Last night, at the Genesis cinema in East London, Barbara Loden’s 1970 drama Wanda was screened to a theatre full of London’s best dressed girlies. It was the second iteration of Argentinian designer Lucila Safdie’s film club which has, since August, been hosted at the arthouse institution in East London.
For Safie, the process of telling the story of her Tumblr-reblog worthy take on schoolgirl dressing (complete with itty bitty lacy skirts and barely there shorts that surely defy any high school’s uniform codes) has always been intimately connected with her screen time. “I went to a film high school in Buenos Aires,” she tells me over the phone ahead of the screening. “When I started going to Saint Martins and studying, for me the most important part was doing a photo shoot and putting the story together.” Safdie’s cinematic, intimate campaigns often look as though they’ve just been pulled from a thumbnail on Mubi, so the film club feels like a natural extension of her label.
We caught up with the designer ahead of the screening to talk girl gangs, heroines and pre-screening dinner parties.
How does cinema and Lucila Safdie, the brand, intersect?
After graduating from Saint Martins I really wanted to do something that was more connected to stuff I really like. One of my best friends, Carina, studied FCP [Fashion Communication and Promotion] and also loves film. I did my first shoot for the brand with her [photographing it] and it was a way of putting everything together, all the references I like, and her influences as well. Since then, each collection has been a story inspired by different movies I’m watching at the moment, or books I’m reading.
Who is your dream girl to dress?
I really want to dress Margaret Qualley right now, or Elle Fanning. I love them both. And also, I really want to dress Lena Dunham. I think she lives in London. Also, have you seen Anora? I love Mikey Madison too – she’s so pretty.
Who are the women in film, both on screen and behind the scenes, who you’re most inspired by?
Definitely Lucrecia Martel. Jane Campion, I love her. Sofia Coppola is a classic, of course. I love Nicole Kidman – honestly, the most amazing actress. I love Kirsten Dunst too. Also I love Marguerite Duras’ films and, oh my god, I love Chantal Akerman.
Who, dead or alive, would you invite to your pre-screening dinner?
That would be Lucrecia Martel. I love that she’s from the same country as me, and I feel like I can relate to her vision, because it’s this idea of being from Argentina. But then, even though her films feel like they’re about Argentinian society, there’s a lot of feeling and sentiment that is more universal. I was just listening to this podcast called The Oven Suicides about Sylvia Plath – she would be invited too. And I want to invite Marilyn Monroe.
Yes, I want to pick her brains.
Also, I’ve been reading about the Barbizon hotel. I learned about it recently, but it’s this hotel that ran from the 20s to the 70s in New York, and it was a women only hotel. Girls who wanted to go to the city and have careers and didn’t just want to be housewives went there. And so Joan Crawford went there, Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath… Now it’s this fancy hotel, but when I was reading about it, apparently there’s still some women that stay there and they have a contract where they can’t raise the rent or kick them out. So they still live there, and they have their rooms in this really fancy building.
You should do a shoot with them.
Yes! I will have to hire a private investigator to find those women.
Credits
Text: Eilidh Duffy
Photography: Jackson Bowley