Throughout the film, Fineman shows up to various dates at the East Village bistro Pardon My French in a series of Hay’s signatures: florals, exaggerated collars, puffed sleeves, and plenty of ruffles. These scenes are accented by a nervous score produced by Matt Allchin and Attawalpa’s Luis Felber that plays into the anxiousness of dating. While inquiring about a date’s job (“meme designer”!), Fineman sports a leopard-print frock with a black bib and pearl buttons. When comparing dating to “cans of soup,” she wears a fuchsia dress with an enormous collar and shoulders. During a sequence of dramatic moments, Fineman floats above the Eiffel Tower in a classic black retro dress. (Singer credits these dreamlike scenes to the 3D creation tool, Unreal Engine, which she learned about while participating in the Tribeca Film Festival/Epic Games “Writing in Unreal” workshop in November 2021).
Courtesy of Batsheva / Maya Singer
Singer and Hay are pros at storytelling in their respective careers. Hay’s lookbooks put a fairy-tale spin on banal activities like cooking at home, while her runway sets are packed with cheeky grandeur. As for Singer, she spearheaded a Fashion Week video series for Style.com in the aughts. “There were interesting ways to tell stories with clothes, and there should be a platform basically to do that as an alternative to presenting on the runway,” she says. In the Batsheva film, it’s the everyday sartorial winks that drive the message home: the zipping up of a dress or a close-up of a frilly flare as Fineman’s leg taps impatiently under the table. “These are hidden gestures of getting dressed that I wanted to expose,” says Singer. “This also gave an opportunity to dial into the details of Batsheva’s clothing, which are always really special.”
Hay’s clothing has never been overtly sexy, and instead hinges on the subversiveness of covering up. While her designs are not what we think of as traditional date-night clothes (no body-skimming, thigh-revealing LBDs here!), they have indeed become the dresses and going-out tops du jour for the girls who dare. “I started out doing ditsy florals, prairie dresses, and now I realize I’m actually mostly selling evening looks and date looks,” says Hay. The designer acknowledges that not everyone will understand a lady who is looking for love in a Batsheva frock, but it’s a good way to sift through potential suitors. “My dresses aren’t for everyone, but those who like them really like them. I always hear from customers that they really feel themselves in my clothing,” says Hay. “Going out in my dresses is like, ‘This is who I am, and are you into it?’”
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