Fashion Brands Provide Alternative Financing for Indie Film – WWD

News that Saint Laurent has launched its own production company might have raised eyebrows in some quarters of the movie industry. But fashion’s growing involvement in film could provide a lifeline for auteur directors, as the streaming revolution and a growing focus on blockbuster franchises restricts financing for independent films.

The Kering-owned Saint Laurent is billing itself as the first luxury label to launch a full-scale subsidiary devoted to film production. Though companies such as Prada have funded short films before, Saint Laurent says it won’t be doing branded content and will eschew obvious product placement.

Its first films underscore that intent.

The new banner is debuting two shorts in the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, including Pedro Almodóvar’s “Strange Way of Life,” a Western starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke, and a documentary about legendary filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.

“It’s brilliant, especially because it’s not hitting us over the head with their product,” said Amy Baker, cofounder and chief executive officer of Winston Baker, which hosts the annual International Film Finance Forum at the Cannes Film Festival.

“They’re absolutely going to make a footprint in the industry if the content is good, and I’m assuming it is, because they have star quality behind it and they’re partnering with the right production companies or studios. It’s really, really smart.”

Following the Almodóvar project and Godard documentary, Saint Laurent Productions has feature-length projects in the works with Cannes Jury Prize winner David Cronenberg and Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino. While Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello will work with both directors to conceive clothing and accessories, the films will not be advertorial.

It’s an unconventional brand extension in an industry that moves almost too quickly for the slow pace of film production.

The 18-month-plus script-to-screen cycle has traditionally made brands shy to invest, particularly with product placement. In a time when houses routinely drop six collections a year, by the time dopamine dressing hits the big screen, fashion has already moved on to quiet luxury. The ever-faster fashion cycle doesn’t work with the long gestation times of film production.

“If they are stepping out of it as a product placement situation and making an actual commitment to film, to producing or to funding programming, it’s a wise move,” said film industry veteran and serial entrepreneur Charles Finch.

“You ultimately are paying money to the stars to wear your stuff anyway, so why not go the step further? The interconnectivity of all these artistic threads is so obvious today, so I think brave and cool of them to do it,” added Finch, who cohosts a star-studded annual pre-Oscars party with Chanel.

As big studios look to license intellectual property and build billion-dollar franchises, there’s increasingly less room — and cash — for even well-regarded auteurs.

“Even if it’s Pedro Almodóvar or Alfonso Cuarón, who are incredible directors, they don’t have property that is a franchise. They just want to tell a really good story. So they’re going to be looking to other industries where they are really pushing forward with investing in content,” Winston said.

Video game companies are one new source of potential funding, as well as untapped regional production funds from countries such as Saudi Arabia, she said.

But fashion could fit the bill and cash in on the currency of cinema.

“Being associated to cinema gives brands an opportunity to ‘gentrify’ and take the high ground, on top of a global language and global testimonials,” said Bernstein analyst Luca Solca. “It’s a very interesting move. It definitely shows commitment to cinema. Maybe this is also an opportunity to find alternative creative talent.”

Fashion has long had ties to film, especially in costuming. Think Audrey Hepburn’s Hubert de Givenchy dress in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” or Yves Saint Laurent’s outfits for Catherine Deneuve in “Belle du Jour.”

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel outfitted Delphine Seyrig in “Last Year at Marienbad” in 1962; Chanel’s current creative director Virginie Viard staged her spring 2024 runway show against a screening of extracts from the film.

Fashion brands are pushing increasingly into the cultural space — see LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s deep reach into the art world, which it co-opts for marketing and branding purposes. Licensing art for use on a handbag could feel increasingly inauthentic for some brands, but investing in film is working from a different and less commercial script.

Italian director Luca Guadagnino has made short films for brands including Valentino, Giorgio Armani and Salvatore Ferragamo. In turn, he has enlisted designers such as Raf Simons and Jonathan Anderson to design costumes for his films, and brought on Silvia Venturini Fendi as a producer on his horror film “Suspiria.”

Contemporary brand Agnes b. set up her Love Stream Agnes b. productions back in 2007, coproducing a handful of films until 2013.

Meanwhile, Chanel has been quietly ramping up its involvement in the film industry, last year promoting Elsa Heizmann, its longtime global head of VIP relations, to global head of fashion’s relationship with cinema.

Starting with “Clouds of Sils Maria” in 2014, the luxury house has contributed funding toward several films, most of them starring brand ambassadors like Kristen Stewart, including “Personal Shopper” and “Spencer.” But it has also supported productions like “Bigger Than Us,” the climate change documentary produced by Marion Cotillard, another face of the brand.

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Chanel is involved in several projects. It contributed financing, in addition to costumes and accessories, for the opening night film “Jeanne du Barry,” though star and director Maïwenn hasn’t appeared in a brand campaign for the house in a decade.

It also has longstanding partnerships with events such as the Deauville American Film Festival in France and the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

In addition, Chanel has financed the preservation of classic films, as has Gucci, which donated several million dollars to Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation for the restoration of masterpieces of cinema including “La Dolce Vita” and “The Leopard.”

“There’s a real passion for cinema in quite a lot of these brands. If it is in the support of a movie, of a story that rings deep bells within the culture of the brand and can be supported throughout its life and done gracefully, anything that can support production is really positive,” Finch said.

Kering, parent company of Saint Laurent, as well as Gucci and Boucheron, has made inroads in the film world as an official sponsor of the Cannes Film Festival since 2014. The company launched its Women in Motion program the following year, increasing the visibility of its conglomerate name with a series of talks and awards.

Beyond promotion, fashion brands could become cultural arbiters by acquiring theaters in the troubled exhibition business. The Dior CineramaDome in Los Angeles or the Chanel Curzon in London? It’s the next logical step, according to Finch.

“Movie theaters in parallel will be bought by whoever has a big checkbook, and why not have companies that fundamentally have taste as their currency? They would be amazing curators for movie theaters,” he said.

It would be a savvy move for a conglomerate like Kering or LVMH, he argued. “These companies have become super brands. When a company becomes worth $500 billion, acquiring movie theaters and funding their own programming is a natural progression,” he said, noting that brands such as Adidas and Nike have long invested in sports teams. “So for luxury brands to start investing in programming, it’s about time.”

A Saint Laurent- or Louis Vuitton-branded cinema and cultural center would have precedent in arenas, which have long sported company names such as the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami or the Staples Center in L.A., Winston noted. Even though the latter went through a sale and rebrand last year, it is still colloquially known by its original name.

And with a capacity of 20,000, it’s brand-building heaven.

Winston noted this is also happening at a smaller scale with film festivals, such as the Zurich Film Festival, which will grant theater naming rights to sponsors such as Audi or Credit Suisse for the 11 days of screenings.

Streaming’s disruption of the movie industry has left the consumer confused — who hasn’t spent hours scrolling through Netflix just to switch over to AppleTV without figuring out what to watch? If brand curation could give better structure and draw people back to theaters, Finch said, it would help the viewer.

But he added, “The model is constantly in flux. I think that if you can protect cinema, in any form, that is what matters. It’s not the glamour and the noise, it’s the storytelling and the narrative form that needs to be protected.”