The ethos of the fashion collective threeASFOUR is more inspiring than the filmmaking in “threeASFOUR: FULL CIRCLE,” a documentary that provides an introduction to the group’s three designers and captures them during a period of transition. The collective consists of Gabi Asfour, Angela Donhauser and Adi Gil. (An earlier iteration had four members; Kai Kühne, who left, sits for an interview.)
The group exists on the experimental end of the fashion spectrum: The three artists aren’t especially concerned with wearability or how a garment might look in a social context. Their design work is pure art: clothes that highlight the body’s connection to the natural world, for instance, or that follow the principles of fractals. They have worked with Björk, Rihanna and Yoko Ono. Ono’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, directed the documentary.
Two principal themes emerge. One is that the designers’ enduring collaboration is a powerful testament to working amicably across cultural lines. Asfour is Palestinian, born in Lebanon; Gil is Israeli; Donhauser was born in Tajikistan to German parents. Artistically, they are a mind meld.
The other is that, despite their high-profile clients, there isn’t much money in experimental fashion. A more commercial version of threeASFOUR is difficult to imagine: They don’t make the kind of clothes sold in chain stores. The documentary shows the collective as it struggles to pay the rent on its Manhattan space.
The movie makes all of threeASFOUR likable, but it is ultimately a routine portrait. If Lennon had artistic aspirations of his own in making it, they aren’t apparent.
threeASFOUR: FULL CIRCLE Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.
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