WWD: Schiaparelli gown used 130 artisans

WWD reported on May 21 that Bella Hadid’s latest Cannes Film Festival look was built on a scale usually reserved for the rarefied end of haute couture. The trade publication said the custom Schiaparelli gown Hadid wore on May 20 required 130 artisans and 22,160 hours of embroidery work. The dress was tied to her appearance at the premiere of “The Man I Love” in Cannes, where she arrived in a black gown cut from the neck to the hip. Festival de Cannes listings show “The Man I Love,” directed by Ira Sachs, screened on May 20 during the 79th edition of the festival. ### How much work did WWD say went into the dress? WWD said the Schiaparelli gown required 130 artisans and 22,160 hours of embroidery work. The publication described the look as Schiaparelli haute couture and published the report a day after Hadid’s red-carpet appearance. The 22,160-hour figure is the detail WWD put at the center of its report, framing the dress as a labor-intensive couture project rather than a standard custom red-carpet commission. (wwd.com) WWD did not, in the search result excerpt available, break out how those hours were divided across ateliers or techniques. ### Which Cannes appearance was this tied to? Bella Hadid wore the Schiaparelli gown on May 20 at Cannes in connection with “The Man I Love.” Festival de Cannes’s official page for the film lists it in the 2026 selection and gives May 20 as the date for its screening. Deadline reported that “The Man I Love” had its world premiere on Wednesday, May 20, at the Cannes Film Festival. (wwd.com) The outlet said the film stars Rami Malek and received a 10-minute ovation after its screening at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. ### What did Hadid actually wear on the carpet? WWD said Hadid brought Schiaparelli haute couture to the 2026 Cannes Film Festival red carpet in a custom look. (festival-cannes.com) A separate WWD Cannes gallery identified Hadid at a May 20 screening in Cannes, France, during the 79th Festival de Cannes. The broader coverage around the appearance described the gown as featuring a dramatic cutout running from the neck to the hip. (deadline.com) That detail is consistent across the briefing material tied to the story, though the clearest verified number attached to the dress remains WWD’s report of 130 artisans and 22,160 hours. (wwd.com) ### Why did the numbers draw attention? The figure of 130 artisans is unusually large even by red-carpet standards because it points to a workshop-scale effort behind a single look. WWD’s use of both a headcount and a total hour count gave the dress the kind of production detail more often associated with couture presentations than with standard celebrity styling coverage. (wwd.com) Cannes has long served as a stage for those kinds of fashion disclosures. WWD’s festival coverage this week has tracked Hadid’s appearances closely, including a separate report on her Prada look earlier in the festival and a broader gallery of celebrity style from the 79th annual event, which began on May 12. (wwd.com) ### What happens next in Cannes? Festival de Cannes says the 79th edition runs from May 12 to May 23, 2026. The official program and live schedule continue to post red-carpet events, screenings and press activity as the festival moves toward its closing days. WWD’s report is already part of the running Cannes fashion record for this year’s festival, and the next concrete milestone is the close of the 2026 event on May 23 in Cannes. (wwd.com) (festival-cannes.com)