Sometimes all you need to
tell a compelling story is the right girl, the right clothes, and a pure
vision. This was apparent when Rodarte designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy and
photographer Todd Cole screened three films they recently created together at a
private event at The Hammer Museum in Westwood last week. 

The evening was a trifecta of
my favorite things; California, film, and fashion. Each of the flicks is a love
letter to the area in Los Angeles where it was filmed. Aanteni is an ode to sex and rockets set in Downtown while The
Curve Of Forgotten Things
stars Elle
Fanning kicking around a spooky house in Baldwin Hills and eventually communing
with a glowing orb. This Must Be The Only Fantasy stars teenage nerd/goddess Sidney Williams in a
girl’s hero quest. Watching the series I felt transported but grounded, like I
was rediscovering my own back yard. It wasn’t a coincidence: Todd Cole observed
that when one starts collaborating with the California-born Mulleavy sisters
“a small idea that isn’t linked to [the state] will become linked to
it.”
After the screening, Laura said
she and Kate “have always been fans of cinema” and that the trilogy
came out of a shared “desire to make things.”
“We probably wouldn’t have
cared if our clothes were in it or not,” said Kate, a point that’s key to
what makes the films and the Mulleavy sisters themselves so compelling; they
aren’t necessarily trying to get you to buy something, but you’ll want what
they’re selling.
At one point in the
conversation Kate said “to create is inherently selfish.” Maybe, but
maybe not. In our branding obsessed culture a unicorn in Encino felt like the
most personal thing a designer could offer me.

This post is part of an on-going series with Los Angeles Magazine. Every other Wednesday I share the L.A. shops I love, my most recent purchases and fashion musings as a contributor to The Clutch style blog.