The Kenzo team snuck around and dropped off this video, tip toeing away like it was a secret gift. It’s a visual stunner which comes as no surprise with Kahlil Joseph as director. Music is My Mistress is a short film featuring Jesse Williams as an Easy Rawlins style private eye who’s tracking down a man and his mistress for Tracee Ellis Ross; Kelsey Lu and Ishmael Butler from Shabazz Palaces (formerly Butterfly from Digable Planets) light up the screen as the targets of Williams’ search.
As a distant admirer of fashion, I immediately fell for Kenzo’s design and then clutched my proverbial pearls when in one shot Kelsey Lu transformed as a brief homage to Sade circa 1985 in Sweetest Taboo.
As the story visually unfolds with minimal dialog that’s peppered with quotes by Djibril Diop Mambéty and Ish alongside the etherial, moody strings from Lu’s cello we come to see that this isn’t just a search for a man’s mistress, this is a quest for new sound. Williams’ character isn’t a private eye, he’s a metaphor for an industry that’s caught up in a desperate search but Lu’s character shows us the creative spirit is an elusive one. Creativity doesn’t thrive when hunted, she only appears when the time is right.
I’m a complete latecomer to Lu’s music but I’m enthralled by her sound. In the film her tracks “Morning After Coffee” and “Time” are featured but be sure to check out some of her other work on her debut album Church. To make a feeble attempt to categorize her does her gift a disservice, but given my recent post on modernism and Jennie C. Jones, I’m particularly drawn to the abstract minimalism of one song titled “The Bend”.
This is Kenzo’s 4th short film project that serves double duty as a visual lookbook for their SS2017 line; it’s another tremendous collaboration for a beautiful Spring/Summer collection.
Watch the film here:
Culture Shock Art 