On Sunday, Vogue is heading to Hollywood for the fourth edition of Vogue World, this time taking place in sunny Los Angeles for a celebration of fashion and film.
The proceeds from Vogue World will go to the Entertainment Community Fund, which supports film industry workers, with a focus on supporting costume industry professionals impacted by the LA wildfires earlier this year.
Plenty of brands will be present on Sunday, and for many, it won’t be their first foray into film. For years, brands have found ways to support and collaborate with filmmakers beyond getting their clothes on screen (be it via short fashion films, or feature film dressing à la Jonathan Anderson and Luca Guadagnino’s frequent collaborations); from funding — and, more recently, producing — films to facilitating mentoring schemes. (It happens at the group level, too. Kering’s Women in Motion programme is now 10 years running; and LVMH founded production studio 22 Montaigne Entertainment in 2024.)
In spearheading initiatives to get movies made and supporting emerging talent, luxury brands are able to tap a new level of cultural cachet. “Film production allows luxury brands to align themselves with respected cultural institutions — film festivals, museums, cultural critics — which reinforces their entanglement into cultural capital,” says Thomaï Serdari, professor of marketing and director of NYU Stern’s luxury and retail MBA.
As Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello told Vogue of his cinematic endeavors: “This is really to support independent film, but also to expand the brand to something more popular, more visible, something that stays,” he says. “It’s great to do shows and campaigns, but they’re disposable. Maybe I shouldn’t say that, but in 20 or 30 years, a film will still be there, and the name of Saint Laurent will still be on it.”
This is the crux of the logic, says Serdari. “Film enables brands to build their mythologies beyond the product,” she explains. “It is a medium that offers emotional immersion, an ideal format for luxury brands who engage and contribute to symbolic meaning. A film can transform a luxury brand both to an object of desire and to a cultural authority.” In Serdari’s view, brands attaching themselves to film is the most legitimate way for brands to reclaim their spot in the cultural zeitgeist — and gets them in front of viewers who might typically avoid more commercial means of communication.
Below, a deep dive into (some of) luxury’s long-standing entanglements with film — the initiatives, funding efforts and creative collaborations that entrench fashion so deeply in the world of cinema.
Ami Paris has edged its way into the film world in recent years, co-producing Yann Demange’s Dammi and Renaud Bertrand’s Adieu ma Honte in 2023, as well as The Beast by Bertrand Bonello in 2024. Founder and creative director Alexandre Mattiussi has also produced multiple movies independently. This year, though, the brand established its commitment to cinema by becoming the main sponsor of Critics’ Week, which runs parallel to Cannes Film Festival and took place from 14 to 22 May. Here, Mattiussi awarded the Ami Paris Grand Prize to Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost.
“I have had several hats lately: I co-produced films both with Ami and on my own, I designed costumes, I have actor friends. We are working on video clips to be released on social media this summer. Being the main sponsor of [Cannes] Critics’ Week is the right place for us,” Mattiussi told Vogue Business ahead of this year’s festival. “For the time being, it’s a two-year contract with Critics’ Week. But I can see it lasting for years.”
Cartier has been a partner of the Venice International Film Festival since 2021; the most recent edition took place from 27 August to 6 September. For the first time this year, Cartier sponsored all masterclasses on the official festival programme. The brand also continued its The Art and Craft of Cinema masterclasses, in partnership with the Biennale Cinema 2025. These place focus on the collaborative practices of film practitioners, looking at the work that goes on behind the camera. “Cartier is a house for dialogue, where individual talents of craft excellence collaborate,” the release at the time read. It’s a testament to the ways in which fashion houses view film as a vessel for creative — and intelligent — conversation.
At the festival, Cartier also hosts panels and offers its Glory to the Filmmaker Award, given to those who have a “significant contribution to the contemporary film industry”. Filmmaker and painter Julian Schnabel, whose latest film In the Hand of Dante premiered at the festival, won the 2025 prize.
Film has long been central to Chanel’s engagements with creative industries outside fashion, since Coco Chanel designed costumes early on for films including The Rules of the Game and, later, Last Year at Marienbad. More recently, the brand supported films like animation Arco and house ambassador Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, The Chronology of Water. “We’re fortunate to have this history with cinema and to be able to use it as the basis for our support, but we’re still passionate about cinema today,” Elsa Heizmann, Chanel’s global head of fashion’s relationship with cinema, told Vogue Business.
During the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, in the Chanel suite Bijou Plage, overlooking La Cannes Croisette, Heizmann discussed the brand’s entanglement with cinema. “We don’t just give money. We support them all the way,” she said at the time of the brand’s film strategy launch. Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and Chanel SAS, agreed. “For us, culture is a major element in our communication and is linked to the history of the house,” he told Vogue Business. “Our commitment in these different fields [cinema, dance, music, literature and other cultural activities] is based above all on our support for creation, with a long-term vision.”
