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Tribeca Film Festivals Fierce Fashion Shorts
I didn’t know much about the three films I was about to see as I took my seat in the Angelika Theater. A part of the Tribeca Film Festival, Fierce Fashion included three fashion-related shorts that were selected out of 9,000 submissions.
It’s easy to see fashion as just the end product, but Fierce Fashion reminded us there’s always more to the story. After seeing three very different sides of the fashion industry, from rural sheep farmers to high-end designers, I left the theater with a renewed appreciation for the passion that brings fashion to life.
Farm to Fashion | Directed by Oliver Halfin
Farm to Fashion, directed by Oliver Halfin, is a documentary highlighting the link between fashion and farms by tracing materials back to their origins.
When you think “New York fashion,” farmland probably isn’t what comes to mind, but that’s exactly where Oliver Halfin’s Farm to Fashion took us. The film opens in Brookhaven, where sheep follow former actor and model Isabella Rossellini on a tricycle down a gravel path on her regenerative farm.
Rossellini is just one face of a growing movement of New Yorkers working to slow fashion down and reconnect it to the land, steering the industry away from fossil fuels and back into partnership with the earth. The film also highlights designers Donna Karan and Mimi Prober, champions of this sustainably made wool, who use these materials in their collections and showed us the importance of letting their designs be guided by the fabrics.
From watching wool be hand-processed by small-scale farmers, to seeing the fabrics come to life in the designers’ work, this 23-minute film is a beautiful reminder that fashion can be sustainable, if we slow down enough to respect the stories, the people, and the places that create it.
Oscar de la Renta : A Life Well Lived | Directed by Richard Kaufman
Oscar de la Renta: A Life Well Lived is a documentary that traces the acclaimed designer’s roots back to the Dominican Republic to an American fashion icon, celebrating six decades of creativity.
From New York, we were transported to the vibrant, tropical city of Santo Domingo, home of the visionary designer Oscar de la Renta. What stuck with me most from Oscar de la Renta : A Life Well Lived, directed by Richard Kaufman, is color, vibrancy, and life. At every turn– through the backstory of de la Renta’s life, a look through past collections, and a behind-the-scenes look at the luxury fashion studio today– we’re met with color, playfulness, and a love of life that defines the brand.
As reflected in the title, the film shows that for de la Renta, clothing was a way of saying that fully embracing the vibrancy of life is what makes for a life well lived.
Couture To The Max | Directed by Dori Berinstein
Couture to the Max is a documentary about Max Alexander, a fashion prodigy whose sketches as a preschooler led to his debut runway collection at age 9.
Like me, you may have heard of 10-year-old prodigy designer Max Alexander and thought, this can’t be real! Couture to the Max, directed by Dori Berinstein, not only proves his talent is the real deal, it makes you fall in love with his personality too.
The film follows Max as he prepares for Aspen Fashion Week, working exclusively with sustainable materials, including reused burlap bags, designing and constructing everything by hand. Though an accomplished one, Max is still a kid— throwing fabric in the air and playing hand games with models before sending them down the runway. His radiant energy shows up in his designs, and watching it spread to everyone around him makes this film so joyful. I smiled through the whole thing. If the future of fashion is led by Max Alexander, we’re in good hands.
The Fierce Fashion shorts made one thing clear: fashion is most powerful when it’s rooted in something real, whether that’s the land, a vibrant philosophy, or the joy of a kid who loves to create.