If you recall the vice-ridden kidnapping party scene set in a seedy, neon-lit motel room playing out in Rihanna’s music video masterpiece Bitch Better Have My Money, then you’re mildly familiar with Gregg Araki’s brazen aesthetic. Mirrored from a 1995 Araki classic titled The Doom Generation, the pop star’s adoption of the filmmaker’s unique cinematic approach proves Araki’s cult status, something celebrated by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon of Kenzo.
The design duo have called upon Araki to produce their campaign film for AW’15. Instead of your typical airy-indie-fairy short starring waify models with fashionably blank expressions, Araki’s film for Kenzo is kitschy, nostalgic, and a whole lot of fun to watch.
“For us, he’s definitely a director of our generation. We’re interested in instilling culture, whether it is sub-culture or pop culture into all of our projects, especially at Kenzo. We reached out to Gregg and we asked him, as fans, would he shoot an original film that would eventually become an ad campaign,” recounted Lim and Leon, who have admired Araki since their teens.
Titled Here Now, the film features up-and-coming actors Avan Jogia, Jake Weary, Grace Victoria Cox, Jacob Artist, Jane Levy and Nicole Laliberte, the story centres around encounters between two couples, their friend, and a religiously zealous nun, all set in a Californian diner similar to his Araki’s earlier work, Nowhere. The stars are clad in Kenzo AW’15 finery as they navigate their amusing, and oddly poignant issues.
Watch the film below.
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