European actresses are reshaping the red carpet with sharper, less polished style

At Cannes last month, Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve arrived at the closing ceremony in metallic silver trousers and a sleeveless tunic that skirted the festival’s new dress restrictions, signaling a tougher, more rock-and-roll approach to red-carpet dressing. Reinsve did not win Best Actress, but the film she appeared in, Christian Mungiu’s "Fjord," took the festival’s top prize.

Throughout the week, Reinsve wore relaxed looks by Louis Vuitton, where she is an ambassador. For the film’s morning press conference, she chose an oversized button-down shirt, a blue leather mini skirt, a cropped blazer and pointed ankle boots with the brand’s logo. One of the festival’s most talked-about fashion moments came when she appeared on the red carpet in a pantsuit by Paris label Ami, borrowed from actor Stellan Skarsgard, who played her father in "Sentimental Value." That film won Cannes’ Grand Prix last year and brought Reinsve a Golden Globe nomination, where she wore a silver strapless Louis Vuitton gown.

Reinsve, 38, is presented as part of a broader wave of European actresses offering a more intellectual, less predictable red-carpet language. Alongside her at Cannes were Sandra Huller, 48, and Luxembourgish-German actress Vicky Krieps, 42, described as among the most interesting dressers working today. Unlike Hollywood stars who often rely on evening gowns, Chopard diamonds and tightly controlled styling, these actresses use clothing as a way to express character, position and taste.

Krieps is portrayed as the most distinctive of the three, with short hair in changing colors and a close relationship with Bottega Veneta. Artistic director Louise Trotter, who has led the house since 2025, creates custom evening dresses for her, including this year’s Cannes look for the screening of "Diamond." Krieps has also stood out in Venice, where she promoted Jim Jarmusch’s "Father, Mother, Sister, Brother" in an asymmetrical black dress and an olive-green leather set, and in Cannes earlier, in a lattice-back leather top with white trousers. In a 2022 Vogue interview, she said, "Every character, for me, starts with a dress," and added, "I have a love-hate relationship with fashion." Huller, meanwhile, has pushed the most challenging aesthetic, appearing at Cannes in a checkered Chanel skirt-and-shirt set and a feathered light top, and saying in a Guardian interview that to truly succeed in America she would have to change a lot about her body and face. Together, the three suggest a red carpet that is becoming less a showroom of uniform beauty and more a place for experimentation and quiet resistance to the mainstream.