Unboxing, Director!

Chapter 166 The Hidden Rules of the Red Carpet

Upon learning that they could walk the Cannes red carpet with dignity, the entire company of Dawn began to revolve around Fan Binbin that very day, striving to make him shine in Cannes.

However, Fan Binbin's joy didn't last long.

Because three hours after the nominations were announced, Dawn received a confirmation letter from Cannes.

This includes filling out the form for the qualifications of female companions on the red carpet, which is used to create the official invitation.

After nominating Fan Binbin, the lead actress in "The Lobster," Cannes quickly sent a confirmation email.

But it also comes with a bunch of red carpet rules.

Besides the details of the rehearsal and the time and place of the official red carpet, the requirements for red carpet dresses and styling caught the entire team off guard.

For example, in terms of formal wear, Cannes offered three options: haute couture, ready-to-wear, and custom-made gowns. Casual wear was not accepted. Regarding the level of exposure, deep V-necks were allowed, but a base layer was required.

These rules don't seem special at first glance, but Fan Binbin had already gathered relevant information beforehand for this red carpet event.

But she was unaware that the Cannes red carpet actually has strict styling and clothing reviews.

The rules state that for haute couture, only a few top-tier brands are accepted, such as Chanel, Valentino, and Dior.

For regular custom-made gowns, there are no brand requirements, but if the styling and clothing are suspected of being too revealing, plagiarism, wearing the same outfit as someone else, or being similar to someone else, the gown will be disqualified from walking the red carpet. Therefore, prior review is required.

This can be considered a mature system that the West has developed over the past few decades around Cannes, a top international exposure resource.

In other words, this is the current international rule for red carpets in the fashion world.

Those who haven't had the privilege of walking the Cannes red carpet really don't know these rules.

Currently, very few mainland Chinese actresses have walked the Cannes red carpet, while Hong Kong and Taiwan stars frequently walk international red carpets and have rich experience. At present, the styling teams of mainland Chinese actresses who walk international red carpets basically rely on Hong Kong and Taiwan teams. However, the problem is that Lu Jiang and Fan Binbin do not have many connections in this regard.

So when they learned of the situation, Fan Binbin's entire team was caught off guard.

Fan Binbin was also speechless. She had been working hard to gather information for a long time, but things still went wrong.

Because Fan Binbin had already learned about the situation regarding formal wear beforehand, she already knew that haute couture was the best choice for the red carpet.

However, she currently has no access to top-tier haute couture.

The mainland entertainment industry is still in its early stages of development. Top international brands only officially entered the domestic market after 08, and high-end endorsements are almost monopolized by Hong Kong and Taiwan stars.

In other words, almost all mainland Chinese celebrities currently have no access to top-tier haute couture.

Although Fan Binbin is currently collaborating with Chanel, it is limited to initial contact such as magazine shoots.

It's practically impossible to borrow high-end custom-made items.

Of course, you can spend money to buy a VIP membership to a top-tier brand. You can communicate with them six months in advance and spend a lot of money to customize it, which means you have haute couture.

However, Fan Binbin was absolutely opposed to such a "big investment" at the time.

It's too expensive; I don't think it's necessary.

Besides, it's not even certain whether I'll be able to walk the red carpet. I might get scolded by Lu Jiang for being wasteful and end up opening champagne halfway through the event.
Therefore, her goal at the time was to choose between ready-to-wear and custom-made clothing, but wearing ready-to-wear on the red carpet would inevitably result in a "downgraded" evaluation from European and American fashion media.

In order to shine on the red carpet this time, Fan Binbin finally gritted her teeth and spent 60 yuan to order four custom-made dresses after confirming with Lu Jiang a week ago.

So now, Cannes is saying that dresses and styling still need to be approved?

The dress isn't even finished yet, how do I get it approved? How long will the approval process take? There are only 25 days left until the Cannes red carpet. What if it doesn't pass the review?
A bunch of questions were sent to the Cannes authorities via email, but there was no response by the next day.

Fan Binbin's entire team became somewhat anxious.

Fortunately, Fan Binbin acted decisively and called Lu Jiang directly.

At this point, she didn't care whether Lu Jiang thought she was incompetent or careless. Solving the problem was the most important thing, and she believed Lu Jiang would understand.

And she was right. After hearing this, Lu Jiang was amazed by the rules of the mature Western fashion system like Cannes, but he definitely didn't want to blame Fan Binbin.

It's normal not to know anything the first time; the important thing is to solve the problem.

So after hanging up the phone, he immediately asked someone for Gong Huang's phone number.

Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi are among the few female stars in the current Chinese entertainment industry who have walked the Cannes red carpet.

Compared to Zhang Ziyi, Lu Jiang would naturally prefer Gong Li, who has more experience.

But the result was not good.

Even Gong Li currently only wears ready-to-wear clothing and has not been exposed to haute couture.

Given her status, she could certainly borrow it from the brand if she asked, but Gong Li herself doesn't really value it that much.

Furthermore, the mainland market is still too small in the eyes of these top-tier brands, so they don't pay much attention to it. And the number of high-end custom orders is limited, so they naturally have to prioritize top European and American celebrities.

Fortunately, Gong Li managed to resolve the censorship issue.

It turns out that the three major European red carpets and top international red carpets such as the Oscars have dedicated information exchange channels to prevent celebrities from making mistakes on issues such as excessive use of clothing, plagiarism, wearing the same clothes, or having similar styles.

The way these channels operate is similar to the public relations methods used by the Grammys and Oscars.

Pay a middleman and you can get everything sorted out.

Gong herself hadn't had in-depth contact with them because she didn't have a great need for it, but she knew people in the field and readily gave Lu Jiang her contact information.

