The Cannes red carpet is, without question, a home of glamour. But in 2026 that glamour has a different spin. The women gaining the most headlines for style are, for once, over 70.
Joan Collins, 92, walked the red carpet this week in a white sculptural strapless gown by Stéphane Rolland. Jane Fonda, 88, wore a floor-length sequined Gucci dress. Isabella Rossellini, 73, has been seen wearing a striking patterned two-piece, while Catherine Deneuve, 82, was chic in forest-green satin and hoop earrings.
These women were at the festival because they are promoting films or projects – Collins and Rossellini are starring in the Wallis Simpson biopic My Duchess, Fonda was at a L’Oréal event – but their presence can still be celebrated as evidence of wider age diversity on the red carpet.
“I think it’s fantastic that we are seeing much older women,” says Alyson Walsh, the founder of That’s Not My Age, a website started in 2008 that focuses on style beyond midlife. “Joan Collins looking super-glamorous, at the same age as my mum, that’s pretty incredible.”
This shift has been coming for a while, with female actors over 60 regularly walking the red carpet in outfits designed to be seen. Demi Moore, 63, is at Cannes this year and has been wearing a very fashion-friendly wardrobe of brands including Jacquemus and Gucci, while the Emily In Paris actor Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, also 63, wore a mega-frilled purple Saint Laurent dress recently endorsed by Beyoncé.
Deborah Jermyn, an associate professor in film and culture at Roehampton University and the editor of Female Celebrity and Ageing: Back in the Spotlight, says the sight of older women is a new development. “The whole point of the red carpet is ‘I want the spotlight on me. Look at me’,” she says. “We very rarely get to see women of that age in that space.”
There is a corresponding visibility of older women in fashion – conventionally an industry obsessed with youth. Brands including Chanel, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton and Givenchy featured a notable number of models over 40 in their recent shows. The 79-year-old artist Ming Smith walked in the Carolina Herrera show, the 78-year-old writer Joan Juliet Buck sat front row at Celine, and the late actor Maggie Smith starred in a Loewe campaign in 2023 at the age of 88.
Rebi Merilion, a co-founder of Mrs Robinson, a modelling agency that has worked with older models since 2013, says there is more demand for models aged 45 to 60, with some in their 60s and 70s starring in fashion shoots. “Clients are becoming much more aware that older women are very influential and have spending power, and there’s also been a cultural shift,” she says. “Consumers respond positively to representation that feels believable and aspirational.”
An ageing population means older people will become increasingly influential, and the grey pound – valued at £320bn in 2016 – increasingly powerful. A House of Commons report from 2024 predicts that by 2072, 27% of people in the UK will be over 65, up from 19% in 2022.
Of course, there is an argument that the older women on the red carpet and catwalk are there because they are exceptional. “It’s all brilliant, hooray,” says Walsh. “But I do think there remains a paradox – you’re allowed to be old, as long as you don’t look old.”
Notably, they are also all white, thin, able-bodied and gender conforming. “The red carpet is a microcosm for a lot of western culture,” says Jermyn. “The marginalisation that we’re seeing speaks to the marginalisation that’s happening much more broadly.” There are, however, women waiting in the wings to increase racial diversity, she says. “Viola Davis [60], Angela Bassett [67), are maintaining careers that will mean that they could be in that space in 10 years.”
Jermyn hopes an ageing population might mean a wider change in attitudes. “We’ve had this long history of thinking that reaching a certain age means retreating from the public space,” she says. “We’re pushing back on that in different ways. The red carpet, you might say, is an extension of that.”
