A scene from 'Tanner Hall' (Jessica Miglio, Anchor Bay Films)

Tatiana von Furstenberg met Francesca Gregorini, her co-director on the new film Tanner Hall, at Brown, but she knew about her long before that. “I was still in boarding school,” said the alumna of England’s Cranborne Chase School and daughter of designer Diane von Furstenberg, “and Interview magazine did a piece on interesting people who went to Brown University. At that moment, it was incredibly hard to get into … [Francesca] was on the cover of the piece and she looked so hot, and she looked so glamorous, and my friend brought it into my room, where I was—you know—braces, Afro, and she was like, ‘Good luck, loser. You’re going to have the hardest time at Brown.’”

What drew the pair to one another, once she arrived there? Ms. Gregorini couldn’t say. “The wavy hair?”

“She was unapproachable at Brown,” said Ms. von Furstenberg. “She had a vintage Porsche and a motorcycle and she was super cool.”

The Observer met the pair at an Upper East Side luncheonette to discuss Tanner Hall, which they shot together in Providence (“I was discovering Rhode Island for the first time!” said Ms. von Furstenberg).

“We’ve been the best of friends, the best, best,” said Ms. Gregorini.  Each of the pair, if not finishing one another’s sentences, tends to jump into conversation the very moment the other has finished speaking.

“I felt kind of maternal to her,” Ms. Furstenberg returned. “I knew she did wheelies in the snow. When I saw her motorcycle at a class, I was relieved she’d made it to class on time.”

“I don’t know if it’s a past-life thing, but we were really drawn to each other,” Ms. Gregorini said. “It was only after Brown that our friendship sort of—”

Ms. von Furstenberg: “We’ve had similar lives. We had Italian dads, we have Italian as a language that we share. Similar childhoods, similar experiences.”

Ms. Gregorini: “Glamorous mothers.”

Ms. von Furstenberg: “Once we did approach one another, it was soul-mate material. It’s a done deal. Family.”

The pair wear their lineages lightly: Ms. von Furstenberg (full name Tatiana Desiree Prinzessin von Furstenberg) is the heiress of her legendary mother’s former husband, the European noble Egon von Furstenberg. Ms. Gregorini (full name Countess Francesca McKnight Donatella Romana Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna) is the daughter of Barbara Bach (Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me) and Augusto Gregorini and stepdaughter of Ringo Starr. Both have made headlines of a decidedly minor fashion in the past (Ms. von Furstenberg once spoke to this newspaper about outfitting her then-8-year-old daughter in a custom-made D.V.F. wrap dress; Ms. Gregorini, a sometime pop singer, was, at least per tabloids, Portia de Rossi’s fiancée before the TV star met Ellen DeGeneres), as well as art on a similar scale (they’ve collaborated on short films) but Tanner Hall represents an artistic coming-out party.

What made the pair decide that directing a feature-length film would be a manageable project? “Francesca and I are not first-time homeowners,” said Ms. von Furstenberg. “We bought in Silverlake a long time ago, so even, like, when you’re overseeing an enormous project or a construction project—it was super useful.” Ms. Gregorini said her favorite female filmmakers are Jane Campion and Lynne Ramsay. “It’s hard to get a break and get your foot in the door.”

Both will mention their glamorous mothers, in a shrugging-off fashion surely learned at boarding school and Brown, but Ms. von Furstenberg’s more interested in talking about her own daughter. “Trust me, I have an 11 year old, and it gets desperate at this point,” she told The Observer, of constructing summer-vacation activities. Ms. von Furstenberg dug into a mayonnaisey shrimp salad, while Ms. Gregorini tore her tuna melt into geometric shapes.

The two now reside in Los Angeles, where they conceived of Tanner Hall in marathon screenwriting sessions. Said Ms. Gregorini: “Our friends called us the writers on bed rest. Tatiana has a ridiculously huge bed, and I’d come over in the mornings and get into bed with her and the computer.”

Ms. von Furstenberg cut in: “And dogs everywhere.”

