years ago I thought up a plot for a historical-fiction comedy film or something

Mid-20th century US: a few out-of-work fashion designers & photographers & editors find out that a painter friend is getting CIA money to do abstract expressionist painting, + a fiction teacher pal in Iowa is getting government funding for similar soft power reasons. They put together a hoax that the Soviet Union is trying to infiltrate Western fashion and get all our women to wear saggy grey &c., diminishing American beauty, undermining our culture, etc.

they successfully pitch US intelligence and ask for funding for their magazine/shows/etc. to counter the Soviet Fashion Menace

climax is at a big international conference/expo where they find out there are a ton of other groups all over both sides of the Cold War running the same scams on their governments to get funding for dance, music, sculpture, photography, all the fine arts, and all collude to keep it going

title: "The Devil Wears Pravda"