Fashion films: A Man's Story

A documentary about fashion designer Ozwald Boateng

Fashion films: About Face: Supermodels Then and Now

'About Face' explores beauty and aging through the stories of the original supermodels: women, now between fifty and eighty years old, whose images defined our sense of beauty over the last half-century. Shot in Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' intimate portrait style, participants include Isabella Rossellini, Christie Brinkley, Marisa Berenson, China Machado, Beverly Johnson, Carmen Dell'Orefice, Paulina Porizkova, Jerry Hall, and Christy Turlington among others. They discuss the fashion industry, their careers, aging, plastic surgery, botox, and how they have reassessed and redefined their own sense of beauty as they have aged. Designer Calvin Klein says in the film, 'They had something inside that came through...they had character, they had personality. Those qualities never age'.

Fashion films: Visionaries, inside the creative mind of Tom Ford

An insight into the working practices of creative thinkers. Now, time for Tom Ford. 

The hour-long documentary series Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind follows some of the world’s most iconic innovators and takes audiences inside their creative process, offering never-before-seen views of true masterminds at work.

The five-episode series includes Tom Ford, who reveals the experiences, challenges and rewards of bringing his ideas to life. With unprecedented access, this series provides unique insight into what made these visionary who they are and what continues to inspire them.

Fashion films: Lagerfeld Confidential

«For the first time Karl Lagerfeld has agreed to let someone create an artwork on his every day life and to trust in the director. Until today there is no authorised biography existing and the memories who Karl Lagerfeld would compose stay perfectly confidential. After three years of work, and over three hundred hours of footage, Rodolphe Marconi discloses the daily life of the star through his personal lens as a filmmaker.»

www.lagerfeldconfidentiel.com

Fashion films: In Vogue, The Editor's Eye

Documentary film takes a look at some of the world's most influential fashion images as conceived by the magazine's iconic fashion editors.

Fashion films: Picture Me: A Model's Diary

"Picture Me" has been storming the fashion world since its release in Spring 2010. This is how the fashion world looks like, from the inside.

A documentary filmmaker follows a model for several years, chronicling her rise from a fresh face to one that adorns billboards and magazines around the world. Go behind the scenes and chronicle the glitzy world of high fashion modeling, from photo shoots with celebrated photographers to runway shows in New York, Milan, and Paris.

Fashion films: Bill Cunningham New York

Today, we'd like to talk about the following fashion film:

Bill Cunningham is a fashion photographer for The New York Times, known for his candid and street photography.

The “Bill” in question is 80+ New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns “On the Street” and “Evening Hours.” Documenting uptown fixtures (Anna Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller—who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace.

Fashion films: Advanced Style

Advanced Style is a documentary that shows the lives of seven unique New Yorkers who's eclectic unique style and vital spirit have guided their approach to aging. Based on Ari Seth Cohen's famed blog of the same name, this film paints intimate and colorful portraits of independent stylish women aged 62 to 95 who are challenging conventional ideas about beauty, aging and Western culture's increasing obsession with youth, all the while being thrust into new found fame.

Fashion Films: Unzipped

Unzipped is a 1995 American documentary film, directed by Douglas Keeve. It follows fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, Keeve's then boyfriend, as he plans and ultimately shows his fall 1994 collection. The film put such a rift in their relationship over Mizrahi's depiction that the two broke up over it.

There are appearances by supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss, as well as many other celebrities and designers from the fashion world and beyond.

Fashion Films: Valentino, the last emperor

Valentino: The Last Emperor is a documentary film about the life of Valentino Garavani. 

It was produced and directed by Matt Tyrnauer, Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine. The film is an exploration of the singular world of one of Italy's most famous men, Valentino Garavani. The film documents the colorful and dramatic closing act of Valentino's celebrated career, tells the story of his life, and explores the larger themes affecting the fashion business today. At the heart of the film is the unique relationship between Valentino and his business partner and companion of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti.

Fashion films: Prêt-à-Porter

Today we'd like to show you the trailer of Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear), the new fashion film we recommend you:



Prêt-à-Porter, is a 1994 American satirical comedy film co-written, directed, and produced by Robert Altman and shot during the Paris, France, Fashion Week with a host of international stars, models and designers. The film may be best known for its many cameo appearances and its final scene which features two minutes of nude female models walking the catwalk.

Fashion Films: Coco Before Chanel

Coco Before Chanel  is a 2009 French film about the early life of famed French fashion designer Coco Chanel. French actor Audrey Tautou stars as Chanel. Coco avant Chanel was directed and co-written by actor turned director Anne Fontaine.

Several years after leaving the orphanage where her father abandoned her, a young Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar. She is both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname 'Coco' from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with the charismatic Baron Balsan gives her an entry into French high society, and a chance to develop her gift for designing increasingly popular hats...

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was a French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand. She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Along with Paul Poiret, Chanel was credited with liberating women from the constraints of the "corseted silhouette" and popularizing the acceptance of a sportive, casual chic as the feminine standard in the post-World War I era. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel's influence extended beyond couture clothing. Her design aesthetic was realized in jewelry, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product.

Fashion Film: The September Issue

Today on our Fashion Films section, we'd like to go back to the documentaries, to talk about The September Issue. 

The film revolves around the making of the Vogue September 2007 issue. (The September Vogue is traditionally the biggest, most important issue of the year.) It depicts the effort that goes into making the magazine, and the passion that Grace Coddington, a former model turned creative director and the only person who dares to stand up to Anna Wintour, has for the highly regarded fashion magazine. In the film, Coddington is often portrayed as the leading victim to Wintour's aggressive personality. The relationship between Wintour and Coddington reveals itself to be symbiotic, as Wintour recognizes Coddington's expertise and keen eye for design. In the end, Wintour approves most of Coddington's ideas and they appear in the final version of the September issue.

Enjoy it!

Fashion films: Yves Saint Laurent

Continuing with the section of fashion films, we'd like to propose you the latest one, that was released last week: Yves Saint Laurent. 

Yves Saint Laurent was a French fashion designer, and is regarded as one of the greatest names in fashion history. In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable." He is also credited with having introduced the tuxedo suit for women and was known for his use of non-European cultural references, and non-white models.

A look at the life of French designer Yves Saint Laurent from the beginning of his career in 1958 when he met his lover and business partner, Pierre Berge.

We hope you like his designs as much as we do and that you enjoy the film =) 

New section: Fashion films

Film industry and fashion industry have always been very closely connected. We could analyze the changes of fashion styles through movies during the history of the last century. And we also can find a lot of fashion outlooks that become famous thanks to some movies that used those styles. 

This blog is about fashion, but we also talk every week about film releases all around the UK. So, we believe it's time to open a new section on the blog that connects both fashion and films. Because they are two artistic currents that we enjoy very much.

On last week's billboard post, we updated the trailer of Scatter my Ashes at Begdorf's. So, we thought it was the best option to speak about this movie, about fashion, to open this section. 

Begdorf is the most mythical of all American emporiums - and the scene of many an ultimate fashion fantasy. Now audiences get a rarified chance to peek behind the backroom doors and into the reality of the fascinating inner workings and fabulous untold stories from Bergdorf Goodman's iconic history in Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's.

Directed by Matthew Miele, this documentary on the Manhattan department store will interview an array of fashion designers, style icons, and celebrities.