Bella Hadid Debuts Honey Blonde Hair and Risqué Gown at Cannes, Defiant of New Dress Code

Bella Hadid made an unforgettable return to the Croisette Tuesday afternoon. The model arrived at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival red carpet and debuted a honey blonde hair transformation. Her risqué Saint Laurent gown turned heads, both for its craft and for its subtle defiance of the event’s newly imposed dress code that's all about "decency" and bans naked dresses.

Though Hadid's first 2025 Cannes look didn’t feature off the sheer fabrics or long trains that Cannes recently banned, it danced on the edge of the festival’s strict "no nudity" red carpet rule—yet Hadid walked without issue, proving that provocativeness and defiance still has a place.

Cannes' new dress code rule has received plenty push back. First, it came the day before the event kicked off, leaving many stylists stressed out and having to change their celebrity clients' outfits in an intense time crunch. Halle Berry, according to journalist Louis Pisano, had to swap a Gaurav Gupta gown she planned to wear for a ready-to-wear Jacquemus look that is, undoubtedly, underwhelming compared to what the couturier would have done. The ban is also getting backlash for being restrictive on what women wear, and the festival is notoriously offensive about this issue.

Between the barely-there cut of the dress and the warm-toned hair refresh, Bella Hadid's return to Cannes for the 2025 film festival was equal parts defiant and glamorous, proving once again why she remains a red carpet mainstay year after year.