Janicza Bravo Gives Jesse Kamm’s Collection the Hollywood Treatment
PERFECTLY FRAMED: Fashion designers have been turning to short films to broaden their audiences in recent years, but Jesse Kamm aims to gain some serious wattage, thanks to filmmaker Janickza Bravo.
The duo first met more than 10 years ago through a mutual friend and bonded in part over Panama. Bravo lived there until the age of 12, when her family relocated to New York City. And Kamm and her family have been spending three to four months each year on Panama’s Caribbean side since 2006. The Modernist treetop house that they built two years later is a site in itself.
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But back to the friendship. Bravo gravitated toward the designer’s timeless aesthetic and has subsequently acquired a good number of the brand’s high-waisted pants. Her style and storytelling struck a chord with Kamm years ago. Now fans of her brand will soon be able to catch a 30-second flick that was made in collaboration with the director, producer and screenwriter to launch the fall collection. The creator of “Zola” and ”Lemon” appears in the short film, crossing city streets wearing effortless looks from the new collection.
Visitors to Kamm’s site will find it there for their viewing as of Sept. 1. In turn, Bravo appears self-styled in the designer’s fall look book in new ensembles and her own accessories. Those gold chains, anklets, scarves and hats are meant to evoke a Caribbean sensibility. The look book also showcases a high-waisted straight-legged pant called ”The California Slim.”
Bravo has been making the rounds with the fashion crowd in recent months. This spring, she was one of the nine filmmakers who reimagined the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s period rooms as part of the Costume Institute’s ”In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” Her fans, as well as those of other talents like Sofia Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Chloé Zhao, have until Sept. 5 to check out the exhibition until it folds. Bravo’s multimedia prismatic take on the Gothic Revival Library and the Rococo Revival Parlor are something to marvel. The Elizabeth Hawes designs and a Marguery Bolhagen ballgown are also impressive.
Last month Bravo turned up at a Gucci event in the Hamptons and also in the front row at Schiaparelli with the actress Natasha Lyonne to see Daniel Roseberry’s finery. Bravo and Lyonne will be shooting ”Poker Face” together, and worked on a short Miu Miu film.
With her starring role in the short film for Kamm soon to be released, Bravo has lent her cinematic knowledge to another endeavor: The Met’s ”An Anthology of Cinema” film series that kicks off at Metrograph in Brooklyn on Sept. 2.
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