Ms. Gregorini: “—And friends would come over, and we’d do what we do anyway, just talk to each other endlessly, and tell tall tales—”

Ms. von Furstenberg: “Walk the dogs, bang out the beats! Come back to bed, write them out. On loop. Walk the dogs, bang out the beats!”

Ms. Gregorini: “The only difference is that we were writing it out.”

How long did it take, The Observer wondered? A year? No, just a few months, said Ms. Gregorini: “I don’t think we would have survived as writers on bed rest.”

Her co-writer cut in again. “We would have atrophied.”

Befitting the pair’s past jet-setting as well as certain earthy peculiarities of boarding-school life, the tall tales that make up Tanner Hall take place in a school untrammeled by space and time. The aesthetic—all tweeds, embroidered curtains, and white-enameled-brick bathrooms—follows suit. Said Ms. von Furstenberg: “You don’t know where it is. It’s in America, but we tried to make it anywhere.”

“It could be England,” said Ms. Gregorini. “It could be—anywhere in Europe.”

“And it could be at any time!” continued Ms. von Furstenberg. “We intentionally put furniture and wardrobe from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s—because that’s what boarding schools look like! They have a frugality, a resourcefulness.”

The film follows a character, played by Rooney Mara of The Social Network and the forthcoming The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, whose senior year at the boarding school Tanner Hall is derailed by the arrival of a seductive interloper, her childhood friend. There’s as much jealousy here as in Black Swan or All About Eve, and it’s compounded by the pressures of living together and the periodic interferences of a pair of house parents played by Chris Kattan and Amy Sedaris. The two directors both worked with the actors, who were, at the time of filming (excepting Mr. Kattan and Ms. Sedaris), young and untested women. The film was first shown in 2009, then shelved until this year’s studio release on the back of Ms. Mara’s burgeoning fame.

“I think it was a real benefit to be female filmmakers,” said Ms. Gregorini. “There was a level of trust there that the actresses were willing to go there with us. We’ve been where they are. It’s not like some guy saying, ‘Why don’t you lift that skirt a little higher?’”

Aside from the shared writing and talent nurturing, they divided their responsibilities.

“I’m a closet, wanna-be cinematographer,” said Ms. Gregorini, “so I spent a lot of time in the cinematography department.”

“And I don’t know a damn thing about shots,” said Ms. von Furstenberg. “She was envisioning the shots, and I was—”

“Decorating the rooms!,” said Ms. Gregorini.

“—decorating the rooms, and tackling the truths of the characters based on what they would be wearing. You know what I mean?”

“It’s a huge undertaking, directing a film,” said Ms. Gregorini. “To have a friend by your side before falling into that rabbit hole is huge.”

Even working as a duo, the two were unable to accomplish everything that needed doing. Ms. von Furstenberg’s mother helped out with costuming. Said the fashion scion: “We had three weeks of preproduction. Literally. And we have production values that look like we spent a lot of money. She didn’t do the costumes, but she delivered the uniforms, and they look amazing. The blazers are so well-cut. But it’s not like we had every resource available to us. She did it as a favor. We were pulling goodwill from everyone.”

It wasn’t just the costumes that were sourced unconventionally. “Our clothes, my curtains, my bedspread,” said Ms. Von Furstenberg, “literally is on-screen.”

Their resourcefulness, said Ms. Gregorini, made the pair more creative. They had, as Ms. Von Furstenberg put it, “a unified point of view” and created something on-screen that “was just externalizing a world that’s already inside of us.”

But what does that world look like? “Italy. Old World,” said Ms. Gregorini. “Tatiana and I share an emotional truth. Our understanding of the human condition is very shared, and we bring that to Tanner Hall, the challenges of being human, and the flawedness. And we’re quite open-minded. It’s not like a morality piece.”

“It’s really a family drama,” said Ms. von Furstenberg. “The parents are the teachers, and the girls are basically sisters. That’s their home. And I just had a midlife crisis recently. I’m out of it.”

“I’m not,” said Ms. Gregorini.

By shoot’s end, the pair were exhausted. Ms. Gregorini bought a motorcycle in Rhode Island to use for exploring; she ended up never using it. Ms. von Furstenberg brought her daughter. “I thought it was important—a lot of directors leave their kids at home for the 10 weeks they’re on location. I really respect her life and the engagements of her life, and she respects the engagements of my life.”

