Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival 2025, Father Mother Sister Brother, fourteenth Jim's feature film Jarmusch, is also the seventh A film produced by Anthony Vaccarello, the artistic director of Yves Saint Laurent. A look back at a fashion-film collaboration that was as exceptional as it was fruitful.
It was in 2019 that the Saint Laurent fashion house took its first steps into film production under the aegis of its new artistic director – who succeeded Hedi Slimane in 2016 – Anthony Vaccarello. This first foray into cinema was directed by a particularly visual filmmaker, as renowned in France as he is admired abroad: Gaspar Noé. Commissioned by Vaccarello, the film required the participation of talents who collaborate with the brand: muses Charlotte Gainsbourg and Béatrice Dalle, as well as several models, including Abbey Lee and Mica Argañaraz. The result: a short, epileptic, and semi-improvised film about witches, whose images (especially the ending) linger long after the credits roll. A perfect fusion of the artistic vision of a fashion house (it goes without saying that the characters are dressed in Saint Laurent) and the cinematic impact of a Gaspar Noé film. The film was selected – out of competition – at Cannes and, exceptionally for a short film, received a theatrical release. At the same time, the fashion house screened the film in its flagship store Parisian and evokes the visual imagery of the film (as well as the muses Gainsbourg and Dalle) to highlight its stylistic universe.
Starting in 2023, Saint Laurent launched a campaign using directors as muses: Abel Ferrara, Pedro Almodovar, David Cronenberg, and Jim Jarmusch. This is the photo series " Director's Cut "Where, under the watchful eye of photographer David Sims, these filmmakers with their distinctive look have their style revisited by Vaccarello for the Saint Laurent Homme Spring-Summer collection. Each time, black and white photographs and an all-black look, often with sunglasses. The filmmaker is elevated to the status of a maestro."
But the collaboration doesn't end with a photoshoot. Saint Laurent Production produces (or co-produces) at least one film by each of these filmmakers: notably starting in 2020 for Abel Ferrara with the documentary Sportin' Life and in 2023 for Pedro Almodovar with the western short film Strange way of life, which adopts the model of Luxury ÆternaThis time with an all-male cast, Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. Each time, the films are selected either for Cannes or Venice, that is to say, the most prestigious international film festivals.
From 2024 onwards, Saint Laurent Production is shifting into high gear. The films are no longer " side projects "in the careers of filmmakers. These are feature-length fiction films that compete at Cannes or Venice. At the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, three films produced by Anthony Vaccarello have earned the distinction of being in the official competition. There are The Shrouds, Cronenberg's final film; Parthenope, Paolo Sorrentino's love letter to Naples; but also the famous Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard, which won the Best Director Award at Cannes and two Oscars. At the same time, with Saint Laurent Production, Anthony Vaccarello went even further in his cinephile gesture, resurrecting Pasolini with Fabrice Du Welz (and again Béatrice Dalle) for The Passion According to Beatrice and even contributing to one of Jean-Luc Godard's last posthumous films, Trailer for the film that will never exist: "Strange Wars".
The Venetian coronation of Father, Mother, Sister, BrotherThe latest Saint Laurent (co)production, completes Saint Laurent's now legitimate place in the cinematic landscape. Anthony Vaccarello met Jim Jarmusch as early as 2021, when the filmmaker directed a short film for the brand's Summer 2021 collection. The director, who has always refused to make commercials, admits to having been fascinated by Vaccarello's style and his desire to collaborate with filmmakers (previous campaigns had been shot by Gaspar Noé and Wong Kar-Wai). This new collaboration, although more personal, is therefore a continuation of an existing working relationship. And while the film begins, alongside the logos of the other partners, with the words " presented by “Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello” "This is a personal work by Jarmusch (interwoven stories about human relationships, true to the author's style of Coffee and Cigarettes) and which Vaccarello, like each of the producers, guaranteed the final cut and the absence of commercial interference.
However, Anthony Vaccarello's involvement once again goes beyond a simple financial partnership, as the designer is credited, in his personal capacity, as "artistic creator." He didn't design the costumes—those were by Catherine George, a longtime collaborator of Jarmusch—nor the set design. Nevertheless, his style permeated this film starring Tom Waits, Adam Driver, and Vicky Krieps, as well as Charlotte Rampling and Cate Blanchett, two Saint Laurent muses during the Vaccarello era. This is a successful gamble for the House of Saint Laurent, which goes beyond the traditional collaboration of a costume designer. It's no longer about simply dressing the actors, but about infusing a distinctive style into the major personal works that shape contemporary cinema.
