productiOn dossier JACKie JS LEE FASHiOn Film LAUREN G FORDE & RICHARD A PARSON
Film Outset To create a film which accurately portrays a brand ethos in a creative way, in conjuncture with a PR campaign as part of the brand or Designer’s promotion.
DESigner infO J. JS LEE is by Jackie JS LEE who was born in Seoul Korea and she came to London to take the Post Graduate Pattern Course at Central Saint Martin in 2007. And after her two years of working as a pattern cutter at Kisa London she came back to study at Central Saint Martin for her MA degree. Her MA Graduation Collection in 2010 received much positive press and buyer attention, and also was rewarded the revered Harrods Award; with her collection being house in the window of the Knightsbridge Department Store. In March she launched her eponymous label, J JS LEE featuring sleek and chic androgynous pieces in tailoring. Her vision for creating a label, which defines a modern woman who is concerned with looking sharp in a uniquely feminine way, has been given a platform to launch itself. -
J J.S. LEE . (2010). Biography. Available: http://www.jsleelondon.com/biography.php.
Lee attributes her prime influence to Russian Constructivism, akin to the Brutalist architecture of the cold war. At a time when the communist east stood as a bastion of fear for the western world, their buildings were erected from the desolate Russian landscape in defiance against the white picket-fenced semis of the American Dream. It is this ideology of strong, defiant, usefulness and togetherness that Jackie JS Lee has incorporated in her garments, in a way that no predecessor has undertaken. So often this young designer has been pigeonholed with others of eastern origin, bound to be included in those who draw their influence from origami, or the geisha; however this is not the case. Though Lee’s garments can be said to incorporate certain similarities to the work of say Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons, or Yohji Yamamoto, she differs from them greatly, and I believe the root of this difference can be found deep within her Korean roots. “It’s difficult for women to wear tailoring, as it’s quite uncomfortable, so I made it in jersey to ensure it’s sleek, elegant and feminine all at the same time.” – Jackie JS Lee The company was formed following Lee’s success with her Central Saint Martin’s Graduate showcase, for which she received the prestigious Harrods Design Award, leading to them purchasing her entire collection; requiring her to form a company in order for the transaction to take place. Since then the designer has done little to accelerate the growth of the business, sticking mainly to new ideas and garments without relying on a commercial incentive or shareholders work solely to make a profit.
Film ideas and BrainstOrm
Drawing from the designer’s aesthetics and previous collections, it was paramount that our film accurately portrayed her creative vision, and to begin to understand that, we needed to take apart some of the words that have often been used to describe her work, as well as words that she has used herself in describing what she does. At first we decided to look at the cleanist style, a term that has been frequently coined in relation to Lee’s work, and I believe does indeed sum up the overall impression of her garments quite nicely. The crisp lines, muted tones and seemingly effortless but functional garments altogether show Lee’s work not simply as another minimalist endeavor, but rather a utilitarian stamp on an ailing line of interest. Lee attributes her prime influence to Russian Constructivism, akin to the Brutalist architecture of the cold war. At a time when the communist east stood as a bastion of fear for the western world, their buildings were erected from the desolate Russian landscape in defiance against the white picket-fenced semis of the American Dream. It is this ideology of strong, defiant, usefulness and togetherness that Jackie JS Lee has incorporated in her garments, in a way that no predecessor has undertaken. So often this young designer has been pigeonholed with others of eastern origin, bound to be included in those who draw their influence from origami, or the geisha; however this is not the case. Though Lee’s garments can be said to incorporate certain similarities to the work of say Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons, or Yohji Yamamoto, she differs from them greatly, and I believe the root of this difference can be found deep within her Korean roots.
Film cOncept In conjuncture with the brand’s ethos, mission statement, and overall aesthetic, we wished to take Lee’s innermost desire for the brand and push it to the surface in a film which followed the life of a woman and the way in which she perceives the details in the world around her; the way that her clothing affects her, and how she finds liberation in Jackie JS Lee’s clothes. I believe that Lee’s collections offer women not just smart, tailored elegance, but comfort and sophistication in solidarity. After pinpointing a prime location, a Georgian house overlooking the sea at Broadstairs in Kent, we would set-dress the property in order for it to accurately depict what we imagined would be the home of a single young woman. From here we would track her over the course of two days, and pay close attention to the light, detail, and atmosphere.
