Ava DuVernay plans to aim her lens on the world of fashion this year to depict a historic event. According to Deadline, the revered director will helm a new production titled The Battle of Versailles, which is based on an epic fashion showdown of 1973 between five top French designers and five top American designers.
The occurrence was not only groundbreaking for ushering in longstanding talent, which includes the names Oscar de la Renta, Anne Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, and Hubert de Givenchy, but made history by enlisting a bevy of African-American models — on the American designers side — to adorn their creations and shatter racial lines in the world of fashion at that time.
The movie will also take its lead from the 2015 book The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled Into The Spotlight And Made History by Robin Givhan.
Serving as co-writer of the film alongside Michael Starrbury, DuVernay’s production will also fall under the HBO Films entity. A release date has yet to be announced.