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In a fashion season that had everyone talking about the future role of fashion shows and potential ways to present collections in the future, Thaddeus O’Neil opted for an inspiring film that perfectly embodied the ethos of his brand.

Working with director Nico Guilis and Find Your California Productions as well as cinematographer Jonathan Wing in collaboration with M·A·C Cosmetics, O’Neill conceived “The Youth Burst Forth” – the title taken from one of O’Neil’s own poems. Shot in vintage style and inspired by 1960s Warhol interviews (with Thaddeus as a modern-day version Warhol) and 1950s youth, the protagonist, playfully embodied by model Brook Power, is coolly dubbed with a 1950s monologue by Phillipa Fallon.

I wanted this film to have a cheeky castaway snapchat feel to it and for that form to be in tension with the content, which sort of says the opposite:  look up out into the world and into yourself and be present and feel your life in its real immanent livedness,” O’Neil told CFDA.com. “Touch stones were Antonioni’s ‘Zabriskie Point,’ Truffaut’s ‘The 400 blows,’ Maya Deren’s ‘At Land,’ and old Warhol Interviews, which I tried to unhinge in a way.”

The designer unveiled the video at Silencio – David Lynch’s chic nightclub and screening room in Paris – on Sunday night, to a crowd that included a mélange of designers and other notables, including Danielle Snyder of Dannijo, David Hart, Becca McCharen, Rio Uribe, and Anja Rubik.

O’Neil considered a bigger fashion message: “I think all the little films I’ve done are little masks that keep saying the same thing really. They’re all little protests to Keep it real.”

And speaking of messaging, the film comes with its own fashion system Rx. O’Neil plans to show it again with a consumer-facing event during fashion week in September.

View Thaddeus O’Neil’s short film here:

https://vimeo.com/thaddeusoneil/aw16shortfilm