We wished the film to carry a strong narrative throughout, with particular attention being paid to not only the clothes, but the character’s reaction to wearing the clothes; how she feels, and how her mood is changed depending on what she is wearing. For this idea to work, we believed that it was important to have faith in the idea that clothing isn’t just a marketable commodity, but rather the external projection of your taste, personality, but above all it’s the way that you decorate the most primitive aspect of your being, your body.
Moodboards and aesthetics When researching for our film we took into consideration a handful of past films both fashion-related and otherwise, to draw visual influence from; these included ‘Children of Men’, ‘Archipelago’, and Mulberry’s fashion film ‘Skirt’. Each of these films is shot with a suggestively de-saturated pallet of colours, that we feel gives quite a somber mood to the narrative and causes you to pay more attention to the subtle details in set, costume and emotion that is usually drowned out by vibrancy. Joanna Hogg’s ‘Archipelago’ was one of the main inspirations for our film thanks to its unique filming style, location and the way in which it explores relationships and the way in which people react emotionally with each other in awkward circumstances. The muted colours, lack of music and all round bleak-ness really emphasizes a sort of humanity and isolation that we wanted to explore in our film, which would then set the stage for us to set our main character into the exploration of Jackie JS Lee’s clothing and ultimately to liberation.
Cast and Crew From the outset we were aware that our film would have to be shot by someone with more technical film-making skills than our own; though we both have experience in theatre, acting, production design and directing, those skills would be put to better use in overseeing and editing the footage, however the capturing of the film would be better off in the hands of someone more professional. We sought out the aid of photographer and filmmaker Rikkard Osterlund, who agreed and came on board with the project, and after a couple of meetings to discuss aesthetically what we wanted to achieve, he seemed keen and enthusiastic to be a part of it. It is clear in Osterlund’s work where he gets much of his inspiration; Swedish born, the beautiful juxtaposition of light and dark in his still lives and portraits are akin to those of the oil paintings of the Dutch Masters. It is his mastery of chiaroscuro that we saw the most potential and wanted to use to our advantage, in whatever setting we ended up managing to acquire.
While browsing for potential models for our film we considered it an important requirement that she have at least a little acting experience, in order to accurately and convincingly portray the emotion that we needed to suggest something about the clothing without the need of speech or a dubbed narration. We browsed a number of the modeling agencies online and earmarked those who had the right look, but the reality of casting many of them seemed quite unlikely. We eventually turned our attention to an old friend, who one of us had known from our childhood who now had a promising modeling career and the look of a young Tilda Swinton. Perfect. After getting in touch and exchanging information, we managed to secure Christie Brewington of Oxygen Models. Logistically it seemed a perfect match; she was the correct height, size, shoe size and lived relatively local, which seemed like a dream come true. With quite a small but vastly increasing portfolio, she was eager for the opportunity to do more film work, and had no reservations about shooting for us on a budget. We were set to go.
We considered a make up artist for the days of filming, however after much deliberation we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t really necessary, as the character we were tracking throughout the narrative of the film, is within her own home most of the time, her face tucked with just the most subtle makeup required. We added a makeup bag to our call sheet for the day, and went with the plan that we could manage well enough on our own.
The clOthing From the outset, we set ourselves the challenge of attempting to get the clothing from our designer, and we set out a plan to achieve it. After pinpointing the designer’s PR firm, Modus we kept tabs on them until they published the date of an upcoming press day. We ensured that we submitted an RSVP to the event, listing ourselves as professionals under the name of the freelance consultancy we run, and waited for a confirmation. Once we had been confirmed, we made arrangements to attend the press day at The Westbury Hotel in Mayfair. On the day of the event we mingled with the other designers and eventually we were pointed in the direction of the accounts director Liz Roscoe; after speaking with her, we were shown to the J JS LEE collections and she went through some information on the designer. We spoke of our intentions to shoot a fashion film based on her winter collections, and we exchanged cards and set up a date to talk further about our intentions. Following the discussions we went on to postpone the shooting date of our film, in order to give Modus time to speak with Lee, who at the time of our meeting was visiting family in Korea and wouldn’t return to the UK till the 21st November, pushing the filming date further back.
