John Travolta Pulled Off a Beret. Could You?

I have long thought that to pull off a beret, you must be either (a) French or (b) over 70. Bonus points if you’re both.

At 72, John Travolta now qualifies.

At Cannes and beyond, the “Pulp Fiction” actor has been wearing many jaunty berets. They’ve been black and brown and ivory, worn with a to-the-right tilt, like a lopsided grin. They don’t appear to be fancy. I imagine you could find a similar style for a few euros along the Croisette. Does the look work on him? It does.

Since the Adele Dazeem incident, Travolta has evolved into an elder statesman of Hollywood. His face is more smoothed out than you might expect for a septuagenarian. The chin-strap beard is as ungray and angular as a pruned shrub.

Travolta, who was at Cannes to introduce “Propeller One-Way Night Coach,” his directorial debut, hasn’t been in a hit in years. His recent IMDb listings are mostly direct-to-video curiosities with names like “Cash Out” and “Mob Land.” And there is, of course, the Scientology of it all.

Maybe that’s why the hat of self-designated artistes, beat poets and “Emily in Paris” suits Travolta so well. A beret is an accessory with so much baggage that to wear one is to lean into the cliché, to knowingly delineate yourself as an oddball.

“The old school directors wore berets and the glasses, and I thought that’s what I’m doing, he told CNN this week. “I said, ‘I’m a director this time, you’re an actor, play the part of a director.’”

I’d say he should keep playing the part.

Louis Vuitton at the Frick

Vanessa has the full report on the Louis Vuitton cruise show, so I’ll just share a few thoughts. The Frick was a serene setting for a runway show compared to Gucci’s choice of Times Square. There was no commonality between these collections, but I still ended the week feeling that New York deserves a more expansive interpretation of our tastes than what visiting European designers imagine, which is so often based in nostalgia. It’s 2026, not 1986.

I did find the sneakers captivating, though, sort of like Louis Vuitton’s take on a Nike Foamposite. And I admire the audacious brimless fedoras, as well as the bouffant pleated blouses, one of Nicolas Ghesquière’s now reliable silhouette-shattering tricks. They looked like a wearable shuttlecock printed with Matisse-like abstractions. (In a good way, I swear — especially as paired with jeans.)

Mostly, though, I have to say I most remembered what Nicolas Ghesquière wore backstage: Levi’s denim jeans and a jean jacket in the right medium-wash blue. A sharp fit, very “Easy Rider.”

“I had to put my Levi’s on,” he said. When in America.

Ask Vanessa

I have noticed over the past couple of years that women tennis players have started wearing a great deal more jewelry on the court — and this seems like a bigger trend among athletes in general. I always thought jewelry got in the way of sports, but now it seems as if the blingier the better. What changed? — Maureen, Pittsburgh

The story of jewelry and sports is essentially the story of fashion and sports. As personal style and branding have become more and more a part of playing the game (any game), everything an athlete wears becomes marketing — for themselves and for the brands that increasingly love, and contract, them. Eye-catching bling included. Read more …

Other things worth knowing about:

Barney Greengrass, the smoked-fish emporium on the Upper West Side that is more than a century old, is introducing a streetwear label (including, duh, a green and cream hat). Everything just exists to sell merch now.
I’m obsessed with this story about how the Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. broke his cold streak by wearing his much larger teammate’s pants. Chisholm is reedy (he’s listed at 5-foot-11 and 184 pounds), but he’s playing in pants that belong to Giancarlo Stanton, who clocks in at 245 pounds. They look … incredible? Like turn-of-the-century breeches or something Honus Wagner would have hit in. They’ve turned his season around: Chisholm, in his tremendous trousers, hit a two-run homer on Monday night.
My friend (and Styles contributor) Jessica Iredale texted that the first women’s items by Kartik Research, the label from the Penn grad wunderkind Kartik Kumra, have arrived at its New York store. “It’s cute,” she reported. She almost bought a pair of pants. Almost.
This is certainly a niche complaint from someone with a mild shopping addiction (someone meaning me), but the recent influx of A.I. drivel into eBay product listings is ruining the marketplace. I don’t need to know that a pair of Nike tennis shorts “are a stylish and retro addition to any man’s wardrobe.” I just need to know if the stain will come out and if you’ll take $20 for them instead of $30.
After teasing it at the Super Bowl and then at the Met Gala, Bad Bunny’s Zara collaboration is here. With 150 styles, it’s huge. and some pieces are already sold out. Yet another data point for the “young people can’t resist fast fashion” argument.