How Top Models Got Ready for Cannes’ Glitziest Event

It is four hours before the glitziest soiree of the annual Cannes Film Festival — the amfAR, Cinema Against AIDS gala — is set to begin, and gathered in a suite inside the Hotel du Cap, the legendary Riviera hotel that’s hosting the soiree and afterparty, are some of the world’s best-known models get ready to dress up.

A group of experts is here, readying models like Toni Garrn for the red carpet, as well as for the fashion show staged Thursday evening by the doyenne of French fashion, Carine Roitfeld, as the highlight of the amfAR charity gala to raise money for AIDS research.

A longtime supporter of amfAR, and now in her fifth year of staging the fashion show that’s part of the event, Roitfeld has been on the Riviera in the run up to tonight, doing fittings with a selection of the world’s top models, from Bella Hadid to Karlie Kloss, who were modeling three dozen designs from such elite fashion houses as Dior and Chanel and newer labels like Hood by Air.

The collection of dresses that these models wore tonight have been dubbed the Disco Collection. They were inspired primarily by the disco ball, as well as the legendary New York club Studio 54 and icons from the era, like Jerry Hall and Diane Von Furstenberg.

It is precisely this disco aspect that has enticed Garrn and many of the other models, sitting patiently while their looks are perfected, to be part of Roitfeld’s fundraiser.