The ‘Fashion Documentaries’ Thread

[KoV]

What on earth? I have to imagine the news is somehow misconstrued and it will actually be a Hulu project. Hulu is also owned by Disney and it seems Disney puts their "adult" projects there.

 

[vogue28]

I sat and rewatched Dior and I before the weekend and forgot how much I loved it, and just how much I used to enjoy the majority of Raf Simons' collections for Christian Dior - especially his first haute couture collection which the documentary highlights.

 

[YohjiAddict]

Then it will be a bore since the best parts are NSFW and/or politically incorrect. Can they even smoke in there?

On the other hand his life is probably not suited to the dramas that people, in general, are most attracted to: those of the tortured genius. He actually mocked YSL for portraying himself as exactly that...

 

[perfect blue]

Margiela: In His Own Words and Dior and I are the best documentaries so far. There’s a Dries Van Noten one that was on Netflix that was pretty good. I would like to see one on Helmut Lang but that’ll never happen considering his relationship with fashion and his past. I assume he wants to stay present, focusing on fine art and that’s valid.

 

[vogue28]

Christian Dior 'The Greek Bar Jacket: The Making of a Dior Cruise Collection' is available on YouTube:

 

[blueorchid]

Had to dust off my account for this post, so forgive me!! I kind of forgot about fashion for a few years, but this month I've fallen into a fashion rabbit hole, specifically regarding Yves Saint Laurent. I had to log in and discuss this documentary SOMEWHERE.

Has anybody here seen Celebration (or Yves Saint Laurent: The Last Collections)? It was filmed between 1998-2001, originally screened at the Berlinale in 2007, after which Pierre Bergé forbade it's release. It was only released in 2019, I believe after Bergé had a change of heart. I thought it was a very intriguing documentary. It's not a retrospective and as a viewer you're plopped into the present (or 1998) and everything kind of flows from there. I can definitely see why Bergé wouldn't have want this released, Yves obviously is very frail and his decline is obvious, while Bergé doesn't come off too great himself. Those details don't matter, though, as I thought it was so mesmerizing.

 

[KoV]

There’s a Dries Van Noten one that was on Netflix that was pretty good.

I found this one a bit tedious, unfortunately. The thing that sticks in my head most about it is Dries' beautiful old country house with the most stunning gardens. It's unbelievably romantic. I know the house has been featured in print before (notably, in US Vogue) but seeing it on film was impactful.

 

[eugenius]

I watched that YSL "Celebration" documentary.

Sadly, I didn't see the point of this. It just seemed to be nothing more than footage from the studio + catwalk, incl'ing a few quick clips from that major World Cup retrospective. And it definitely didn't portray him in the most flattering light, as he's clearly showing the signs of aging here, and seems like he just...checked out. (One noteworthy clip showed a studio employee complaining to Pierre about how poor Nina Ricci's collections have become, something which still holds true in 2022.)

If anything, for me, it just served as a visual reminder of what smoking cigarettes will look like in your twilight years...

 

[blueorchid]

I think what I liked about Celebration is that it kind of goes behind the mythmaking surrounding YSL, which Bergé worked so hard on, and it's no surprise that he didn't want the film released. As a fashion documentary itself, no I don't think it's that good. It doesn't reveal anything about the design process. I also read that the filmmakers were only able to get about 18 hours of footage between 1998-2001, which is practically nothing. I tend to like fly on the wall character study documentaries, it was definitely eye-opening to see YSL in the state he was in.

The best YSL documentary I've seen, thus far, has been The Drawings of Yves Saint Laurent. If anyone has access to Kanopy via their public library, it's streaming there. Seeing his sketches is probably the best insight there is to YSL as a human. Especially seeing his childhood paper dolls and the book he created when he was 14. They were quite sweet.

 

[blueorchid]

I'm on a fashion documentary-binge, so forgive me for posting twice in a row.

I watched House of Cardin last night about, of course, Pierre Cardin. I had tried to watch it once before, but it didn't grab my attention. This time around, I really enjoyed it. I don't want to re-hash old rivalries, but it's the perfect salve to the Yves Saint Laurent documentaries (Pierre Bergé must have spun in his grave when they gave Cardin credit for prêt-à-porter). I always find it inspiring to see people remain active in their 80s and 90s, it inspires me because sometimes I feel so old when I'm actually not. They did a really good overview of his career and life. I especially enjoyed seeing all the furniture Cardin designed. I also didn't realize he designed the costumes for La Belle et la Bête (am I dumb? I've written papers about this film).



Next on my list is Dior and I.

 

[eugenius]

That looks fantastic! I would never expect to see Alice Cooper, Sharon Stone, and/or Jenny Shimizu in a Cardin documentary. Very cool, nonetheless. Thanks for sharing

 

[blueorchid]

I came across a documentary on YouTube called Haute Couture: The Great Designers from around 1986, I think. I thought it was a good watch. It features Emanuel Ungaro, Karl Lagerfeld (shading Yves, naturally), Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, the Fendi sisters, Pierre Bergé, Grace Mirabella (and other editors), women who bought the couture, etc. Interesting archival footage! It's really a relic of it's time (Nan Kempner discussing furs, lol), but it also deals with the same questions surrounding haute couture that, well, will probably always exist as long as haute couture exists.

 

[vogue28]

Supermodel - which won best documentary film at Cannes 2022:

 

[vogue28]

A look at Alessandro Michele's Gucci on CBS News' 60 Minutes:

 

[tigerrouge]

I've been reliving the 90s via documentaries I haven't seen for decades, and at first it was glorious to see everything again, with everyone seeming larger than life, but now I've reached the point where the number of names becomes depressing... Kevyn Aucoin, Gianni Versace, Isabella Blow, ALT, Gianfranco Ferre, Alaia, and especially Karl Lagerfeld.

 

[Drusilla_]

^ I know what you mean, it's like looking at a landscape of redwood trees and knowing that they've fallen.

Obviously we're all mortal, but sometimes being reminded that even icons and legends whose work is immortal are not spared, does hit rather hard.

 

[vogue28]

Peter Lindbergh - The Supermodel Photographer:



Who Is Richard Avedon?:



Who Is Irving Penn?:



Fashion Giants:



The Untold John Galliano Story:

 

[vogue28]

A brilliant new documentary series on Sky here in the UK entitled Kingdom of Dreams. I've just watched the first episode which discusses John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Bernard Arnault and Anna Wintour - tons of archival footage featured:

 

[vogue28]

Not exactly fashion but a Brooke Shields documentary is now available on Hulu:

 

[KoV]

On the scripted television front, there's a show about Dior and Chanel (played by Juliette Binoche!) coming out from Apple and a show about Balenciaga coming out from Disney+ (lol I wonder how that'll go over)