“She discovered Montessori schools there,” Ms. Gregorini observed.

“Well,” Ms. von Furstenberg admitted, “she’d already been.”

All told, it was an unusually stressful experience, said Ms. von Furstenberg, both in its time demands—“By the end, my hands were purple! I was thinking ahead to when I’m taking the knots out of my hair!”—and its interpersonal responsibilities. “You’re communicating to four girls who are looking to you for a grounded sense of—you know what I mean?”

Work is a pleasure for both, though. Ms. von Furstenberg was fulfilled by her exhaustion, knotty hair and all: “My mother—and everybody that I’ve ever been around, they create their own opportunity. They wake up knowing that they have to create things. The pleasure of life is being able to make clear decisions. I always was a hard worker at school. Work is fulfilling. The harder it is, the more fulfilling it is.”

The reviews, at least upon 2009 festival screenings, were less than kind: Variety called the film “derivative” and said it veered “from sitcom slapstick to wanna-be black comedy to soap opera.” Ms. von Furstenberg was troubled at the thought of viewers reacting negatively, but said she stood by her work: “I rose to my highest self and made decisions in the best way I was able to. The movie was not informed by other people … We did the best job, and there were challenges, many, and I do hope that the poetry resonates, and the humanity resonates.”

Ms. Gregorini is less worried about possible reactions; she’s already planning a second film. Ms. von Furstenberg will be there in a fairy-godmother role. “I’m not going to be directing with her, but I’m going to have her back.” The next film is to be what Ms. Gregorini calls “psychological suspense,” and her third script is to be sci-fi.

Ms. von Furstenberg spoke before her friend could describe her diffuse creative process. “I’m always surprised. Francesca remains a mystery to me—and that’s why I’m so intrigued.”

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

In the pictures, Mr. Diller walks through the yard barefoot and Ms. von Furstenberg catches a nap in a lounge chair while the younger generation splashes in the pool. In another photo, the designer takes a walk through the woods. More photos here.

“I don’t actually know what it is, what is it?” asked designer Alexander Wang, who seemed bewildered when we wondered what he thought of the evening’s guest of honor, the “Jagger Dagger.”

Let us explain, Mr. Wang. We were gathered for the release of a specially designed $250,000 ice pick that Jade Jagger created for Belvedere vodka, but even we’re not entirely sure why since the event was not a fund-raiser of any kind.

“Oh, right. the dagger,” said Mr. Wang, quickly trying to redeem himself. “I love it when people take unexpected items and take it out of context, making it into this crazy item. It’s something I would do.”

Most of the guests last night didn’t quite know what to make of the ice pick with the 18-carat white-gold hilt studded with diamonds and sapphires that seemed more like something Juliet would have used to stab herself upon waking and seeing Romeo next to her than a utilitarian utensil for chipping ice.

“I think I could use it for ice, why not?” said Tara Subkoff, examining the dagger in her hands. “I also think it can be a nice gift to give to a person who has everything,” she added.

“But, where would you buy a block of ice like that?” asked Tatiana von Furstenberg, looking around at the giant ice blocks scattered throughout the room that would later be used in a choreographed performance of dancers lunging at them with the daggers.

“I don’t know what I’d do with it, but I guess I could put my rings on it or something,” said Ms. von Furstenberg. “I would just have to keep it away from my 8-year-old daughter.” This is the same daughter who, Ms. von Furstenberg told the Daily Transom, likes to wear a wrap dress that her grandmother, Diane, custom-made for her. “It’s a miniature version made with vintage fabric, she likes to wear it over jeans.”

But even Ms. Jagger herself couldn’t quite say who the target buyer for the “Jagger Dagger” would be. “I don’t know, I guess someone, someone who likes … nice things.”

"Excuse me," he said. "My name is Alex Von Furstenberg."

The woman flipped through pages of names. "I'm sorry, sir, but you're not on here," she said.

"The last name is Von Furstenberg," Mr. Brown said. "I RSVP'd for this party and I'm not sure if a ticket came up. I was wondering if we could work something out."

