Rachel McAdams Makes Her Red Carpet Return in Archival Dress From a Fashion Icon

Rachel McAdams may have been in Los Angeles last night, but her red carpet look belonged squarely to Paris. At the Send Help premiere, an appearance that marked her first proper red carpet in nearly two years, McAdams wore an archival number from one of fashion’s foremost Space Age designers.

McAdams stepped out in a one-shoulder column gown from Pierre Cardin’s fall 2009 collection. The actor and her stylist, Thomas Christos, sourced the piece from Tab Vintage. Though Cardin is best known for his futuristic designs that defined the 1960s and ’70s alongside conemporeries André Courrèges and Paco Rabanne—McAdams’s dress was notable in its simplicity. The design features a sweeping asymmetric neckline that connected to a floor-length skirt. A caped sleeve detail at one side added to the elegance, while 3D metallic appliqués grounded the look in Cardin’s retro-futurism. The dress was adorned with sculptural fringe at the shoulder and side.

McAdams finished her look with pared-back styling choices. She wore Tiffany & Co. earrings, fabricated in a way that mirrored the metallic detailing on her dress, and styled her hair in soft Hollywood waves.

When it comes to vintage, a large part of the allure comes down to fashion shorthand. A Galliano-era Dior dress is instantly recognizable, right down to the season, as are the designs from Tom Ford’s Gucci and 2000s Alexander McQueen. McAdams took a different approach.

Instead of pulling from Cardin’s more popular archival designs—say, a structured bubble dress from his ’70s collections, the designer’s infamous jumpsuits—she chose something timelessly elegant and largely untethered to a specific era.