4 must-see fashion documentaries

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Dior and I, to be released on Apr. 10, is a film that fans of the house and fashion in general are rabidly anticipating for what looks to be a gripping reprisal of how the man, the myth, the legend, Raf Simons was hired as Artistic Director on short notice and absolutely came through by laying waste to the competition with his first haute couture collection which he designed in only eight weeks.

While there is one more month to go until Dior and I is out, here are some other fashion documentaries that will sate your desire until then.

The September Issue

Vogue. The word in itself sends most into an opulent reverie. The magazine has always been a highly admired fashion periodical, but its American publication has seen its star rise to unfathomable heights under the reign of the Machiavellian Anna Wintour. The September Issue offers a look into the intense preparation for the largest issue that the magazine puts out every September. While certainly imbued with elegance, the film shows how both the designers and journalists who cover their work are under immense pressure to keep up with the don’t-look-back pace of the fashion world.

Bill Cunningham New York

While street style has enjoyed a resurgence at the hands of great photographers like Tommy Ton and HB Nam—as well as assholes like Scott Schuman—you can’t even begin discussing it without paying your respects to Bill Cunningham.

The OG, the god, daddy: all these terms can be used to describe Cunningham, who has plied his trade with the New York Times for over 50 years, and is only now getting recognition for turning his lens away from the insiders and onto the public. Ever humble, it is sobering to see how Cunningham’s life is ascetic as well as revealing, for it showcases how the man lives for his work.

This is My Dream

Black is effortlessly cool, but who made it so? Since debuting his first collection in 1977, Tokyo-born Yohji Yamamoto has been the king of black.

Girl Model

While a lot of attention is attributed to the clothes and those who make them, not much is given to the women who are enlisted to model designer wares.

Girl Model follows a 13-year-old Russian model named Nadya who is discovered at a casting session by a scout and then promptly flown to Japan to work at shoots where she is told by her agency to lie about her age.

A harrowing look into the trafficking that goes on with young women from impoverished regions of the world, Girl Model is a depressing but worthwhile watch that forces one to reconsider the ethics, or lack thereof, in the fashion industry.

The avant-garde clothes are coveted by both men and women, with both picking pieces up from all collections, socially constructed notions of gender be damned. What makes Yamamoto so interesting is his monkish dedication to pioneering new methods of tailoring and silhouettes. With his Y-3 line for Adidas still faring extremely well, Yamamoto remains relevant in an industry that spits designers out, and this film celebrates that with an in-depth look into the notoriously private designer’s mind.

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