Italian journalist and writer Camilla Cederna once stated that Venice lives a sort of second Carnival season every year during the local film festival as stars and celebrities arrive on the Lido followed by crowds of adoring fans. Yet, rather than for its celebrities, the most recent edition of the Venice Film Festival will probably be remembered for its strong connection with style and fashion, not only thanks to Tom Ford’s directorial debut A Single Man, but also to an event entitled Style Star that explored the fashion and cinema connection. Created by Marina Garzoni, Style Star focused on bringing together a selection of stylish shortcuts commissioned by luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel, Dior, Tod’s, Ferragamo, Alexander McQueen who have engaged with personalities like two-time Oscar winner Pietro Scalia (for Prada), Dennis Hopper (for Tod’s), Edoardo Winspeare (for Louis Vuitton) and Gabriele Muccino (for Intimissimi), to name just a few.

Dazed Digital: What inspired you to launch Style Star?
Marina Garzoni: I recently wrote a book entitled Moda & Tecnologia (Fashion and Technology) that explored the impact technology has had in the last few years on the means of communication and on the relation between consumers and luxury brands. My background is in fashion, but while working on the book I did a detailed research on how brands can communicate their ideas to consumers tired of seeing fashion in conventional ways. It was then that I understood that shortcuts made by proper directors could have been an engaging and honest way to reach out to people and establish with them an innovative dialogue. After the book came out, I did an event about this topic at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in collaboration with the Boston Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then decided to take the project further.

DD: What’s your favourite short?
Marina Garzoni: I love each of them for different reasons: Chanel’s “Fitting Room Follies” by Karl Lagerfeld (below) celebrates the fashion house’s A/W 09 collection in a sensual way; Dior’s short is intriguing and slightly noir and Andrea Rovetta’s “La scarpa” (The Shoe”) for Salvatore Ferragamo is funny and intuitive. Louis Vuitton commissioned shortcuts to different directors, and I found Edoardo Winspeare’s “Les noces de papier” (The First Wedding Anniversary) rather funny, yet also touching and emotional. Winspeare follows the vicissitudes of two modest people, a wife and husband, dreaming about a LV bag.

DD: Is there a city where you would like to take Style Star one day?
Marina Garzoni: I would love to be able to take it to Los Angeles, but, for the time being, I think we must work about spreading the shortcut message in Europe, starting with cities such as London, Brussels or Antwerp. London is such a forward thinking city, an amazingly creative place and it would be great to collaborate with local shops and maybe bring our project to department stores as well. It would also be exciting to get students from London’s Central Saint Martins or Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts involved in our project and maybe discover new directors, actors and actresses and interact with them. New digital means of communications give people the chance to shoot a film even with a small budget and the web offers great chances to spread a message, so I think the possibilities for fashion shortcuts are simply endless. We are at present thinking about taking the event to cinemas across Italy as well and we hope that one day we will also be able to collaborate with other well-established or new fashion and film festivals in other countries. It would be great to see Style Star becoming their partner, opening up new collaborations, experimenting with new means of communication and spreading a fashionable and stylish message.