Lu Jiang thanked him profusely and then called him.

After some discussion, the service was purchased for $5.

Whether or not he was ripped off is no longer important. What matters is successfully leveraging this red carpet event to unlock Fan Binbin's potential international commercial value.

After finding a scalper, many problems were easily solved.

After the money was transferred, the scalper started talking about more hidden tricks.

For example, someone like Fan Binbin, who received a top-tier invitation, has 7 minutes on the red carpet. For a fee, you can choose the car model you drive onto the red carpet, the way the host announces your name, and more. They can even give you a special rehearsal of your red carpet turn in the triangular position.

The "triangle position," also known as the official photography position, is the best spot for taking photos on the entire red carpet. You can pay to have the chief photographer on the red carpet take more good photos for you.

In addition, spending money can also earn you favors from top-tier magazine fashion editors who will "go easy" on you.

In this regard, Niels, the scalper, also provided a list of editors, which included the names of several editors who were biased against Asian stars. He advised that press releases should be prepared in advance to counteract the biases. Of course, there were also well-known editors who were more tolerant and had a fondness for Eastern culture, so it was advisable to make plans in advance.

Therefore, this is ostensibly the world's premier exposure stage and aesthetic competition.

In reality, it is a comprehensive contest of resource integration capabilities, international public relations skills, and the export of cultural symbols.

Think about how mainland actresses rarely appear on such stages now, then a few years later they were all trying to sneak onto the red carpet and were ridiculed by Europe and America, and then various top-tier luxury brands came to the mainland market and chased after mainland actresses to endorse them.

Chinese celebrities have had a tough time gaining more influence in the fashion industry.

He shook his head, and then the topic turned to the most crucial issue.

Regarding the most crucial aspect of the review process, the team received a risk warning that very evening after sending over the images and styling designs for the four custom-made dresses.

All four sets of documents are risky; they may not pass the review process.

The two color combinations are similar to those worn by Julianne Moore and Sharon Stone this year.

The other two outfits are similar to the two dresses from 93 and 96.

Fan Binbin angrily berated the designer for ripping him off!

But you can't really blame them. There's nothing wrong with spending a lot of money to have foreign designers design these outfits. To say that they're wearing the same clothes as someone else or that they're similar is just nitpicking.

But Cannes is a competition arena for top-tier brands, and with such high standards, you can't be too afraid of the unexpected.

That's why Niels said, "It's risky, it's best not to use it."

So the question now is, what should we do?
change?
The review process takes 12 business days.

If it fails to pass the review, there won't be time to revise it.

Redesigning takes more time.

Fortunately, Niels provided a solution.

That is, he has connections through high-end custom-made items.

So Fan Binbin received good news from Givenchy in less than three hours.

Haute couture from top-tier brands like Givenchy and Chanel is considered a natural "passport" to top-tier red carpets.

If you can borrow it, it means you can get approved directly.

but.
"do not like."

Fan Binbin shook his head directly.

Dark style, cone-shaped bra.

It doesn't match Fan Binbin's temperament at all.

"Anything else?" Lu Jiang called Niels directly.

"Lu, if you had contacted me two months earlier, I could have borrowed Valentino's Angel Meteor outfit for you this year, but it's too late now. There are only 23 days left until the red carpet, and there's really nothing else besides this one. How about trying on a ready-to-wear?"

The shortcomings of ready-to-wear have already been discussed, which naturally leads to a "downgrade" in the evaluation from fashion media.

You are also very likely to wear the same outfit as someone else, because ready-to-wear clothing is not custom-made and is not unique.

The red carpet isn't just for the nominated celebrities; there are also many "unrelated people" walking around beforehand. Their clothes don't need to be approved in advance; they are approved on the spot as long as they are appropriate. So Niels couldn't get any information about them beforehand.

So it's very likely that if you wear ready-made clothes, you'll run into these random people wearing the same outfit. But there won't be much embarrassment, since Chinese celebrities don't currently have the concept of "shining on the red carpet."

Western media outlets don't have high expectations for Chinese celebrities' performances on the red carpet, and they might not even give them much attention.

However, this would completely ruin Fan Binbin's "shining in Cannes" plan, turning it into just an ordinary one-day red carpet trip.

Fan Binbin was naturally unhappy with this suggestion, but there really was no other way at the moment, so he could only try to find a few rare ones.

If you're lucky, you might even get a small breakthrough because of your good looks.

If you're unlucky, then you can only say you'll try again next time.

With this experience, we are confident that we will be able to succeed next time and achieve brilliance.

So she could only nod: "Then let's make it ready-made."

Lu Jiang didn't agree immediately. He reached out and smoothed Fan Binbin's pouting lips, comforting her, "Ready-made clothes can be an insurance policy, but there's still a long time. Don't give up so quickly."

Fan Binbin winked, and Lu Jiang smiled and said, "Since we can't rely on foreign brands and foreign designers, we'll just design our own."

"Design it yourself?"

"Yes, I already have an idea."

"You can design formal dresses?"

of course not.

But I have seen some of Fan Binbin's iconic red carpet looks, like that "flower fairy" outfit. I just don't believe that anyone else will wear the same outfit!
Coincidentally, the team has been making many preparations for the review process these past few days, finding several good mainland designers, and Lu Jiang has already drawn up some simple sketches.

Fan Binbin's eyes lit up after seeing it!

But soon she looked at Lu Jiang with teary eyes and asked, "This isn't a wedding dress you designed for me, is it?"

Lu Jiang: "We'll talk about the wedding dress later."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Jiang received a breathtakingly forceful kiss.
(End of this chapter)