We submitted a proposal on the 21st as we stated that we would, and awaited further communication with the PR firm; unfortunately no such thing happened, and we were left waiting to hear from them. After a week, we realized it was important that we find an alternative wardrobe for our film, and we searched for a designer who offered a similar aesthetic but at a price we could afford to invest in. It just so happened that after so much as half an hour of searching, we stumbled across Zara’s newest Studio Collection, which seemed to fit the bill almost completely; the garments were of the same cut, similar fabric, and above all else, very reasonably priced. We invested £240 in the clothing for our film.
Location When scouting locations, we knew that we wanted to find a house somewhere close to the coast, that had an interior vibe similar to both that of a small East-London apartment, and also that of a shabby-chic cottage. We considered hiring a fisherman’s cottage on Whitstable seafront, but we realized the cost would have been a fair bit out of our price range, so reconsideration was needed. It happened by chance that a friend of ours had a holiday home overlooking the beach at Broadstairs seafront, and offered us the keys to the property for the duration of his holiday abroad, and so we took time to visit the property and the local area to experience it’s potential suitability. We discovered that the property was in the most prime location possible, and with a little set dressing it would be perfect for our narrative. We took some test shots and made a short test film showing the ambiance of the property, the location and the dramatic lighting possibilities. Once we’d decided upon the location we were set to begin filming.
Storyboard & Narrative Our film follows the life of a young woman, tired of the constraints of what is expected of her in terms of her professional dress sense; a creative at heart, she yearns for something less ordinary and more comfortable but maintaining a sartorial elegance. The screenplay shows her at home in comfortable clothing before changing into a work suit that clearly isn’t to her taste, and she leaves for a grueling day at work. The day passes and she comes home in the evening to slip comfortably into her J JS LEE jumper; it is within this evening that she makes a decision to wear what she feels comfortable in, rather than what is expected or considered appropriate. The following morning she adorns one of Lee’s shirts, in keeping with the jumper from the night before and throws a cozy jacket over her shoulders before leaving the house. She steps out onto the street a new woman, one with confidence in herself, thanks to the facility of her own choice.
It would be a lie to say that our film went swimmingly. The day before shooting our filmmaker gave us the news that he’d been drafted in to sit on the judging panel of a major national art competition with illustrator Ralph Steadman, and he was no longer available to film for us. Thankfully we had already spoken about how the film should work, and we took that on board with the execution, though unforeseen it was now up to ourselves to film. We had planned to shoot on a Wednesday, as it fit with the model’s availability; the day started well and we were on set early and had it dressed and prepared to start filming. The model was only available from 1pm and we had to drive into Canterbury to collect her, which proved more hassle than it was worth, after sitting in two and a half hours of traffic thanks to badly-planned road works on the city outskirts. Once we returned to the house, it became apparent that we had little less than two hours of sunlight remaining, and we still needed to have the model dressed and her hair and makeup sorted.
The Film prOcess We filmed all that we could against the ailing light, but it became apparent that we would have to reconvene another day to pull together the remaining shots, and we agreed that the following Friday would be convenient for everyone. This worked well for us and we left the house dressed ready for the second day of filming. Eager to get the final shots, it came as a demoralizing surprise when we answered a phone call at 11pm the night before filming to our model apologizing for having to drop out, after being requested to a casting session for Ted Baker. We told her not to worry and wished her luck, before the call ended and we started to panic. It became clear that we would have to utilize one of us to model at such short notice. We scouted other models, but it was really too late. On the second day we got to the location very early, and worked to get as much shot as we possibly could. We finished earlier than expected, and in an attempt not to show the new model’s face too much, we had to change the narrative to fit. We lost a lot of the narrative through the changes, but we considered them necessary in order to pull something together. We consider the film to be quite successful all in all, despite the drastic problems that we had with filming, cast and crew; the editing process was a lot easier than expected and we had to make some creative decisions we didn’t think we would have to make. We had originally considered not using any music, but relying solely on ambient sound throughout the film, but music became important to give it the emotional edge that we lost through the change of narrative.