This story contains major spoilers about I Love Boosters. When you think of your favorite fashion movies, who’s the hero? More often than not, it’s a member of the industry’s top echelon—the designers, the supermodels, the elite who can afford the clothes as daily wear. Boots Riley’s latest film, I Love Boosters, is truly fashion-forward, chock-full of style inspiration and reverence for personal style. But it flips the fashion world’s hierarchy on its head—making Miranda Priestly’s worst nightmare into the best fashion movie in years.
Corvette (Keke Palmer), the heroine of this genre-bending comedy, is a booster—a fly vigilante who robs ‘fits from the rich, er, their boutiques, and sells them at a much lower price. Her Oakland-based crew, known as the Velvet Gang, includes Sade (Naomi Ackie), a single mom looking for a come-up, and Mariah (Taylour Paige), who’s trying to make fetch happen with her slogan “Fashion. Forward. Filanthropy.” Their favorite mark is Metro Designer, the chain founded by visionary Christie Smith (Demi Moore), a former child genius turned creative director who’s like a haughty mix of Phoebe Philo, Andy Warhol, and Steve Jobs. Corvette, an aspiring designer, reveres Christie—at least until the icon steals one of her designs, turning the Velvet Gang’s underground enterprise into a revenge mission.
