Saint Laurent is Proving Fashion Houses Can Make Great Films, Too

It should be no surprise that the people so successful as creatives in the fashion world also find success making films. Such is the case for Saint Laurent, who's making their foray into the medium for this year's Cannes Film Festival.

On May 18, Saint Laurent Productions, of the fashion house Saint Laurent, will show Emilia Perez at Cannes. It’s the first of three films they will be entering in the 2024 selection of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. It features an esteemed cast consisting of Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Edgar Ramirez, and Adriana Paz.

Yes, Saint Laurent costumes the movies, but Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello insists he won't take these movies as an opportunity to advertise or highlight the brand in an advertising way. 

“I don’t want to see the name of Saint Laurent used in that way, and I will not produce a film about fashion or use a film as an opportunity to make a brand shine,” said Vaccarello to Vogue. 

No capsule collections, merchandise, or accessories will be launched in conjunction with these films. They purely exist to communicate the creativity of Saint Laurent’s brand, except instead of clothes, the medium is movies.

Emilia Perez, made with the help of Why Not Productions and Page 114, follows Rita, a lawyer dedicated to freeing criminals rather than convicting them.

“Overqualified and undervalued, Rita is a lawyer at a large firm that is more interested in getting criminals off the hook than bringing them to justice. One day, she is given an unexpected way out when cartel leader Manitas hires her to help him withdraw from his business and realize a plan he has been secretly preparing for years: to become the woman he has always dreamt of being,” reads the synopsis. 

Directed by Palme d'Or winner Jacques Audiard, Vaccarello describes the film as “very new in its approach and very different from what he [Audiard] has done in the past. 

“But simultaneously, when I watch it, you can clearly see it’s him. It’s never a cliché,” Vaccarello adds.

Vaccarello's commitment to preserving the integrity of film without turning it into an advertisement for the fashion house he helms brings forth the question of whether fashion houses should be making movies more often. Saint Laurent is the first fashion house to create its own production company, but Anthony Vaccarello isn’t the only fashion creative to delve into film. 

Tom Ford, former creative director at Gucci and then his eponymous brand, is also a filmmaker. Under his production company, Fade to Black, he released A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2015), both of which were Oscar-nominated. Ford, often lauded as a revolutionary figure in fashion, completely separates fashion from his filmmaking. In fact, he stepped away from fashion to focus on film. 

In a 2023 interview with GQ, Ford ruminates over his decision to leave fashion. He attributes moving on from his fashion company to the loss of his husband, Richard Buckley, but he also states that he wants to refocus his attention on another form of art he loves. 

“I loved making the two films that I made. That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’m 62. Hopefully, we’ll remain somewhat together until 82. So I want to spend the next 20 years of my life making films,” said Ford to GQ.

It’s important to remember that fashion designers are, first and foremost, artists. Yes, they have to appeal to a market and meet a consumer’s needs through their work, but making clothes comes with an unbridled sense of creativity that extends beyond constructing pieces of fabric into ensembles. Through their collections, creative directors are world-builders and storytellers. An ensemble can personify the spirit of a woman or man, which is why you often hear people, celebrities in particular, being referred to as a Prada girl or a Versace woman. For some, Lily-Rose Depp is almost synonymous with Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld. Christian Louboutin’s So Kate heels were built to embody Kate Moss’s allure, and now they are getting associated with Zendaya as the shoe is her go-to for press tours. 

If designers can pump so much life into clothing, bags, and shoes—all inanimate objects—why shouldn’t they be able to make movies? If anything, their superior ability to create visually stunning works of art can potentially make them fantastic filmmakers. 

In this sense, fashion creatives and fashion houses moving to film isn’t at all a surprise and can be a very welcome addition to the film industry. 

Of course, with how exclusive the film world can be, Vaccarello expressed that there were some skeptics.

“I know some French producers are a bit cold about the idea of a fashion house producing films, but they’re just not used to it—I think it’s good that we have new producers coming into the business. It’s cool to change the rules,” Vaccarello said in the Vogue interview. 

But French film legend Catherine Deneuve is willing to give Vaccarello a chance. 

“Yeah—she was like, ‘It’s brave, and it’s a good thing for cinema,’” Vaccarello mentions. 

The other two films Saint Laurent will debut at Cannes are The Shrouds, directed by David Cronenberg, which will premiere on May 20, followed by Parthenope, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, which will show on May 21. 

The synopsis for The Shrouds, starring Vincent Cassel, Sandrine Holt, Diane Kruger, and Guy Pearce, reads, “Karsh, 50, is a prominent businessman. Inconsolable since the death of his wife, he invents GraveTech, a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their dear departed in their shrouds. One night, multiple graves, including that of Karsh’s wife, are desecrated. Karsh sets out to track down the perpetrators.”

Parthenope, starring Dario Aita, Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi, and Isabella Ferrari, among others, is described as a feminine epic about the ancient Greek siren Parthenope. Its summary reads, “A feminine epic, devoid of heroism but brimming with an inexorable passion for freedom, Naples, and the faces of love—all those true, pointless, and unspeakable loves. The perfect Capri summer, the lightheartedness of youth. Which ends in an ambush. And then all the others—the Neapolitans, men and women, observed and loved, disillusioned and vital, their waves of melancholy, their tragic ironies and dejected glances. Life, be it ordinary or memorable, knows how to be very long. The passing of time offers up a vast repertoire of emotions. And there in the background, so close and so very far, is Naples, this ineffable city that bewitches, enchants, screams, laughs, and always knows how to hurt you.”

Time will only tell how these films by Saint Laurent Productions will be received, both at Cannes and among larger audiences, once they trickle to theaters and streaming services. But one thing is for certain: films made by creatives outside of the entertainment industry shouldn’t be written off.