The Ghetto Film School Roster held their Beyond Fashion Panel Event at the Museum of Moving Image on Thursday, November 3rd.
In collaboration with Kate Spade, the event held a panel discussing the relationship between fashion and film and fashion storytelling. Kristen Naimen, the SVP Brand Creative for Kate Spade, led the panel discussion. She was joined by an impressive roster (no pun intended) of creatives like Felita Harris (SVP Global Commercial Development at Lela Rose), Brian Phillips (President and Chief Executive for Black Frame), Emma Summerton (Fashion Photographer), and Rachel Fleit (Creative Director at Killer Films Media). The event was aimed at bringing together young creatives and the next generation’s storytellers, a goal that the Ghetto Film School has worked on providing since it’s inception back in 2000. Roster always holds events that are free, making it easy for high school and college student to attend them without causing a financial burden while learning from industry greats.
We got the chance to speak to the talented Kristen Naimen after the panel.
What motivated you to collaborate with Roster?
I just feel like helping people understand how to find their vision and how to tell stories is something I love so much. It took me a long time in my career to figure it out and find my path. Just talking about that and giving people the chance to hear different kinds of stories and open up different pathways is something I want to do.
When it comes to the branded storytelling, where do think the demand for a narrative came from? Was it from the users or from the industry itself?
I think it’s a combination of the two. I feel like there was a much bigger platform on which to tell stories and the channels on which we could tell them became much more diverse. Simultaneously that brought the brand to life and social media created a situation on which the dictate I was talking about, “That if you wear a+b, you look like c” fell apart. When it fell apart, we had to figure out a different way to tell a story. Film, television, and music videos have been telling those kinds of stories for a very long time. Not just here’s how you want to look but here’s the world you want to live in, here’s how you want to be, here’s how you want to think about things, here’s someone who looks like you… That opportunity broke open this possibility for narrative storytelling in fashion in a way that’s going to continue.
What role will fashion and film take on?
It’s going to integrate further and further. Shopping is going to become more seamlessly integrated into both entertainment and experience. Fashion is a form of entertainment; you go to the mall and spend money on a Saturday afternoon. The digital world is going to allow for customers to be able to do it seamlessly.
What are some of your favorite fashion films?
I love the perfume film that Spike Jonze just directed for Kenzo. I think it’s awesome. I have to be honest and say that the reason we made the film series we made (Kate Spade’s Miss Adventure) is because I hadn’t seen one done in the way that I thought it should be done. There are ones that I really love like the Wes Andreson one for MiuMiu which is extraordinary, but I think it’s a film. I’m also super interested in the Burberry one that came out this week, I think it’s super fascinating because it’s essentially a trailer for this Oscar winning, massive budget, huge movie but there is no movie. That’s super interesting and it’s a fascinating idea. Aesthetically, it might not be the story I would tell, but it’s super interesting to say to a customer I’m going to tell you a story the way a trailer tells you a story and have you immerse yourself in what the story offers and in that is our brand.
What was your approach to the #missadventure series?
I was asked to make fashion films when I first got to Kate Spade. I felt that fashion films the way we had been describing them (the twirling) was finite in its abilities and was how a music video behaves. It’s super interesting but it’s limiting in the amount of story telling you can do and how you can connect with the customer. I’ve always loved books and we tell each other the same stories over and over again, but the mediums through which we tell them through change. I had noticed that with the explosion of serialized television, people were becoming addicted to binge watching them. There’s something really comforting about them, like when you’re really into a series, there’s a thing about “Oh my God, when’s the next episode.” I really felt that connection about seeing a story that speaks to you so much and being able to watch it in intervals; about being able to return to it and finding comfort in it. It was a experience that Kate Spade could have for our customers and it was very dynamic. I’m a rom-com kind of girl and I wanted to create a humorous piece.
What medium would you like to explore further for Kate Spade?
I’ve been asked a lot to look further into AR/VR. We’re living in this moment of massive technological innovation that hasn’t been seen since the industrial revolution and there are a few things that will rise to the top like the Ford T Model. The rest of them will be like traveling salesman pedaling their gimmicks inside of a coat. My job is to sift through what is a gimmick and what’s not, or just something that’s underdeveloped. VR is going to be massively groundbreaking in the way we tell stories but that medium needs to be mastered before we start using it to talk about handbags. I say that respectfully both to what I do and also for the medium. AR has more immediate applications because it doesn’t ask you to go into a world; it interfaces with your world. I don’t feel particularly ready to use either of those mediums because if you can give someone a really good story and in a format for them to easily digest it, that’s really the most powerful thing. Until those mediums are available to me to be able to do that, there’s is a gimmick element not to the innovation itself but for me to use them.
We also spoke to Paige Jarvis, a representative for the Kate Spade & Company Foundation.
How did the foundation get in touch with the Ghetto Film School?
The mission for our foundation first and foremost is to empower women to transform their communities. We have three pillars: women as entrepreneurs, women in the arts, and women in technology. The Ghetto Film School falls under the women in the arts category. Our director, Valarie, was actually the one who connected with the Ghetto Film School. There aren’t many women in the film industry, so this event supports women and gets them interested in the film industry. It was really about The School reaching out to Kate Spade and wanting to create an event that talked about the intersection between film and fashion. Kate Spade has a history of creating films for fashion, so that was the tie. They asked Kristin to coordinate this event because she has really great contacts who could speak in the panel.
What are some of the Foundation’s other goals?
Our goal is to increase women representation in the three fields I mentioned. Our goal would be to close the gender wage gap in these three areas through trade based initiatives. Our mission is to empower women to transform their lives in a tangible way; we give grants to organizations that are helping women learn a trade.
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