Stepping Onto the Cannes Red Carpet, Leïla Slimani Follows in Toni Morrison’s Footsteps

Simani herself hasn’t just been dipping her toes in the film industry—she’s plunged into a clutch of recent projects for screens big and small. Chanson douce was adapted into a movie in 2019, and since then, HBO has been developing an English version as a limited series with Maya Erskine, who will star opposite Nicole Kidman. Slimani is also working on the Paramount+ adaptation of Le Pays des Autres (The Country of Others), her ambitious trilogy for which the third volume was published in France earlier this year. In each of Slimani’s creative undertakings, she centers the complex perspectives of all kinds of women—“Some are good, some are bad, some are perverts, some are saints”—making her inclusion on this year’s female-majority judging panel particularly fitting.

And while Slimani has graced red carpets before, appearing at Cannes is akin to stepping onto the world stage. She doesn’t hold back on expressing her excitement about this part of the job in the lead-up to the grand opening ceremony. “I heard that Toni Morrison, who was on the jury 20 years ago, said that she liked it very much to have beautiful dresses and makeup and all that,” she says, “so if Toni Morrison could say that, I think that I could say it also.”

It was only natural for Slimani to turn to Dior for the occasion, the same fashion house that has been dressing her since she was a jurist back at the Deauville American Film Festival in 2018. Because feeling at ease is the writer’s sartorial M.O., collaborating with a team that knows her and her taste so well for this latest look—along with several others throughout the festival—was the perfect place to start. “If you are in a very beautiful dress and you don’t feel comfortable, you’re not going to look elegant,” Slimani opines. Next came the inspiration: Old Hollywood meets French femininity, tailored to the personality—and the petite frame—of the author. The result was a statuesque silhouette with billowing, cape-like sleeves in an off-white shade designed to dazzle against the deep red of the carpet. To complete the look, she opted for cream-colored platform shoes, also by Dior, and jewels from Cartier’s iconic Panthère collection.

“I’m not a big international actress, so I don’t want to try to act like one,” Slimani says, although the performance aspect of getting ready is the part of the process she delights in the most. Growing up, she and her three sisters raided their mother’s closet to play dress-up, which she calls jouer aux dames, or ‘playing as women.’ “Even now, I’m 45-years-old, and when I am in my hotel room and [hair and makeup arrive], I think about my sisters. I feel like I’m eight-years-old and I’m going to jouer aux dames.”

Below, she invites Vogue to play along too.