A History of Kristen Stewart’s Rebellious Red Carpet Sneakers
From Cannes to Hollywood, the star has a history of rebuking stilettos in favor of sneakers on the red carpet.
Reported by Vogue.
In 2018, Kristen Stewart walked the BlacKkKlansman premiere at Cannes barefoot — heels removed, point made. "If you're not asking guys to wear heels and a dress, you can't ask me either," she said afterward. It was a headline moment, but honestly, it was also just very on-brand. Because for well over a decade now, Stewart's preferred red carpet punctuation has been the sneaker — and she has never once apologized for it.
According to Vogue, the origin story goes back to the 2009 MTV VMAs, when a Twilight-era Stewart paired a taffeta Yigal Azrouël mini dress with Converse Chuck Taylors and essentially set the template for everything that followed. The Chucks have since become her signature in the most literal sense — she wore them most recently at Cannes alongside a Mathieu Blazy–designed Chanel look. Her longtime stylist Tara Swennen puts it plainly: "It had a sophistication, but also was a bit rebellious." That tension is exactly the point.
Beyond the Chuck Taylor
Stewart's sneaker vocabulary extends well past Converse. She's cycled through Adidas Sambas off-duty, and Nike Cortez low-tops have made repeat appearances — on The Tonight Show, at the Charlie's Angels press tour paired with Thom Browne tailoring. The throughline isn't any single silhouette; it's the refusal to let footwear be the thing that costs her comfort or credibility. Low-tops, high-tops, with gowns, with denim — the formula shifts, but the energy stays the same.
What makes Stewart's commitment genuinely interesting isn't just the anti-dress-code defiance (though that's satisfying). It's the consistency. In an industry that rewards constant reinvention and punishes repetition, she's found a signature and leaned into it hard. The sneaker isn't a bit, or a stylist's calculated subversion play — it reads as the wardrobe choice of someone who actually dresses like herself, which in Hollywood remains a quietly radical act.
When your signature move is this good and this repeatable, there's no reason to fix what isn't broken — Stewart has spent sixteen years proving exactly that.
Read the original at Vogue.
