Yet, rather than for its celebrities, the most recent edition of the Venice Film Festival will probably be remembered for its strong connection with style and fashion, not only thanks to Tom Ford’s directorial debut A Single Man, but also to an event entitled Style Star that explored the fashion and cinema connection. Created by Marina Garzoni, Style Star focused on bringing together a selection of stylish shortcuts commissioned by luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior and Salvatore Ferragamo just to mention a few, shot by a group of international directors. The event recently moved to Milan this week to bring the Italian fashion capital a bit of cinematic glamour.
Marina Garzoni: I recently wrote a book entitled Moda & Tecnologia (Fashion and Technology) that explored the impact technology has had in the last few years on the means of communication and on the relation between consumers and luxury brands. My background is in fashion, but while working on the book I did a detailed research on how brands can communicate their ideas to consumers tired of seeing fashion in conventional ways. It was then that I understood that shortcuts made by proper directors could have been an engaging and honest way to reach out to people and establish with them an innovative dialogue. After the book came out, I did an event about this topic at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then decided to take the project further.
Q: In Italy there has always been a strong relationship between fashion and cinema, is Style Star a way to give renew this connection and maybe look at it from an international perspective?
MG: Absolutely. Fashion always had a very important role in the settings and costumes and there were films that even launched trends or looks that became unforgettable. The fashion message was subtler in specific films, though, and it was often used as a way to define a character’s features or mood. With shortcuts things are slightly different, but I think shorts are perfect to spread a message or make a statement in a quick and efficient way. Besides while fashion catwalks are exclusive events for professionals, shortcuts are for everybody and they can be spread through different media and shared by people all over the world on the net or on mobile phones.
MG: In the last few years I collaborated with quite a few companies with my non-profit association, Moda e Tecnologia. I’ve been working as consultant about fashion and technology with various companies, collaborating with Microsoft on previous projects. When we had to decide which partner to choose to share our message on the Internet and on mobile phones, Microsoft’s platform looked perfect. They recently launched Surface, a product that revealed itself as ideal to take our concept to different places, from airports to restaurants.
Q: What’s your favourite short?
MG: I love each of them for different reasons: Chanel’s “Fitting Room Follies” by Karl Lagerfeld celebrates the fashion house’s A/W 09 collection in a sensual way; Dior’s short is intriguing and slightly noir and Andrea Rovetta’s “La scarpa” (The Shoe”) for Salvatore Ferragamo is funny and intuitive. Louis Vuitton commissioned shortcuts to different directors, and I found Edoardo Winspeare’s “Les noces de papier” (The First Wedding Anniversary) rather funny, yet also touching and emotional. Winspeare follows the vicissitudes of two modest people, a wife and husband, dreaming about a LV bag.
MG: In Venice we did a big event in a lounge designed by Leo Burnett, but we have prepared something different in Milan, an event entitled “Cinema is Fashionable” that will be presented at the Town House Galleria, a hotel where we are going to meet journalists, partners, directors and producers. We will be at the Cannes Film Festival from 12th to 23rd May 2010 with a new lounge on the Croisette, between the Carlton and the Martinez, and we hope that, by then, we will have spread our message and we will have more shortcuts as well.
Q: Is there a city where you would like to take Style Star one day?
MG: I would love to be able to take it to Los Angeles, but, for the time being, I think we must work about spreading the shortcut message in Europe, starting with cities such as London, Brussels or Antwerp. London is such a forward thinking city, an amazingly creative place and it would be great to collaborate with local shops and maybe bring our project to department stores as well. It would also be exciting to get students from London’s Central Saint Martins or Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts involved in our project and maybe discover new directors, actors and actresses and interact with them. New digital means of communications give people the chance to shoot a film even with a small budget and the web offers great chances to spread a message, so I think the possibilities for fashion shortcuts are simply endless. We are at present thinking about taking the event to cinemas across Italy as well and we hope that one day we will also be able to collaborate with other well-established or new fashion and film festivals in other countries. It would be great to see Style Star becoming their partner, opening up new collaborations, experimenting with new means of communication and spreading a fashionable and stylish message.
“Cinema is Fashionable”, a Style Star event, is at the Town House Galleria, Via Silvio Pellico 8, Milan, until 29th September. Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
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