The fourth in a series of commissions by Miu Miu and opener at this year's Venice Film Festival, It's Getting Late by Iranian-American screenwriter/director Massy Tadjedin is a short film based around the process of getting ready for an evening out. The all-female cast, including Aubrey Plaza, Gemma Arterton, Patricia Clarkson and Rinko Kikuchi, are shown winding down from their disparate Los Angeles lifestyles and transforming into sirens of the night as dusk descends upon the city of angels. "It's a moment of the day that I find very romantic," Tadjedin explains to us during our Skype chat.

To a dreamy soundtrack by songstress of the moment Zola Jesus, each of the four women metamorphose from their daytime personas (a mother, an executive, a writer), into their after-dark incarnations through intimately captured personal moments, before heading separately to an underground nightclub, where the film culminates with Zola on stage singing one of her moodily sexy tracks.

The brand has enlisted a stellar roll call of female directors, including Zoe Cassavetes and Lucrecia Martel, asking each to create a short film that celebrates the Italian fashion house's femininity through their own cinematic sensibilities. Tadjedin joined their ranks and was invited to take part in the Women's Tales film series after Eva Mendes - who was cast in the filmmaker's 2010 directorial debut, Last Night - introduced her to the Miu Miu team.

It's Getting Late is a far cry from Tadjedin's usual psychological thriller repertoire and is her first script-less non-feature film. "The great thing about short films is how they are a little more open-ended -
they capture a fleeting moment. It was a great challenge," she explained. "It's about becoming ready for self-possessiveness. We all get ready very differently depending on whether it's for friends or for a lover."

Vivienne Westwood has tapped into her playful side for a new collaboration with traditional German toy company Schuco. Dame Viv has applied her famous wit to two different models of the silver arrow - the iconic '30s automobiles made famous by Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union. Westwood's regal orb appears on one little car with a skull and crossbones and a golden satyr, while the other says "keep Gaia cool" and "+5 degrees" - the designer's environmental slogans - a wry comment on the motoring industry's effect on climate change, perhaps? Made from tin plate, each one of the limited edition run of 1,000 cars will come packaged in Schuco's retro boxes and will be available in Vivienne Westwood stores and online at viviennewestwood.com from mid-September. The cars are priced £110 (white car) and £115 (red car).

Two quintessentially British brands, Alice Temperley and John Lewis, have joined forces to create new label Somerset by Alice Temperley, launching this September. The label takes its name from Temperley's beloved home county and is the first collection the designer has produced for the UK high street. Collection highlights include pretty Victoriana lace dresses, floppy hats, chic wide-legged trousers and silky evening dresses (rightly so, lest we forget it was Temperley that Pippa Middleton wore to that wedding after-party). Suitable for swanning around chocolate box villages, packing for country escapes, or for celebrating with royalty - Somerset by Alice Temperley is available from John Lewis stores and online, with prices starting at £29. johnlewis.com