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Kristen Stewart Says Eff This To Cannes’ Unspoken ’High Heel Rule’ For Women

by Valerie Williams
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Image via Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Kristen Stewart removed her high heels on the Cannes red carpet

At the Cannes Film Festival on Monday, actress Kristen Stewart made a fashion move that might’ve been a bit puzzling to some. After posing for photos, she removed her sky-high Louboutin heels and continued into the festival, where she was a jury member. As it turns out, the festival has a “no flats” policy that it appears Stewart may have been rebelling against.

If so, hell yes to that.

She started off her red carpet walk in (extremely high) heels and after a little while, decided to doff them.

CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 14: Jury member Kristen Stewart attends the screening of ‘BlacKkKlansman’ during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 14, 2018 in Cannes, France. (Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage)

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Annnnd here she is taking them off.

Not one care given.

CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 14: Kristen Stewart

attend the screening of ‘Blackkklansman’ during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 14, 2018 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Foc Kan/FilmMagic)

FilmMagic

She ascended the stairs into the festival to view the film BlackKkKlansman totally barefoot.

CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 14: Kristen Stewart walks with bare feet at the screening of ‘BlacKkKlansman’ during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 14, 2018 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)

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Variety reports that the red carpet was a little wet on Monday, so it’s possible Stewart took off her shoes to get better footing on the soggy stairs. While there’s no official comment from the actress on the reason she ditched the heels, remarks she made to The Hollywood Reporter during a roundtable last year about the shoe rules are a pretty strong hint to where her head was at.

“There’s definitely a distinct dress code, right?” she said. “People get very upset if you don’t wear heels or whatever. I feel like you can’t ask people that any more — it’s a given. If you’re not asking guys to wear heels and a dress, you cannot ask me either.”

“Things have to change immediately,” she said. “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.”

Sounds good to me. It’s hard to come up with a reason why women have to wear heels as opposed to flats when there are plenty of sparkly and formal shoes that would be within a black tie dress code without high heels attached. Feels a bit gross and sexist to force a woman to wear uncomfortable heels against her wishes, to be honest.

Stewart is actually not the only actress to take to the Cannes red carpet barefoot — Julia Roberts did it in 2016.

CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 12: Actress Julia Roberts walks up upon their arrival at the ‘Money Monster’ premiere during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 12, 2016 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

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Seems like a good thing to do is just let women live and decide on their own what shoes to wear, no matter the occasion. It’s 2018, AKA, long past time for this kind of sexist garbage to end. Kudos to Stewart (and Roberts) for taking a barefoot stand.

Image via Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Kering

Getty Images for Kering

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