The Rooney and Kate Mara sister act, Robert Pattinson’s return and Maggie Gyllenhaal for president — a primer on fashion’s next big red carpet extravaganza, the Venice Film Festival. Plus, screen time at LACMA with Christian Marclay’s “The Clock”; fashion flags at Rockefeller Center; and designer Puey Quinoñes’ modern Filipino fashion.
Venice Film (+ Fashion) Festival Primer
The Hollywood-fashion machine is beginning to go quiet for the summer, with the season’s blockbuster films already promoted and premiered and European design houses on August holiday.
The next big red carpet extravaganza will be the Venice Film Festival, Sept. 2–12. Last year’s event was a particularly competitive arena for fashion’s new crop of creative directors, with Jonathan Anderson teasing his first Dior couture on “Three Goodbyes” actress Alba Rohrwacher, while dressing several others, and Julia Roberts and Amanda Seyfried debuting the first daytime look by Versace’s short-lived but much-loved designer Dario Vitale, not to mention parties hosted by Armani, Tom Ford and more.
This year’s festival won’t see the same level of newness, but it will be style-packed.
A Family Affair
Star sisters Kate and Rooney Mara will be ones to watch, appearing together for the first time onscreen as co-dependent twin sisters in Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard.” The global face of Givenchy’s L’Interdit fragrance, Rooney will surely be repping the house while she’s in Venice. Meanwhile, Kate attended the Saint Laurent men’s show in January, which could be a hint of red carpet looks to come.
Spain’s beloved film couple Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz are starring in Florian Zeller’s “Bunker,” which has this delightful log line: An architect’s marriage is tested after he accepts a project to build a bunker for a billionaire. Cruz has been a Chanel ambassador since 2018 so is sure to wear something by Matthieu Blazy, while Bardem likes to wear his politics on his sleeve. He stepped out at the Oscars in a “No a la guerra” (no war) pin, and wore a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf to the Emmys in 2025. Prada regular and Zegna Malibu show guest Paul Dano and Tommy Hilfiger spring campaign face Patrick Schwarzenegger are also in the cast.
A Dude Fest
Controversy is already in the air over gender disparity in the competition. Danish director May el-Toukhy’s film “Woman Unknown” is the sole female-directed title in the running for the Golden Lion, a setback after several years in which Venice and other major festivals had made progress toward equal representation.
Several of the big films are also leading men showcases.
Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” about Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of The Sun newspaper, opens the festival. Guy Pearce stars with Claire Foy and menswear darling Jack O’Connell, who attended the Armani and Dior shows in January.
Dior ambassador Robert Pattinson returns to Venice for the first time since 2019 in Lance Oppenheim’s film “Primetime,” playing “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen in what’s sure to be a buzzy performance.
Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” a dark CIA comedy thriller with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, is another strong festival contender. Let’s not forget Malkovich has modeled for Prada, Comme des Garçons, and most recently for JW Anderson. He has his own clothing label as well. Cue the year’s fashion eccentric!
The Jury
At least there’s a woman in a leadership role. Actor-director Maggie Gyllenhaal is the president of the main competition jury.
Gyllenhaal is in deep with Miu Miu, which as a brand has long supported female filmmakers. She sits on the board of its Women’s Tales program started in 2011, which releases two female-directed short films every year exploring modern womanhood, and often hosts panels and events around the Venice Film Festival. I’d expect Miu Miu to be back supporting her, and for her to be supporting Miu Miu.
Gyllenhaal will be doing double duty at the fest; she’ll also be premiering an alternate reality short film called “Flesh Impact,” starring Valentino fashion and beauty ambassador Dakota Johnson as Marilyn Monroe at the height of her fame and Ellen Burstyn as the veteran performer Marilyn never got to become. We can’t wait.
The Fashion Doc
Last year’s fest saw the premiere of “Marc by Sofia,” Sofia Coppola’s sweet ode to her friend, Marc Jacobs. The 2026 fashion doc to watch in Venice is “Be Brave,” chronicling the personal and entrepreneurial journey of Renzo Rosso, founder and chairman of the Italian fashion juggernaut OTB Group, which owns luxury brands including Diesel, Maison Margiela, Marni and Jil Sander, as well as having a minority investment in L.A.-based Amiri.
