“That’s what I like to do—use subjects and turn it into something else, all framed in a punk presentation.” – James Franco
The controversial, conceptual-art loving, Academy Award-nominated actor JAMES FRANCO has a new DIY label called Paly with partner Kyle Lindgren. Paly’s mission? Using images and words to turn Hollywood’s hidden, often-dark history into fashion. Franco tells MAGGIE DAVIS how movieland myths collide with punk rock sketches in his first fashion line.
Paly time travels and uncovers secret, sometimes sordid Hollywood stories.
It’s about vintage California legends. One story is the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic. They would treat hippies for free. Their saying was “Love Needs Care.” Most people won’t understand it. I just like the saying: “Love Needs Care.” It was the beginning of the hippy movement. The clinic is still there.
The line celebrates film and theater, two of your loves.
The Living Theater puppets were this avant-garde theater group in New York. They were off-off Broadway doing very weird stuff that now has bled into the mainstream. It’s what we are watching in crazy horror films or Anora.
What inspired you to enter the fashion world?
Our north star for all the designs and themes is Kenneth Anger who wrote a book Hollywood Babylon. Essentially, he took these old, silent-era stories and sort of exaggerated and distorted them. But he also turned them into something more—myths, like a weird materialistic religion. That’s what I like to do—use subjects and turn it into something else, all framed in a punk presentation. It’s a history lesson, but new and alive. In each piece, there are different stories.
What are some other stories?
Michael Cimino. He directed The Deer Hunter which won Best Picture. He felt like he was the king and then did Heaven’s Gate right after and that was a disaster, the end of an era. Although it is a beautiful movie, at that time it was like…disaster. All these things are part of a bigger image, using and repurposing Hollywood legends into something bigger. It all points to bigger things, kind of like movies do.
You’re an actor, writer, director, and now fashion designer.
As a filmmaker, I’m interested in Hollywood history. I’ve done movies about filmmaking, and I’ve done films about bad filmmakers. There is a common theme as far as the DNA. This is all about old Hollywood. Sometimes I write a script about an older actor or actress, or I make clothes out of it and tell the story that way.
“It’s a history lesson, but new and alive. In each piece, there are different stories.” – James Franco
