referencing a very specific era. "I love Old Hollywood. I just thought women were so elegant, like Grace Kelly," she said. "I like to be a bit timeless." For the Gentle Monster premiere she arrived in a navy off-the-shoulder gown with a sculptural lettuce neckline and black velvet waist sash; the following photocall brought a white silk mock-neck blouse tucked into a black vinyl miniskirt. Then came the pivot: a sleek three-piece suit for The Unknown premiere, followed by a cropped militaristic white vinyl skirt suit — still sexy, still Vuitton, decisively not soft.

The week's most talked-about moment, though, had nothing to do with either film. When co-star and longtime friend Adèle Exarchopoulos landed in Nice wearing a "Léa Forever" graphic tee, Seydoux showed up to the photocall in an "Adèle" cap and matching shirt. "It was like a game between us," Seydoux said — one that carried real weight. The two won the Palme d'Or together for Blue Is the Warmest Color 13 years ago, and this year Exarchopoulos is back in competition herself. "She's remarkable in her film," Seydoux said. "It was a way to say we're together in this."

For the record, Seydoux once had four films in competition at a single Cannes — and missed it all due to COVID. That stat alone tells you everything about the kind of career she's running.

Fashion is a language, and Léa Seydoux has always known exactly what she's saying.

Read the original at Vogue.