Part of the challenge of this new relationship between fashion and entertainment is navigating the creative tension between the vision of a film director and a fashion house that has its own creative agenda. “You’re giving up control in the sense that in order to make a good story, you also have to let the story be an independent vehicle,” says Jenna Barnet, CEO of Sunshine, an LA and London-based creative agency specialising in building entertainment strategy for brands. (Sunshine was recently acquired by The Independents, a communications group that notes Karla Otto, Bureau Betak and Lefty among its portfolio.)
But if brands can let go of some of that control, it can provide a platform to connect with a broad base of potential consumers. “It’s soft power, rather than commerciality,” says Elsa Keslassy, executive editor of international at Variety.
Saint Laurent parent company Kering has been eyeing the opportunity in film for years, as the luxury battle in the cinema space heats up. It is a long-standing partner of Cannes and launched the Women in Motion programme in 2015 to highlight women’s contribution to cinema (this year it awarded NBC Universal chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley and emerging talent Amanda Nell Eu at a star-studded dinner on Sunday in Cannes). In September 2023, Artémis, the Pinault family’s investment company, agreed to acquire a majority stake in renowned Hollywood agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
In February 2024, LVMH struck back by announcing its own Hollywood venture, 22 Montaigne Entertainment in partnership with Superconnector Studios — described as “a single platform to accelerate its 75 maison marketing efforts into premium films, TV and audio formats”. The goal is to allow “more of our maisons to engage authentically with their audience through premium productions”, LVMH North America chairman and CEO Anish Melwani said in a statement.
Chanel has an enduring relationship with cinema, and this year supported the premiere of the Francis Ford Coppola film Megalopolis and supported several premiering films at the stage of production, including Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio (Chanel designed some of the wardrobe for the character played by Catherine Deneuve) as well as Maria, starring Chanel ambassador Anamaria Vartolomei.
“Cannes has become the new battlefield for the fashion groups,” says Olivier Bouchara, head of content of Vanity Fair France.
Return on investment
Saint Laurent doesn’t comment on the amount it paid to co-produce the films. Cinema is an industry with a longer-term return on investment (profits are more likely to come from TV rights than from box-office receipts), but it’s a money making business, especially with headliners. So if the film makes a profit, producers get dividends.