Although “The Devil Wears Prada 2” dominated this spring’s entertainment news and has grossed more than $666.1 million at the box office, there is plenty of other fashion-focused content to be consumed this summer.
Jill Kargman’s leading role as a followers-obsessed social media influencer in “Influenced,” Donna Karan’s thoughtful take on supply chain issues in “Farm to Fashion” and the Sean Ono Lennon-directed documentary about the design collective Threeasfour are some of the ways that shoppers and viewers can tune into fashion this summer.
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In a case of art imitating life, Kargman plays a mega-social media influencer dealing with fake friends and black-card swiping, workout-addicted Upper East Siders, as she strives to amass 1 million followers. That well-heeled New York neighborhood is familiar territory for the comedic Kargman, who enlisted Drew Barrymore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Biggs and Matt Damon for cameos in “Influenced.”
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While the movie delves into genuine friendship and self-discovery, IRL Kargman already has a true following, as a bestselling author and the creator of “Odd Man Out.” The cast includes Christine Taylor, Jessica Capshaw, David Krumholtz and Justin Bartha. (Kargman, whose father Arie Kopelman was the former president of Chanel, needs no fashion pointers.) In select theaters now, “Influenced” will be released on July 10 for digital or to purchase.
Kargman said Tuesday, “It’s just hyperbolizing influencer culture to the point where that funhouse mirror is reflecting something that is so silly any way. Hopefully, people can laugh along, by seeing somebody who is a little over-the-top and using social media as a kind of character.”
Through a partnership with Instagram, “we have their user interface so you see what she’s posting and the dichotomy between that and what her life is,” Kargman said. “Hopefully, it will be funny for people to see the silliness of product placement pushing or taking a selfie, during somebody’s serious sob story.”
In addition, “threeASFOUR: Full Circle” will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 3. Directed by Sean Ono Lennon and codirected by Mark Goinzalez, the documentary traces the design collective Threeasfour. That was founded in 2005 as an evolution of what was originally As Four. That foursome once was Gabi Asfour, Angela Donhauser, Adi Gil and Kai Kuhne in 2005.
In his director’s statement, Lennon said he started filming Threeasfour’s Asfour, Donhauser and Gil to see how “artists like them survive — how they protect a vision grounded in principle in a system that often rewards the opposite.”
Attendees at another Tribeca Film Festival screening will also have a chance to examine the fashion system from a sustainability perspective. Donna Karan plays a leading role along with Isabella Rossellini and fellow designer Mimi Prober in the documentary “Farm to Fashion,” which will be screened June 13 and 14 at the film festival. The Oliver Halfin-directed flick has other fashion tie-ins — Kelly Cutrone and her daughter Ava produced it with Susan Easton. Set amidst the farms, animals, shepherds, mills and artisans that are shaping New York state’s wool industry, the film highlights the trajectory of clothing from sheep to a finished garment.
The ever-emphatic Karan talks about the interconnectivity between a designer and the ethically-minded Prober discusses her slow fashion approach in an industry that is fueled by speed. “Farm to Fashion” raises the questions about supply chains and how reconnecting with land, materials and processes can be restorative.
Karan has another fashion-based entertainment project that is being unveiled this month. She is the executive producer of “Mister Halston,” which has its world premiere June 2 at the Bay State Theater in Sag Harbor. The Tony Award-winning producer Bruce Robert Harris is also involved. Set in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, the play centers on the fashion designer Halston’s rocketing fame and then his subsequent fall.
Another documentary about the late fashion designer Patrick Kelly, “Love Patrick: Nothing Is Impossible” will debut at a few film festivals later this summer. His compact career ran from 1985 until 1990, when the 35-year-old talent died of AIDS. Known for his joyous take on fashion including garments covered with colorful buttons, Kelly’s designs were sold at Henri Bendel, Bloomingdale’s and Bergdorf Goodman. Cicely Tyson, Bette Davis and Grace Jones were among his big-name clients, and Naomi Campbell walked in his fashion shows.
Despite his success, Kelly’s career is unknown by many. As a young man, Kelly sold recycled clothes and worked pro bono as a window dresser at an Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche boutique in Atlanta. He went on to attend Parsons School of Design in New York and later lived in Paris for a time, selling dresses on the street and working as a costume designer at the nightclub Le Palais. In the 1980s, Kelly became the first American member of the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter.
“Dinner With Audrey” is another style-centered production that is in the works. Starring Ansel Elgort and Thomasin McKenzie, the flick spotlights the friendship between Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy. Set in Paris in 1953, the film zeroes in on Hepburn’s first visit to Givenchy’s studio in advance of her breakout role as “Sabrina.” Despite initially being rebuffed by the designer, the pair connected and unknowingly sparked what would be a 41-year friendship. The shoot is underway in Budapest for the film from Wayfarer Studios, Mad Chance Productions and Hyde Park Entertainment. Judy Greer and Miranda Richardson recently joined the cast.
One of this summer’s much-anticipated albums also leans into fashion. When Charli XCX’s album “Music, Fashion, Film” lands on July 24, its cover shot will feature the designer Marc Jacobs along with musician John Cale with filmmaker Martin Scorsese. “SS26,” one of the songs from the album that has already been released, is another nod to fashion with lines like, “We’re walkin’ on a runway that goes straight to hell / Nothing’s gonna save us, not music, fashion or film.”
Meanwhile, another leading musician with new material, Olivia Rodrigo, amped up the fashion factor by racing around Versailles wearing a Jane Birkin-inspired frock for her “Drop Dead” music video, which was shot by another fashion favorite, Petra Collins. Rodrigo also recently sounded off in defense of baby-doll dresses, and challenged the idea “that people deem to be childlike, was ‘inappropriate.’ And it just shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”