The Greatest Fashion-Related Celebrity Moments at the 2025 Venice Film Festival

The 2025 Venice Film Festival has barely unrolled its red carpet, and already, it feels like fashion’s equivalent of a Renaissance painting starry, dramatic, and drenched in glamour. As the gondolas pull up and camera flashes ripple across the Lido, Hollywood’s most magnetic names—Julia Roberts, Emma Stone, George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Colman Domingo, and more have stepped onto Italian soil, not just to premiere films but to rewrite the language of style.

Yes, cinephiles will obsess over premieres like Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt and Guillermo del Toro’s much-whispered-about Frankenstein. But let’s be honest: Venice’s red carpet is its own theater. This is the same festival that gave us Lady Gaga in that otherworldly Valentino feather gown in 2018 and Zendaya shimmering like a sculpture in Balmain in 2021. In 2025, the drama of clothing continues to play just as loud as the cinema.

Glamour Before the Curtains Rise

Even before opening night, the city was buzzing with arrivals. George and Amal Clooney glided in, the definition of power couple elegance, while Emma Stone gave daytime style a breezy Italian twist. Greta Gerwig and Laura Dern also reminded us that press calls don’t need to be boring, opting instead for euro-chic ensembles that felt like postcards from Venice itself.

Once the premieres began—Clooney’s Jay Kelly and Stone’s Bugonia leading the way—the bar for fashion was set at cathedral height.

The Festival Within the Festival: Style as Spectacle

Fashion at Venice doesn’t happen in isolation it collides with the city’s cultural calendar. At the DVF Awards, Kim Kardashian appeared in a sweeping gray Margiela gown that looked poured from liquid stone, while Christy Turlington shared a rare red-carpet moment with her daughter Grace Burns, blending old-school supermodel poise with fresh-faced new-gen energy.

Then came the amfAR Gala and Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales, both buzzing with more couture, sequins, and archival treasures than most museums see in a year.

Archival, Custom, and Everything In Between

This year’s festival has embraced a wide spectrum of fashion moods. Mia Goth, starring in Frankenstein, leaned into haunting beauty with archival looks that felt like whispers from another decade. Ayo Edebiri stunned in custom Chanel for After the Hunt, while Alba Rohrwacher made history as the first to wear a Dior Couture creation designed by Jonathan Anderson.

Julia Roberts gave us a first look at Dario Vitale’s new artistic direction at Versace where glamour is less brazen flash and more refined timelessness. Amanda Seyfried quickly co-signed by borrowing one of the house’s custom pieces for her photocall, proving good fashion travels fast.

Love on the Lido

Of course, fashion has its softer moments too. Monica Barbaro and Andrew Garfield turned the carpet into a Dior-draped love story, while Kaia Gerber smoldered in a sheer black gown alongside her boyfriend, actor Lewis Pullman, sharp as a blade in a classic suit.

Why Venice Fashion Always Matters

The Venice Film Festival doesn’t just showcase films it distills the essence of glamour. The setting alone (palazzos, canals, centuries-old marble facades) seems to demand fashion that goes beyond trends. Each outfit becomes part of a larger narrative: a love story between cinema and style, between past and present, between stars and the eternal city they momentarily call home.

And if this is only the beginning of the festival, one thing is certain: the runway of the Lido is far from finished.