Michele StuevenFilmmaker and multi-hyphenate artist Boots Riley will bring his latest and arguably best work to theaters on Friday, May 22, in the upcoming NEON film, I Love Boosters, a colorful, surreal crime comedy that follows a group of professional female shoplifters in San Francisco targeting a high-end, cutthroat fashion mogul, delightfully played by Demi Moore.
Filling out the funky cast in the film that combines science fiction with social justice are Executive Producer Keke Palmer, Eliza Gonzalez, Naomi Ackie, Lakeith Stanfeld, an electrifying Poppy Liu, Will Poulter, and Don Cheadle.
In addition to explosive car chases, morphing aliens, and international teleporting with a multi-genrational vibe, the rich fashion and style illustrated with eclectic designs significantly enhance the film’s appeal and reinforce its themes of style and culture. It’s costume designer Shirley Kurata’s genius that sends the film over the top.
I Love Boosters (Courtesy NEON)
The acclaimed LA-based Japanese American costume designer and wardrobe stylist, best known for her Oscar-nominated work on the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kurata combines a plethora of costumes, including completely monochromatic scenes in colors of red, yellow, and green, where the five-finger discounts take place.
“To be able to work on a project with so much color was my dream,” Kurata, who grew up in Monterey Park, where her parents ironically owned a laundromat, tells LA Weekly.
“In Boosters, we sourced all the clothes,” she says. “The initial start was getting the colors. Christopher Glass, our production designer, was working out of Atlanta, and I was doing some prep in LA to ship out actual color tiles, so I had the colors of the sets. There are a million shades of yellow, and they had to match the yellow of the set. There were times when, once the set was built, I would bring outfits to the sets, hold them up, and take photos to see what worked and what didn’t. It was a lot of costume house pulls and a lot of thrifting. It was fall/winter at that time, so it was hard to find any color. We also shopped online. None of the talent or the background was computer-generated; the cast was all dressed in the original colors.”
Shirley and Boots (NEON: Shirley Kurata))
Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley laundromat, Kurata’s mom would sew all of her older siblings’ clothes, and by the time she came around, it was pretty much just hand-me-downs. She attended a Catholic grade school and high school, spending most of her life in uniforms, which inspired her to break free, explore fashion, and find a style of her own. Working on an indie budget, being a chronic thrifter, and with an explosive imagination, immersed herself in the multitude of electric costumes in I Love Boosters.
“I love thrifting and went to so many little stores,” says Kurata, who had to create art on a practical level. “ Atlanta has some great ones. It’s tricky with men’s wear, trying to find bright, vivid colors for them. We just went everywhere, finding what we could. It was so much fun.”
Was it intimidating dressing the fashion It Girl of the moment, Demi Moore?
“Demi was a dream to work with,” says Kurata, who counts designers from Edith Head to Eiko Ishioka as her inspiration. “ I initially sent her boards and told her I thought it would be a great idea if her character, who creates all this super bright and colorful clothing in stores, just wore black and white and a little bit of grey, basically no color. I wanted it to be a little off kilter, like her apartment. When I showed her my ideas, she loved them and was on board. She even did some shopping herself, to be very avant-garde in a simple palette. She was so easy, fun, and receptive to work with. Everything looked great on her, and she was so game. Some of her pieces were a little over the top in their weirdness.”
Boots Riley on set (Courtesy NEON)
Kurata’s mission aligns very much with Riley’s, to work with creative people who convey a message in their story, like workers’ rights or exploitation of workers, something that has haunted the fashion industry for years. It’s a constant theme in Boosters. Depicting the need to stand together in protests, marches, and strikes for those who are underpaid. It’s a message that is very important to Kurata, who says, ” It’s beyond just doing something cool and slick, it shows humanity and tells that story.”
Upon completion of the film, some costumes were put in storage, and a big stock of brightly colored outfits was donated to Altadena Girls, who came together during the fires to help high school victims. “It was around their prom time, and we donated those costumes from Boosters. They were kind of bright and loud, but the girls loved them.”
“She, like me, draws influences from many different things,” Riley, known for his films Sorry To Bother You and I Am Virgo tells LA Weekly. “She doesn’t think of one look as all one influence. She’ll take something thought of as French and mix it with something Asian and put different textures and colors together and feel how it looks on a person’s body. She also does the full head-to-toe one look, but it will be with that eye for different cuts and fittings. She’s willing to experiment and just go for it. There were very few times, if any, said no to any of her suggestions. We’re on the same wavelength. I love the turquoise dress. I love the series of looks during the montage where they’re coming out of the van. That’s a poster people will want to have on their walls.”
I Love Boosters hits theaters on Friday, May 22
Corvette’s Turquoise Dress (Courtesy Shirley Kurata/NEON)