The 82nd Venice Film Festival wasn’t just a fight for the Golden Lion – it was the soft-launch runway of the year, and I clocked every second of it. The Lido became the unofficial debut stage for fashion’s entire new guard: Jonathan Anderson’s Dior, Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel, Louise Trotter’s Bottega Veneta, Dario Vitale’s Versace, all making their first whispers on a red carpet before they ever hit a catwalk. The mood this year ran cooler and more controlled than the usual Venetian excess – fewer cathedral trains, more precision tailoring and quiet drama – and honestly, restraint this sharp is harder to pull off than spectacle. These are the looks that actually earned their place on the water.
1. Emily Blunt in Tamara Ralph Couture
Embed from Getty ImagesFor The Smashing Machine premiere, Blunt poured herself into a strapless gown from Tamara Ralph’s Fall 2025 Couture collection, drenched in roughly half a million silk crystal teardrops that caught the Venetian light like the lagoon itself. The sculptural neckline and asymmetric gathering at the hip turned her into a living Art Deco statue. René Caovilla on the feet, Tiffany & Co. at the throat, stylist Jessica Paster pulling the strings.
2. Colman Domingo in custom Valentino
Embed from Getty ImagesThe best-dressed man in Hollywood does not miss, and Venice was no exception. In town for Dead Man’s Wire alongside Al Pacino and Bill Skarsgård, the Valentino house ambassador arrived in a custom suit threaded with gold embroidery and fringe – proof that a man can out-dazzle a ballgown with the right tailor and zero fear. Wayman + Micah continue to dress him like the cultural force he is.
3. Cate Blanchett in Armani Privé
Embed from Getty ImagesOpening night, La Grazia, and Blanchett doing the single most powerful thing a fashion icon can do: re-wearing a black Armani Privé gown she first wore to the 2022 SAG Awards and making it feel brand new. Plunging neckline, oversized beadwork tracing the bodice, total command of the carpet. She has built an entire fashion philosophy on the rewear, and watching the rest of the industry scramble to catch up to a point she made years ago never gets old.
4. Eve Hewson in Schiaparelli Couture
Embed from Getty ImagesHewson went full gothic romance for the Jay Kelly premiere, and I gasped. Daniel Roseberry built her a sculpted bustier gown in black silk tulle and crepe, with conical gathered-tulle pleats giving it an almost architectural spine. Slicked-back hair, a deep mauve lip, accessories pared to nothing – she let the structure do all the screaming. A debut-level fashion moment from someone who should be on every front row from now on.
5. Amanda Seyfried in custom Prada
Embed from Getty ImagesFor The Testament of Ann Lee, Seyfried leaned all the way into balletcore with a navy taffeta bustier gown from Prada, buttons marching down the front placket and a vermillion bow spilling into ribbons that floated along her sides like they had their own choreography. Tiffany & Co. jewels including a Bird on a Rock brooch sealed it. Stylist Elizabeth Stewart understood the assignment: romance with a backbone.
6. Ayo Edebiri in custom Chanel
Embed from Getty ImagesA Venice debut for the books. For the After the Hunt premiere, Edebiri descended in a scarlet custom Chanel column gown – strapless, dramatically draped, gathered with ruby crystal buttons that fed into a cascading train the exact shade of the carpet beneath her. Old Hollywood glamour filtered through someone who is unmistakably the future. Stylist Danielle Goldberg, take a bow. (Her off-white Chanel bouclé suit with balloon trousers at the photocall? Stunning.)
7. Jessica Williams in Giorgio Armani
Embed from Getty ImagesIn a sea of gowns, Williams walked the Frankenstein carpet in a midnight-navy double-breasted Giorgio Armani suit – crisp white shirt, a daring tie, patent shoes, smoked-out gothic glam to nod at the film. It’s the kind of menswear-as-power-move that reads louder than any sequin, and there’s an extra weight to it now: she wore Mr. Armani’s tailoring days before his passing on September 4, a final-chapter Armani moment carried with total authority. Styled by Sarah Slutsky.
8. Oscar Isaac in Celine
Embed from Getty ImagesVictor Frankenstein himself, dressed like the most interesting man at the party. Isaac took the Frankenstein premiere in a Celine white tuxedo jacket over a polka-dot shirt, a Cartier watch ticking at the wrist – the rare menswear look that flirts with print and pattern and wins. Effortless, a little rakish, exactly the energy a del Toro premiere deserves.
9. Mia Goth in custom Dior
Embed from Getty ImagesFrankenstein’s leading lady floated onto the premiere carpet in a custom dark brown silk slip dress by Jonathan Anderson for Dior – his vision for the house arriving early and arriving gorgeous. A low-cut back, an oversized bow built for a dramatic exit, and a Tiffany & Co. necklace tying it together. Goth has spent her career courting the eerie and the ethereal, and this was both at once.
10. Jacob Elordi in Bottega Veneta
Embed from Getty ImagesThe internet’s boyfriend went full Louise Trotter-era Bottega Veneta in Venice. The double-breasted black tuxedo for the Frankenstein premiere was textbook, but the look I keep coming back to is the August 30 photocall: a crisp white shirt and pleated trousers, all Bottega, all ease. He makes “I rolled off a yacht looking like this” feel like a deliberate art form.
11. Suki Waterhouse in Rabanne
Embed from Getty ImagesFor Broken English, the Marianne Faithfull documentary, Waterhouse went pure disco-ball deity in a Rabanne set drenched in reflective gold paillettes – a cropped top and high-waisted mini that threw light all over the Lido. Silver sequin nano bag, black platforms, sheer tights, oversized shades: a ’70s fever dream from fashion’s reigning patron saint of vintage cool. Julien Dossena’s Rabanne and Suki are a match written in chainmail.
12. Alexa Chung in Chloé
Embed from Getty ImagesThe It-Brit, doing what she does better than anyone: making boho look like the highest form of fashion. Chung took The Wizard of the Kremlin premiere in a lace-trimmed Chloé look straight off Chemena Kamali’s Fall/Winter 2025 runway, all soft lavender and delicate trim, finished with a chunky necklace, platforms, and a slouchy shoulder bag. Effortless in the way only a woman who has dictated taste for fifteen years can be.
13. Sofia Coppola in custom Marc Jacobs
Embed from Getty ImagesFor the premiere of Marc by Sofia – her first documentary, on her dear friend Marc Jacobs – there was only ever one designer she could possibly wear. Coppola arrived in a custom Marc Jacobs printed jersey lace dress dotted with crystal embellishments, the kind of insider-fashion poetry where the gown and the subject of the film are the same beating heart. Auteur energy, head to toe.
14. Emma Stone in custom Louis Vuitton
Embed from Getty ImagesFor the Bugonia premiere, Stone took a column gown somewhere unexpected: a custom white Louis Vuitton with jewel-encrusted straps, a square neckline, angular silver embroidery, and a twisted balloon hem that drags the Y2K bubble silhouette onto a couture carpet. Stylist Petra Flannery took the risk and it paid – proof that the safest move in the room is usually the most boring one. Stone has never been interested in boring.
15. Naomi Watts in Valentino
Embed from Getty ImagesWatts rounds out my top fifteen with the kind of grown-up glamour that never dates. For the Jay Kelly premiere she went strapless in Valentino, the gown scattered with beaded floral motifs and cinched with a lavish black bow at the waist, Aquazzura sandals underneath. That bow split the carpet down the middle – and that’s exactly why it earned its spot. A look people argue about is a look people remember.