The film is directed by Francesco Carrozzini, son of the late Franca Sozzani, the legendary editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, and is sure to generate plenty of conversation because of its use of artificial intelligence. The film is produced by the Rome-based Our Films and Our Ai.
During a June press conference announcing the film, Rosso said: “I am a big fan of technology and we are doing a lot on this front, thanks to AI, from consumption control to placements and design. Artificial intelligence must be seen as something that stimulates. It is something you have to dialogue with and insert who you are into. The beauty is when you manage to establish a human relationship within technology; then something true emerges that has the brand’s DNA.”
Let’s see.
Screen Time at LACMA
Congress’ recent passage of the Sunshine Protection Act, which aims to make Daylight Savings Time permanent, recently put the notion of time — and the fictive nature of it — front and center. How do we mark it? Who controls it? And what shapes our perception of it?
There are as many answers to those questions as there are minutes in the day, but one undeniable answer to the last of them is Hollywood movies. Cutaway shots of ticking wall clocks telegraph death-row urgency, close-ups of wristwatches signal synchronized heists, digital displays blinking by the bedside or looming overhead in train stations help characters — and viewers — chart the passage of time in a way that’s important, compressing or stretching it to serve the story arc. This makes the arrival of Christian Marclay’s “The Clock” (2010), on display at the L.A. County Museum of Art for the first time since 2015, timely indeed.
A 24-hour looping video montage that depicts the passage of time — minute by minute throughout the day and synced to the local time — via film and television snippets of clocks, watches and the occasional spoken-word reference, “The Clock” decouples the time depictions from their original meanings and, by stringing them together, either creates meaning of its own, underscores the meaningless of time or does a little bit of both.
Of course, what you see and what you take away will be wholly dependent on when you step into the looping river of time on the first floor of the BCAM building to view it. If you part the black curtains and plop into a roomy upholstered chair shortly after the museum’s opening, you’ll catch Robert Redford being robbed of his wristwatch at precisely 11:06 a.m. (in 1972’s “The Hot Rock”), followed five minutes (and more than a dozen clips later) by Clive Owen and a cutaway shot of a focus-pulling clock (time: 11:11 a.m.) in 2009’s “Duplicity.” Stick around for another 15 minutes and you’ll find yourself spending time with the likes of Albert Finney and Tatum O’Neal (11:23 a.m), Johnny Cash, Stan Laurel and Cameron Diaz (11:25 a.m.) and marking time with “The Breakfast Club” (11:31 a.m.), “Animal House” (11:32 a.m.) and “Falling Down” (11:33 a.m.).
It’s an addictive time sink and, by its nature, one that will be different every minute of every day. The only drawback? Unless you were lucky enough to score tickets to last weekend’s special 24-hour screening (or already have them in hand for the sold out Aug. 22-23 one) you’ll be limited to catching the on-screen minutes fly by during regular museum hours.
Regardless, you’ll be glad you made time to see it.
Christian Marclay’s “The Clock,” July 26–Aug. 23, 2026, BCAM, Level 1, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
Let the Fashion Flags Fly
The confluence of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the current partisan political climate have made good, old-fashioned flag-waving a dicey — and potentially polarizing — proposition. Until now, anyway. Thanks to the United Flags of Fashion — a four-way initiative between the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Vogue, Rockefeller Center and America250 — there’s finally a flag (a whole lot of flags, actually) I feel like flying.
Unveiled Monday night in New York City, the United Flags of Fashion program gave leading American designers a simple if intriguing challenge: reimagine the flags of all 50 states, five U.S. territories and Washington, D.C., creating original works that celebrate the creativity, diversity and cultural richness of the United States.
