Actress Kristen Stewart took a stand against a Cannes Film Festival policy that requires women to wear heels in order to be granted entrance to the event.
Trouncing down the red carpet in a glistening silver Chanel dress, Steward posed for photos and removed her black Christian Louboutin pumps before ascending the stairs that led into the premiere of Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman.
Removing her heels was an act of defiance against the festival's heels-only policy for women. It's also not the first time Stewart has criticized the film festival's dress code. Stewart told a roundtable at last year's event that she was offended at the apparent double-standard to which men and women are held. The premise of her argument is that women, like men, should be able to wear whatever shoes make them comfortable.
"Things have to change immediately. It has become really obvious that if [a man and I] were walking the red carpet together and someone stopped me and said, 'Excuse me, young lady, you're not wearing heels. You cannot come in.' Then [I'm going to say], 'Neither is my friend. Does he have to wear heels?' It can work both ways. It's just like you simply cannot ask me to do something that you are not asking him. I get the black-tie thing but you should be able to do either version—flats or heels."
"There's definitely a distinct dress code," Stewart told The Hollywood Reporter last year. "People get very upset at you if you don't wear heels."
Oh, and it was raining, which goes to show how painful being required to wear high heels can be.
In fact, women have been turned away from Cannes for wearing flats, rather than heels, according to a Time report from 2015. Men, it seems, are required to wear a black tie and "shoes" (unspecified, however). That same year, documentary director Asif Kapadia tweeted that his wife was turned away from the festival for not wearing heels, which appeared to confirm the policy.
Women on Twitter expressed sympathy for Stewart, confirming that wearing heels, including the luxurious Louboutins, is indeed a painful experience.