"I'm sure we can work something out, if you can just be patient with me," the P.R. woman said. "I don't see you on any list. What company are you with?"

"Well, I'm Alex Von Furstenberg. Diane Von Furstenberg's son," Mr. Brown said.

"I never knew she had a son," she said.

"She has a son and a daughter," Mr. Brown said.

"I know Tatiana. Okay. Here you go. Nice to meet you."

He was in.

For the past year, Mr. Brown has attended more than 60 Manhattan benefits, cocktail parties, media events and political fund-raisers claiming to be the 30-year-old New York socialite Alex Von Furstenberg. Wearing a gray suit that he picked up from the Salvation Army and a $5 pair of black shoes, Mr. Brown would usually just show up at the door, tell the security that he was Alex Von Furstenberg and demand a seat. Sometimes it worked. Many times it did not. When he could, he hustled in an accomplice to take pictures of him with as many celebrities as possible. Those photos-40 of them-will form Mr. Brown's first solo exhibition, which opens on Sept. 15 at Roebling Hall in Williamsburg.

"I think they'll love it," Mr. Brown said. "And I think they'll buy it."

What is the point of it all?

"It's sort of like living out a fantasy," Mr. Brown said. "People want a statement from me about what it's about. But it's all just questions. I'm just asking this stuff to you. My work is hilarious. The ideas are there, if you want them. But it's funny as shit."

Not everyone is amused. When contacted by The Observer upon his return from a two-week sailing holiday in the Mediterranean, the real Alex Von Furstenberg said he was unaware of Mr. Brown's ruse. "You're kidding," he said, then promised to call back.

"It's not really flattering," Mr. Von Furstenberg said later. "My wife said the guy could be dangerous. I think it's best to say, 'No comment.'"

Mr. Von Furstenberg is the son of Diane and Prince Egon Von Furstenberg. Diane Von Furstenberg is famous for inventing the wrap dress in the 1970's and spending a lot of time at Studio 54 (the old one). With the money from the dresses, Ms. Von Furstenberg bought an estate in Connecticut, which she named Cloudwalk Farm. She has yet to remarry and spends a lot of time with USA Networks C.E.O. Barry Diller.

Alex Von Furstenberg grew up with his mother in New York, attending Allen Stevenson and Brooks School, then Brown University, from which he graduated in 1993. He settled in an apartment in the Carlyle Hotel and went out to nightclubs. Along with Prince Pavlos of Greece, he became a partner in Griphon Capital, a hedge fund, which he has since left to become chief investment officer of Arrow Investment, Mr. Diller's investment vehicle. In 1995 he married Alexandra Miller, youngest of the three fabled Miller sisters, the daughters of duty-free-shop baron Robert Miller.

Mr. Brown is not married to one of the Miller sisters. In fact, Mr. Brown, who does have a girlfriend, rarely leaves his ground-floor Williamsburg loft, which is filled with photographs of himself with celebrities, tidbits of Americana and half-completed sculptures. There are slogans written on the walls in black marker. "Employ ideas that break out of stupid conceptual rigidity," it says above the kitchen sink.

Mr. Brown stands 5-foot-10. He has thinning brown hair. When he's not pretending to be Mr. Von Furstenberg, he likes to wear a floppy white canvas cap. He looks very little like Mr. Von Furstenberg, who has dark curly hair and strong features.

"Other artists have dealt with celebrity, but my personal involvement is more complex," Mr. Brown said one afternoon in his loft. He was wearing a T-shirt with a McDonald's M on it and blue sweat pants. "Warhol was always fronting about his life. He created a whole world. He never gave in. People say he was a very mysterious person. A lot of people say I'm a very mysterious person as well. One critic asked me, 'Do you think this show will shed a lot of light on who you are?' I said it will probably shed a little light on it. Starlight, that is. Heh-heh. A little starlight on the subject."

On his nights out as Mr. Von Furstenberg, Mr. Brown shook hands with Henry Kissinger, told Bo Derek that she looked great, posed twice with Puff Daddy, put his arm around Conan O'Brien, got Hillary Clinton to sign a photograph and even met the real Alex Von Furstenberg, though he didn't reveal his scam.

