I think the connection between fashion and film belongs to all directors in the world. Your job is to build a story and character, and every element getting to that point is important. You work with your partners to do that – from actors to makeup artists and costume designers. People connect through image, and clothes are a way to find elements the audience can identify with and decipher. It’s great to see when it works well.
I have worked with the same costume designer over my last three films: Giulia Piersanti. She is someone who inspires me very deeply with her capacity to show how wardrobe can be used as a way to portray a character. I work with her on the textures of the scene and what we want to achieve. She then goes and does research, she makes clothes or sources pieces that might be vintage. Call Me By Your Name, for example, was set in the 80s. It is too early to say the era for the sequel – but they will be grown up.
I always feel like the audience is the final owner of the film. Once I have made it, it belongs to them. And how the clothes exist from films is part of that. Look at how the wardrobe of Saturday Night Fever influenced wider culture, or how many strappy vests were sold in 1999 after that crucial scene in Eyes Wide Shut, where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are arguing.
Cinema is a very personal means of expression and I have been a cinephile all my life. It’s provided a very powerful opportunity, to disappear into the magic of the movies. It would be unfair to single one film out but I do remember when I first saw Lawrence Of Arabia when I was five. I really felt like I was there, in the desert.
It sounds exotic to people who don’t do my job but many film-makers work with fashion brands. It’s another way to utilise our capacity for storytelling. I have the privilege of knowing some inspiring fashion people. My most recent encounter came with the Armani/Laboratorio project, where young film-maker mentees are partnered with professionals across everything from directing to editing and costume design, which Giulia worked on. We had students from everywhere – America, South Africa, Italy, Poland, France, Germany. We worked with them for two weeks and did a three-day shoot. The director, Jonah Sanchez, has made a beautiful coming-of-age short film that we will now submit to festivals.
This is not a fashion film project, really. It’s more Armani supporting young film-makers. It makes sense. Mr Armani is a film lover but he has also consistently contributed to cinema – from Richard Gere in American Gigolo to Brian de Palma’s The Untouchables. This project was never explicitly about Armani. The costume designer mentee used some Armani pieces in the film – but only because it was good for character. It always comes back to that.