Almost two dozen designers and brands ultimately stepped up to the vexillological challenge resulting in more than 120 flags. While that is far too many to show or discuss in depth here (but, in case you were wondering – because I was – Thom Browne’s take on the Pennsylvania flag was suiting gray but thankfully it was not served up as a shrunken pennant), three in particular caught my eye.
California-raised, New York-based designer Willy Chavarria served up a version of the California Bear Flag (one of five designers to rep the Golden State), bearing the name “Califaztlan,” a portmanteau word combining California and Aztlán, the mythical legendary homeland of the Aztec people, as a way of “recognizing the Indigenous and Mexican histories that predate U.S. control by thousands of years,” Chavarria noted in his explanatory text. He added that the serape-style striped blanket draped over the back of the lumbering bear symbolized “unity, inclusion and the embrace of all people.”
L.A.-based designer Clare Vivier, who grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, took a run at that state’s flag (as did three other designers), taking inspiration, she explained on social media, by the French phrase that is the official state motto.
“We created an undulating purple backdrop with green shadows, inspired by the natural beauty of Minnesota and the spectacular occurrence of the Aurora Borealis in the northern sky,” she wrote. “‘L’Etoile Du Nord,’ the North Star, is the official state motto, which honors the French explorers who mapped the state when it was the Northernmost state in the union. To recognize the native Ojibwe culture, we included the word ‘Wawatay’ — meaning Northern Lights — in shadow text.”
She added that the flag’s 19 stars were a nod to Minnesota being the 19th state admitted to the Union and the purple color was a tribute to Minnesota native and “national cultural treasure” Prince. Cool!
Rachel Scott, the creative director of Diotima (as well as Proenza Schouler) purposefully eschewed traditional heraldic-style flag design for her reimagined U.S. Virgin Islands flag, for an elegant, uncluttered and powerful standard with a bold diagonal center line. The colors carry what the Jamaican-born designer describes as “a distinctly Caribbean visual language. A red diagonal band layered over black cuts across a field of green and deep sea blue, evoking the islands’ land, sea, energy and resilience.”
Now that’s a trooping of the colors we can all rally around.
The 120+ United Flags of Fashion will be on the flagpoles surrounding the Rockefeller Center rink through Sept. 4.
A Celebration of Filipino Food and Fashion
Last week, the Gerry Building became a celebration of Filipino creativity, as fashion, food and community came together for an intimate evening for designer Puey Quinoñes hosted by DJ Samantha Duenas, journalists Melissa Magsaysay and Sara Tan, all looking gorgeous in his designs.
Editors, influencers and clients gathered for a dinner cooked by Kuya Lord chef and James Beard Award winner Lord Maynard Llera before a runway presentation from Quinoñes.
Sculptural evening wear with a whimsical touch, the looks showcased the designer’s signature innovative draping and vibrant colors with nods to traditional Filipino craft. Piña pineapple fiber fringe, mother-of-pearl embellishments and silhouettes resembling the iconic Maria Clara dress of the Philippines were all filtered through his modern lens.
“Puey’s work is so indicative of the swell of soft power coming out of the Philippines diaspora, in media, music, film and fashion,” Magsaysay said in her introductory remarks.
For Quinoñes, the presentation marked the formal introduction of his namesake brand to L.A. after years of building an international career. He apprenticed for a designer in Manila before launching his own label in 2005. His designs soon attracted politicians, celebrities, and beauty queens before expanding internationally. His work has since appeared everywhere from Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” music video to “America’s Next Top Model,” while the Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired one of his designs for its permanent collection in 2020.
The designer said the collection represented “a journey back to my roots.” It was inspired by celebrations of the Agta Festival honoring Santo Niño in his humble hometown of Bobon, where he grew up living with his grandmother, a seamstress. “During this joyful event, we adorn ourselves in costumes made from locally sourced materials and I felt a strong urge to revisit the tradition and honor it in my work,” he explained.
Quinones sent guests home with gift baskets filled with his favorite snacks from the Philippines — banana brittle, dried mangoes, prawn crackers, and bottles of soy sauce and vinegar for the national dish adobo — proof that the strongest expression of culture often begins with the comforts of home.
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