In Here Now, Gregg Araki takes us on a nostalgic trip to the world of his 1997 cult film Nowhere. Set in Kenzo’s adopted home California, the film is set in a diner and follows an encounter between two couples – one whose relationship is hot, the other cold – a friend and a highly religious sister.
For costumes, the film’s cast – which includes up-and-coming actors Avan Jogia, Grace Victoria Cox and Jacob Arist – are clad in Kenzo's AW15 collection; clothes which, according to director match "the psychedelic kaleidoscopic viewpoint of the movie.”
Araki, whose film The Doom Generation was among the cult film references in Rihanna's new video Bitch Better Have My Money, is known for his penchant for queer cinema (see Living End). Though he’s dabbled in the making of music videos, he’d done a fashion film until now. “I’ve never done something like this. I don’t know a lot about fashion,” he admitted, “But I checked out the collection and it was really cool and I could see how it fit with the sort of world of Nowhere."
Kenzo's Carol Lim and Humberto Leon are veritable film fanatics and have previously collaborated with the likes of Spike Jonze and David Lynch. They’ve dug Araki since their teens: “For us, he’s definitely a director of our generation,” they explained. “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.”
Watch ‘Here Now’ by Gregg Araki below.