"Of all the celebrities I've met, the person that was most impressed that I was Alex Von Furstenberg was Ivana Trump," he said. "She was like, 'Oh, hel-lo !' I'd love to go to lunch with her, but I don't know how to reach her."

"When I go out, I am Alex, I act like him," said Mr. Brown. "I'm thinking that I'm a person of privilege and I'm out to have a good time and I like to meet celebrities and politicians. I've met him and I gather he's pretty low-key. He'd probably get a good laugh out of it."

But acting like Mr. Von Furstenberg has not always worked. At a Playboy birthday party for Hugh Hefner's twin girlfriends, Sandy and Mandy, Mr. Brown was foiled by a bouncer who knew that the real Alex Von Furstenberg was vacationing in Hawaii. Mr. Brown extricated himself by explaining that his name was Alex Von First enberg and that he and Alex Von Furstenberg often get confused.

Mr. Brown grew up in Yardley, Pa. At 13 he was kicked out of high school for trying to bust open a candy machine. "I didn't have a model when I was young, and I think part of being an artist is creating your own alternative model," Mr. Brown said. "Before I had my own structure, all I had was freakin' trouble."

It was at Blair Academy in New Jersey that Mr. Brown first heard of the family with the magic two-word last name. "My roommate, Michael Polsky, knew the Von Furstenbergs and was completely infatuated with Tatiana Von Furstenberg," Mr. Brown said. "He would come back from New York and he would go, 'I love Tatiana Von Furstenberg. She is so hot .' He was hyperactive. I was really small, and he would get so worked up about Tatiana that he would go into a rage and throw me around."

Mr. Brown attended a few East Coast colleges but never graduated. In 1991 he came to New York and got a job at Pearl Paint. He made some strange-looking sculptures, but no one bought them. Always fascinated by celebrity culture, Mr. Brown wanted a way to address it. In 1998 he created a company called Carpet Rollers, which for $99 offered to roll out a red carpet for private parties.

"We were able to get into private people's affairs," Mr. Brown said. "The kind of people that liked to enjoy life. We'd come up to a party with our red carpet and people would gather around us. Hundreds of people would come and watch and we would say that we didn't know who was coming. The red carpet was a symbol. It created a discussion and people would say stuff about who they thought was coming. It was like Waiting for Godot. They were all waiting for this grand thing to happen that never happened, and the real thing was the waiting."

Then one night, as he was driving to Manhattan to try and meet Barry White at the nightclub Chaos, Mr. Brown had his epiphany. "It had occurred to me that I needed to come up with some way to get into these parties," Mr. Brown said. "I'm never really going to be that interesting of a fanatic until I get inside . I was like, ' Kling! -Alex Von Furstenberg.' It just hit me. Just the sound of the name: 'Von Furst -en-Berg.' Like in English, the t, it just has such a ring to it. Also the name has the word first , which I know is spelled f-u-r-s-t, but it rhymes with first , 'number one.' Sometimes when I'm driving or when I'm just working at my day job-it's always when I'm not focusing on art-that's when problems get solved." That night, Mr. Brown gave his new concept a dry run at Chaos.

"I came up to the door guys, and there was this guy named Chip who does parties and who's very eager to please, a nervous sort of guy," he said. "I went up and I said, 'Hi, I'm just waiting for Diane Von Furstenberg. You don't know if she showed up, do you?' They were like, 'No, I don't think so.' And the thing about Chaos is, they really wanted to attract people. So I waited there for five minutes. Then I was like, 'Well, it doesn't seem like my mom is going to show up. I'm Alex Von Furstenberg.' The guy was like, 'Oh, hi, Alex . How are you?'"

He got in. He was sitting at the bar when Michael Ault, an owner of Chaos, approached him. "He was all over me," Mr. Brown said. "He was like a stalker. He wanted my number, everything. He ended up giving me a tour of the whole club. He's like, 'Do you want some free drinks?'" Mr. Brown left Chaos with one of Mr. Ault's business cards. The back of the card was signed with a note written to John, the head bouncer at the club. It read, "Take care of Alex always."