With his peerless hat-wearing and those thick black glasses, Spike Lee is a style icon that only the movies can make: a film character even without the clang of the clapper board. That’s not even mentioning the rich vein of style references that run through his back catalogue, from Do the Right Thing to Malcolm X and Girl 6.
Making a film for a fashion brand was never going to be a great trial for the the director – see Lee’s promotional short for Moncler, the padded jacket brand that is opening a store in New York this week. In a 1.14 minute film, Brave, filmed across the city with the summer light of Do the Right Thing, these three backpacked boys walking through a mall stand out – crisp, full of purpose and striding forth as young Americans, members of a secret society we wouldn’t mind being a part of. That’s style as a story directed by Spike Lee, still doing the right thing after more than 30 years of movie-making.
