The Story
On 17 May 2025, the inaugural Cannes Sustainable Fashion Week took place at Villa Brasil during the Cannes Film Festival. Founded and directed by Priscila Guedes, the event was conceived as a meeting point between fashion, sustainability, film and international creative communities rather than as a conventional runway presentation.
Its timing gave the first edition a particular context. Brazil was the official Country of Honour at the 2025 Marché du Film, held from 13 to 21 May during the 78th Festival de Cannes. The year also marked the France–Brazil cultural season, giving Brazilian cinema, fashion and creative industries an unusually visible presence in Cannes.
Villa Brasil itself was a temporary cultural hub created for 16–18 May by Soulbridges Films in partnership with the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival. Its wider programme brought together cinema, screenings, conversations, music and cultural encounters. Cannes Sustainable Fashion Week occupied the fashion dimension of that programme, connecting the runway with the activity surrounding the Festival rather than separating it from the city’s wider creative movement.
The official presentation described slow fashion, ethical practices, craftsmanship and social innovation as central to the event. Runway shows were accompanied by opportunities for conversation and networking, with Villa Brasil, the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival, Iconic Films, FashionTV Brasil, Gourmet Sea Events, Women in Entertainment and Walk With Glamour among the partners named for the inaugural edition.
FashionTV Brasil reported from Cannes, with journalist Luana Ferreira covering the backstage and the first edition for FashionTV News. The presence of television crews around the villa became part of the event itself: models moving between fittings, cameras, interviews and the runway, while material produced in Cannes travelled afterwards to audiences in Brazil and beyond.
The designers represented an international mix. Published material from the event confirms the presence of Officina Sartoriale Milano, while Victoria Amerson was announced by the organisers for the 2025 edition. Zarreus, by Anicelia Tavares, appears in coverage directly connected with the Cannes show, and Elena Collection subsequently documented its sustainable couture on the Cannes Sustainable Fashion Week runway.
Cannes Sustainable Fashion Week sat inside a much larger international moment: the Festival de Cannes, the Marché du Film, Brazil’s presence in the city and the continuous movement of designers, models, media and creative professionals between events.
My Editorial Experience
I had travelled to Cannes not only for this fashion event but for the Festival itself. There were private events and other invitations ahead, and Cannes Sustainable Fashion Week became one of the first meetings of a much longer stay.
Knowing Priscila Guedes and several of the people around the event changed the experience. It did not feel like arriving in a completely unfamiliar fashion environment. Quite quickly I began recognising people I had already encountered in Switzerland, Milan and at other European fashion events.
One of those familiar faces was Dr Ruslana Ilina, whom I know from Zürich. She combines a professional life in law with modelling, and seeing her again in Cannes was a good example of how surprisingly connected this European fashion circuit can become. Elena Collection also documented her appearance in one of its sustainable couture gowns from Cannes Sustainable Fashion Week.
Other encounters were less formal but just as familiar: photographers seen at previous shows, models, mothers travelling with daughters who model, makeup artists, hair teams and people involved with fashion competitions, brand representation and events. Some I had previously met at fashion gatherings in Zürich, including at The Dolder Grand, or during Milan Fashion Week.
Over time these encounters start to connect. The same person may appear in another city several months later, sometimes representing a different project or working with another designer. Conversations continue. Introductions lead to other introductions. Possible photographic collaborations emerge naturally rather than beginning as a formal transaction.
That part interests me as much as the runway itself.
My background in luxury management makes me look at an event not only through the camera but through the relationships surrounding it: why a jewellery company appears beside a fashion designer, how a media partner extends the visibility of a small event, which brands work naturally together, and how designers, sponsors, photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists, model coaches and production teams each contribute to what eventually appears effortless to the audience.
The FashionTV Brasil interviews added another layer. Watching people being interviewed in a villa in Cannes and knowing that those images would later travel through Brazilian television and digital platforms was a reminder that the physical event is only one part of the story. A relatively small gathering can have a much wider life once its photographs, interviews and films begin to circulate.
Photography gives me a reason to observe all of this closely. I can move from the runway to the people preparing behind it, from a garment in motion to the person adjusting a detail a few minutes earlier. Some of my favourite photographs from the day are therefore not the most conventional runway images. They are the quieter frames: models waiting beside a window, an accessory being adjusted, television cameras preparing for an interview, or a dress moving beside the swimming pool with the Riviera beyond it.
That was also what Cannes felt like during those days. Fashion was not isolated from cinema, hospitality, private events or the people moving between them. Everyone had several reasons for being in town.
For me, Cannes Sustainable Fashion Week became one of those points where these different worlds briefly met — and where people I knew from elsewhere in Europe appeared again, this time under the Mediterranean sun.
Palomino Gallery
