These Celebrities Just Broke a Major Red Carpet Fashion Rule at Cannes

From cardinal sin to a clever trick for making sure you don't look like anybody else.

By Chelsea Peng

May 23, 2017

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Due to me determining that it is not such an absolute, "wearing white" was not included on my list of things celebrities never wear. They do wear it—just never quite like Elisabeth Moss, Adriana Lima, and Rihanna did at Cannes.

Whereas the average famous person who wished not to stir the engagement-rumor pot would only touch the colorless color with a 10-foot pole and if it were Calvin Klein clean, the aforementioned trio went where few have gone before: Bridal White. Gasp! Scan Us Weekly! But they didn't just stop at some lacy, "call it wedding-y for the headline" dresses—two of our three trailblazers straight-up wore looks off the bridal runway.

At the premiere of Loveless, Adriana Lima first axed the ruffly straps from her Naeem Khan Bridal Spring 2018 gown but left the sculpted bodice intact, which she amplified with a hefty necklace that probably required its own ex-military personnel.

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Then, in an even more unexpected move, Elisabeth Moss showed up at the opening of The Square in a dress-and-leather-jacket combo that was anything but. (We did declare the logo-embroidered skirt some of the best work from this season.) The most flattering? Could be a bit more so, if you listen to the commenters. Daring? Absolutely. If you ~~Cannes't~~ can't do it at Cannes...

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Now, the bridal-iest for last: Rihanna in Dior, even though she's the type of gal who would make perma-single-dom (without casual sex!) look like a blast. While this wasn't out-and-out intended for the cathedral/Vegas chapel, the strapless silhouette and '90s shawl are very Reception Lewk #2.

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So why the switch? Again, ::Gerard Butler voice:: This is Cannes, where you can wear Fashion Shorts, and everybody would simply nod. But more than that, it's celebrities turning toward unlikelier clothing sources, in this case masterpieces that rarely see more than the inside of a showroom, unless there's some shotgun society wedding. (But then again, they'd probably wait for a custom job anyway, because who wears off-the-rack?)

There's still about a week of Cannes left to go, so maybe somebody will wear this gamine Viktor & Rolf—then run off to actually do the deed on a yacht.