In the neon-drenched world of ‘I Love Boosters,’ fashion is for the people

By Bianca Betancourt, CNN

(CNN) — In Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters,” color serves as its own character, fueling the full-throttle chaos of his latest eccentric comedy about a group of girlfriends who steal and resell (or “boost”) clothes to make ends meet.

Starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige – who play Corvette, Sade and Mariah in the Velvet Gang — and Demi Moore, who serves as the captivating retail mogul-villain Christie Smith, Riley’s sophomore feature is a raucous critique of over-consumption and, at times, a sobering attack on the fashion industry’s ethical failings.

The Velvet Gang’s Bay-area-grunge-meets-Gen-Z-raver wardrobe of furry cropped bomber jackets, remixed sports jerseys, and oversized acrylic accessories and neon-highlighted wigs, is the colorful concoction of Oscar-nominated costume designer Shirley Kurata.

“It was kind of my dream script to be asked to work on. I could really do all the fun fashion that I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had the chance,” said Kurata, whose previous credits include 2023’s Oscar winning picture “Everything Everywhere All At Once” as well as Netflix’s “The Debut: Dream Academy” (the reality series that created global girl group phenomenon, Katseye.)

“We were shooting in the fall and winter which is usually devoid of color in the stores. They don’t have a ton of yellows and bright greens and all that,” Kurata explained. “We didn’t have a ton of prep time either and a lot was done last minute — but sometimes it works well that way because then you’re not overthinking things.”

The core story takes place in one of America’s most recognizable settings: a metropolitan strip mall. A chain of stores simply called “Metro Designer” is the booming multi-millionaire dollar retail empire of Smith. Each outlet, a symbol of the trend cycle within fashion and the fleeting nature of consumer taste, changes color almost every scene. Monochromatic racks of product are matched by the store’s unsatisfied and underpaid employees, including a glam goth sales associate turned labor organizer, Violeta, played by Eiza Gonzalez and a hilariously uptight store manager Grayson, portrayed by Will Poulter.

To source the sheer amount of clothing that fills practically every frame of the film, Kurata relied on thrift stores and loans from young student designers from The Savannah College of Art and Design, in Georgia. The bold designs supported the dynamic characters within the Velvet Gang, who often switched up their personas as they slipped into heist-ready attire.

“For Corvette and Sade and Mariah, I had to create what they would wear in the real world, but then also, what they looked like when they were disguised,” she said. “ I almost had to create separate closets for each of the characters.”

For Corvette, who is an aspiring fashion designer, Kurata wanted her clothing to be interesting but also for it to look as though she’d made some of it herself. “There also had to be a resourceful element,” she said. “One of the tops she wears is made from athletic tube socks, and in the opening scene you don’t get to see much of her bottom half, but she’s wearing a skirt made of a bunch of men’s ties.”

Kurata followed a similar approach when styling the other Velvet Gang members.

“Mariah’s style was a little bit more like punk and reflective of the Oakland art scene. And Sade is a little bit more streetwear inspired, but she probably wore some of Corvette’s designs, too,” she added. “I had to consider all of the varying character personalities and from there create this closet for them.”

Jenna Lyons inspires all — even fictional fashion villains

When it came to the film’s antagonist, classic fashion villain characteristics were used to play up the Smith’s questionable intentions, like a pristinely cut, platinum-hued bob, aviator reading glasses, and edgy, oversized power suiting.

“I studied a lot of prominent female fashion designers and how they dressed. Like when you think about a Jenna Lyons for instance — you think of the statement glasses, but there’s also a uniform and a utilitarian-ness to the way they dress. And when you go to fashion shows there’s a lot of people dressed in black and I thought it would be so Christie to be devoid of color, she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it,” said Kurata. “There’s something off-kilter about her, so I wanted her attire to be a little bit off-kilter too.”

Moore even insisted on going shopping for a few Christie Smith-coded selects for the character as well while filming, according to Kurata.

“She got some pieces that she thought were very Christie. They were great.”

Suits appear throughout the movie and the silhouettes signify the varying personalities at play — as well as a sliding scale of status — across the cast. “Will Poulter’s character, because he was a manager, he had to have something that looked like merchandise that they would sell, but still sharp. For Lakeith, his character is such a unicorn since he’s this demon meets vampire meets, I don’t even know who he is! His outfits were a mix of incorporating zoot suit pants and vintage blazers from the ’80s and ‘90s,” Kurata described. “Because you’re not entirely sure what world he comes from we mixed the decades with him. And then Demi and her workers — it all was much more architectural. Whether she’s wearing a jacket with three sleeves or maybe something asymmetrical, it was more of the shape and the silhouette versus the sort of anything goes world of everyone else in the movie.”

More than clothes

Fans of Riley’s work know that the rapper-turned-director isn’t afraid to tackle big issues in his work. His 2018 debut feature, “Sorry to Bother You,” starring Lakeith Stanfield, was centered around a Black call center employee who adopts a “white voice” to climb up the corporate ladder. In “I Love Boosters,” several fashion industry shortcomings are addressed including plagiarizing smaller, burgeoning designers’ intellectual property and the unethical and often life-threatening factory conditions of garment workers who are the real creators of the clothes on our backs.

“There is responsibility that we as consumers and we as designers, need to take into consideration. That involves workers’ rights, equal pay, the importance of over-consumption, the environment,” said Kurata of the film’s underlying message. “There’s this widening division of sort of the haves and the have-nots and the one percentile and the rest of the world and it’s only become worse.”

Kurata hopes the film will “energize and rally people to unite,” she said. “How you relate to it, that’s all subjective. But that’s also what makes it so much more compelling, too.”

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