If HBO’s frenetic and sex-fuelled trailer for their new debaucherous drama The Idol wasn’t proof enough, the show’s small-screen starlet, Lily-Rose Depp, has taken to the Croisette at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to prove she is indeed the idol of this generation.
The teenage dream and fluorescent adolescent, Depp has stepped out of the shadow triggered by an unfavourable response to the ‘nepo baby’ discourse and into the spotlight.
Here, on the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès steps, Depp takes her first tender steps as a bona fide burgeoning Hollywood heavyweight in a midnight-hued vintage LBD.
Despite the drama surrounding her father, Johnny Depp, and his participation in the festival after an unsavoury image rehabilitation effort, the 23-year-old stands on her own in archival Chanel.
She’s not her character, the indoctrinated pop-phenomenon Jocelyn, nor just another SoCal socialite following in their parent’s footsteps, but the crown jewel in a star-studded ensemble cast that boasts The Weeknd (Able Tesfaye), Rachel Sennot, Troye Sivan and BLACKPINK’s Jennie.
It’s Depp’s first time back on the Côte d’Azur at the ostentatious festival since 2017, making up for lost time in an archival Chanel mini dress once worn by Helena Christiansen.
Despite the LBD being a silhouette attributed to Coco Chanel herself, the look is courtesy of the gilded Lagerfeld-era of 90s Chanel. First debuted on the runway during the luxury French maison’s Fall/Winter 1994 collection, Depp has seemingly revived this coquette-meets-vampish silhouette for the premiere.
It’s unclear whether this dress was pulled from the archives or painstakingly recreated specifically for the star, but Depp’s blonde bombshell spin on this 90s ensemble looks like she just stepped off of a Lagerfeld-era runway.
The sequin embroidered mini features a pastel blue resin rosette that accents the strapless ensemble. Depp styled the look with dainty sheer opera gloves and matching black stockings, paralleling how the piece was styled on the runway when it was originally presented.
Given Depp skipped uncharacteristically skipped the 2023 Met Gala, which was themed in celebration of Karl Lagerfeld’s life and legacy, fashion fanatics are thrilled to see the actress continue her red carpet reign of vintage Chanel.
While The Idol is poised to be a sordid tale of “nasty bad pop girl from the gutters of Hollywood”—or if reports are to be believed a deranged fantasy pandering to the male gaze from the “sick and twisted minds” of Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and The Weekend—it’s clear Depp is keeping her on-camera persona separate from her real-life one.
But with the first two episodes premiered receiving mixed reception and a five-minute standing ovation, Depp’s Cannes appearance is a sure fire way of cementing her icon status.