Beyond Cannes, Chanel has partnered with Toronto International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival and Tribeca Festival in New York City. At the latter, Chanel has partnered on a women’s filmmaker programme, Through Her Lens, since 2015, to provide support and mentorship for emerging filmmakers. Celebrating 10 years in September, the programme included an annual three-day workshop for women and non-binary filmmakers, incorporating mentorship and funding opportunities. Also in partnership with the festival, the house hosts an Artist Awards Program (since 2005), which gifts artworks to filmmakers at the festival; a demonstration of the intersectionality between fashion’s engagement with other creative industries.
Though the brand has produced films previously, this is not the end goal for Chanel. “The house does not aim to become a ‘producer’, that is not our job. We are not looking for a return on investment [ROI] when we support a film, nor are we looking at product placement,” Chanel told Vogue Business back in 2023. “Nevertheless, it is essential for the house to support their artistic projects and careers.”
Gucci’s most recent foray into film was its own short film, The Tiger, which was Demna’s format of choice when showing his first collection for the brand. The film was directed by Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn, starring Demi Moore. Perhaps, it’s a sign of more cinematic experimentation and investment to come under the new creative director.
There’s precedent, especially in the realm of documentary filmmaking. Gucci previously headed up the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund (GTDF), which sought out feature-length documentaries either in or post-production. The programme ran for 12 years until 2020. The brand also partnered with the Sundance Institute to support the “development, production and post-production of work that looks at the world in complex, creative, beautiful and provocative ways”. The initiative ended in 2022.
Under the direction of founder and creative director Miuccia Prada, Miu Miu has long been entrenched in the film industry. The brand kick-started its short film series, Women’s Tales, back in 2011. Over the past 15 years, it has commissioned 30 productions. “Miu Miu has asked filmmakers to celebrate femininity in the 21st century with a critical eye, armed with total freedom to create whatever they want,” per the brand, which refers to the Miu Miu clothes that characters must wear as a “counterpoint” to the film’s narrative. “With the Women’s Tales, we created a conversation with women about women,” Mrs Prada says of the programme.
Miu Miu hosts an adjacent Women’s Tales programme at the Venice Film Festival each year. This August and September, the brand screened Women’s Tales #29 and #30, by Joanna Hogg and Alice Diop, respectively, and hosted talks with both directors as well as actors Emma Corrin, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Alisha Boe, Sarah Catherine Hook and Myha’la.
Like its sister brand Miu Miu, Prada is entwined with the world of cinema, especially via the Fondazione Prada Film Fund, which launched this year at the Venice Film Festival. The film fund is an annual initiative to sustain independent cinema, per the Fondazione, and will start off with a budget of €1.5 million to support 10 to 12 selected feature films per year (each project will receive up to €250,000 in funding). Entries closed on 17 October; selected projects will be announced between January and February 2026.
“Cinema is, for us, a laboratory for new ideas and a space of cultural education,” Mrs Prada, who is president and director of the fondazione, said when the Fondazione launched the Film Fund. “For this reason, we have decided to actively contribute to the realisation of new works and to the support of independent cinema. For over 20 years, Fondazione Prada has been investigating these languages in different ways, thus advocating a free, demanding and visionary idea of cinema. Through this fund, we intend to deepen and broaden a dialogue with creation and contemporary experimentation.”
The fondazione has long been an avenue through which Prada could engage with cinema outside the fashion brand itself. The fund is a continuation of Fondazione Prada’s work in projects such as film restoration and collaborations with international directors. The fondazione partnered with Tribeca Film Festival from 2003 to 2005; launched a regular screening programme at the cinema in its Milan venue; and upped its investment in film projects and exhibitions in 2023, when Paolo Moretti joined from Directors’ Fortnight, the parallel selection of the Cannes Film Festival.
Saint Laurent is more entrenched in the film industry than most. In 2023, the brand became the first fashion house to launch a film production company with Saint Laurent Productions to support independent filmmakers. The Saint Laurent subsidiary has produced 10 films to date, including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life and David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds.
Like Chanel, Saint Laurent has had a presence in cinema since founding. Yves Saint Laurent had a close friendship with Catherine Deneuve, and created her wardrobe for Luis Buñuel’s Belle du Jour. The formalisation of modern-day Saint Laurent’s film efforts under creative director Vaccarello is a reflection the maison’s mission to continue — and reinforce — its legacy within culture. In doing so, the brand aims to elevate its own image while reaching wider audiences who watch the movies it produces.
For Vaccarello, there’s a freedom to film that’s lacking in a fashion industry crunched by numbers, targets and conglomerate-driven constraints, he told Vogue. It’s this relatively hands-off approach that is appealing to filmmakers who work with the subsidiary. Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, whose movie Father Mother Sister Brother was among this year’s line-up at the Venice Film Festival, likened Saint Laurent’s support to having a patron in the Renaissance, telling Vogue, “The thing about working with Saint Laurent is they just want to facilitate. They are not film people putting their two cents into the production.”
Under Alessandro Michele, who took on the role of creative director in 2024, Valentino came on board to support the Beijing International Film Festival for the first time. There, the brand presented the Valentino Dream Forward: Costume Design Honour within the Forward Future section of the festival. It represents a new strategy for the brand in the Chinese market, using cinema to emotionally connect with audiences in Valentino’s next era.
Clarification: Updated to reflect that Fondazione Prada oversees Prada’s film efforts.
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