Most girls wouldn’t carry an entire outfit in their handbag, but then again most girls aren’t Penélope Cruz.

So it’s just as well she had a red trouser suit in her bag, as her luggage was lost on her flight to London from Madrid.

She simply reached for her change of clothes to tread the red carpet at Somerset House last night.

The Bottega Veneta suit wasn’t quite up to her usual glamorous standards, but it did the trick, especially teamed with some show-stopping shoes. It complemented her olive skin and long, brunette hair, even if they were the only thing to stand out.

The actress, 35, came under fire for breaking the cardinal rule of wearing red on the red carpet, but at least we now know she had good reason.

Cruz was in town for the premiere of Broken Embraces, and luckily the heavens didn’t open on her linen number.

She said: 'I looked up at the sky and said, ‘Don’t you rain on me — I’m Penélope Cruz!'

It seemed to do the trick.

Her director, Pedro Almodóvar, had an interesting theory about the lost luggage.

In delightfully broken English, the Spaniard said: 'I think it’s a plot. I think someone take it.

'They a-bring it with him or her to home. I think it was a-stolen for a fetishist.'

The film tells the story of a filmmaker who goes blind after an accident and his struggle to re-engage with life.

It was shown earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival.

Broken Embraces is the fourth collaboration between Cruz and her fellow Spaniard. It is Almodovar's first film since his 2006 hit Volver.

The movie opened this year's open air season at the Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House.

Her Spanish actor Javier Bardem was not at the premiere, but she revealed the two of them had recently stayed with U2's Bono on the French Riviera.

The film is released in cinemas on August 28.