The Red Carpet Is Brand Positioning in a Single Frame
On the red carpet, we see a dress for a few seconds. In that short space of time, a brand declares who it wants to dress, the idea of beauty it supports, and how far it can adapt its codes without losing them.
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival opens on 2 September. The look rankings will soon follow, along with necklines measured to the centimetre and the inevitable verdicts. Useful for keeping the conversation alive, less so for understanding what an image has actually built.
Venice has understood the power of appearance since 1932. The first edition of the Festival took place on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior. The inaugural screening of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was followed by a grand ball, which the press described partly through the elegance of the clothes. Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and Clark Gable appeared on screen.
The red carpet came later. The public construction of the star had already begun.
A famous name attracts attention. It does not always create identity
A celebrity arrives with a body, a reputation, an audience and a particular way of occupying space. The brand adds silhouette, fabric, colour and styling. The result depends on the relationship between these elements, not simply on their presence in the same photograph.
When that relationship fails, we notice the person first and look to the caption to discover who dressed them. The fashion house may receive thousands of mentions. Recognition is another matter.
The choice of celebrity should begin with what the brand wants to make visible. A house built on restraint can lose its precision in a dress designed solely to dominate the red carpet. A brand centred on sensuality and movement can become inexplicably rigid when it dresses someone who has no connection with that language.
The reverse also happens. A brand can be used to give a celebrity a position they do not yet hold: more authoritative, more sophisticated, more transgressive. Sometimes it works. At other times, the intention is more visible than the result.
Celebrity dressing requires adaptation, but there is a limit. Remove every distinctive feature of the house to accommodate the wearer and what remains is a good evening dress with no recognisable author. Impose every brand code without considering body and personality, and the celebrity looks like a last-minute replacement for the runway model.
The fitting is already art direction
A fitting is often reduced to a technical check. Hem, zip, straps, job done. On the red carpet, it determines posture, proportion and confidence. It therefore determines the photograph.
Moving a shoulder by a small amount changes the relationship between the face and the dress. A waist placed too high shortens the torso. A rigid bust cup alters posture, while a heavy train slows the walk and makes the wearer constantly check what is happening behind them. Transparency must also be tested under lighting similar to camera flashes. Looking at the dress in a fitting-room mirror is not enough.
Then the shoes arrive. They change height, the angle of the pelvis and the fall of the skirt. Jewellery shifts the visual weight around the neckline. Hair and make-up can support the language of the dress or introduce a second story that nobody asked for.
On the runway, a look belongs to a sequence and is seen in motion. On the red carpet, it must work head-on, in profile, close up and at full length. It has to hold together while the person walks, stops, turns and joins the cast. All within a few metres, with dozens of photographers in front of them.
“Does it suit her?” is only the first question to ask during a fitting. The real assessment concerns whether the proportion belongs to the person, whether it retains the character of the brand and what kind of image it will produce outside the room.
Cinema has always worked with this degree of precision. Costume places a character in a period, signals social position and can reveal change before the dialogue does. In 2022, the Biennale presented costume designer Arianne Phillips with an award that recognised clothes, fabrics and accessories as narrative tools capable of defining a character’s psychology.
On the red carpet, narrative time is reduced to a few seconds. The clothes continue to speak.
When the look extends the film
In 2021, Zendaya arrived at the Dune premiere in a skin-toned Balmain leather dress moulded to the body with a wet-look finish. It did not reproduce a costume from the film. It carried its material, physical and almost unreal atmosphere onto the red carpet.
The sculpted surface belonged to Olivier Rousteing’s work for Balmain. The way it was worn belonged to Zendaya. The reference to Dune remained clear without turning the actress into a promotional character. The look held three identities together, and none of them felt added afterwards.
Jenna Ortega took a different approach for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in 2024. The red Dior gown she wore in Venice referenced Lydia Deetz’s wedding dress in the original film. The connection was direct, but the updated construction avoided simple imitation.
These examples show why method dressing can work. The promotional wardrobe takes colours, shapes or details from a film and translates them through the celebrity and the visual language of the fashion house. Translation is the crucial step. Without it, there is only quotation. When every appearance reproduces a frame from the film, by the third look the editorial plan is doing most of the talking.
A dress can also be spectacular without any connection to the film. That is not automatically a mistake. The red carpet remains a space for public representation, not a compulsory extension of the screenplay. The problem begins when volume, nudity or workmanship command all the attention and the brand leaves nothing behind beyond the effect.
The photograph must return to the product
In 2025, several fashion houses used Venice to reveal the first signs of new creative directions before their runway shows. A photocall can give a recently appointed designer a level of exposure that would be difficult to achieve with a backstage image. It can also exhaust an idea before it has acquired any context.
On the red carpet, the look stands alone. It cannot rely on the sequence of a collection, the setting of a show or a complete casting concept. Every choice is therefore read as a declaration: a new silhouette, a different relationship with the body, a change of woman or tone.
The image earns its value when that declaration does not end on the carpet.
The language shown there must find its way back into the collection, campaign and product. This does not mean turning a couture gown into a commercial version. The connection may appear in the proportion of a shoulder, the control of volume, a surface treatment, a colour or the way the brand represents women.
If none of this can be found after the photograph, the fashion house has achieved visibility. The positioning stayed in Venice.
Romina Tosi
Disclaimer
The views expressed above represent my personal interpretation of publicly available information and, like any interpretation, may be shared, debated, or challenged.
The information referenced comes from public sources available at the time of publication, including official documents, union communications, press articles, and materials accessible to anyone. I do not disclose confidential information or facts learned through privileged access. I do not reveal protected information, nor do I attribute unlawful conduct to individuals or companies.
Any reference to specific cases is intended solely to provide context and analyze dynamics affecting the broader industry. It is not intended to target individuals or particular businesses.
Observations regarding industrial strategies, financial decisions, and production models fall within the right to express opinions and commentary on matters of public interest. They remain personal assessments, not definitive judgments.
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