10 couturier documentaries

Van Noten and Valentino, Yamamoto and Lagerfeld, Dior, Lacroix and other fashion masters are in our review of documentary films about the life and work of famous fashion designers.

1. "Dries van Notten" / Dries

2017, Germany / Belgium, director Rainer Holzmer
Cast: Dries Van Notten, Iris Apfel, Pamela Holben, Geert Brulo, etc.

Let's start with the movie, which is now in Russia at the box office - "Dries van Notten." The tape about the most intellectual couturier, as Van Noten is called, is documentary. Director Rainer Holzmer acted here as a screenwriter and cameraman. For a whole year, following the fashion designer on the heels, Holzmer captured his life and work on camera.

The film shows the entire creative process of couturier work, from thinking through images and choosing fabrics to preparing for shows. Dries van Notten, considered one of the most private characters in the fashion world, first spoke about himself so frankly: the tape is dedicated not only to his work, but also to his personal life.

2. "Valentino: The Last Emperor" / Valentino: The Last Emperor

2008, USA, director Matt Tiernauer
Cast: Valentino, Giancarlo Jametti, Giorgio Armani, Matthew Broderick, Joan Collins, Tom Ford, Anne Hathaway, Karl Lagerfeld, El Macpherson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Uma Thurman, Donatella Versace, Claudia Schiffer and others.

One listing of the stars of the fashion world and celebrities in general, who took part in the filming of this film, will take half a page. His main character is Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, known around the world as Valentino. The American journalist Matt Tiernauer, who shot the tape, did not stop at the details of the work process of the great fashion master. The eminent clients of the “emperor”, and models representing his collections, and Valentino's friends, in particular, Armani and Lagerfeld, got into the frame.

Work on the film went on for two years, 250 hours of material were shot. According to Valentino himself, the process was not easy for him, but it was worth it. “When I work, I completely withdrawn to myself. I hardly get in touch, and, I must admit, all these wires, lamps and the very realization that the process is being shot on cameras, I was very annoyed. But I am pleased with the result,” he said about the couturier’s tape.

3. "Sketches about clothes and cities" / Aufzeichnungen zu Kleidern und Städten

1989, Germany (Germany), France, director Wim Wenders
Cast: Youji Yamamoto, Wim Wenders, etc.

This film is about Yoji Yamamoto - a designer-innovator, an experimenter who knows how to surprise - as innovative and amazing as his main character himself. Wim Wenders shot a documentary about a Japanese couturier, not like an ordinary biopic, but a cinematic essay, imbued with the Yamamoto fashion spirit.

The work process of Yamamoto in his workshop in Tokyo, the birth of his extraordinary models, simple and complex at the same time, the designer’s arguments about fashion and life, were compiled by Wenders into a meditation film, which in itself turned out to be a work of fashion art.

4. "Yves Saint Laurent: His life and his time" / Yves Saint Laurent: Le temps retrouvé

2002, France, director David Tebul
Cast: Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Berger, Letizia Casta, Karl Bruni, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Gaultier, etc.

The film tells about the life, formation and work of the great fashion artist Yves Saint Laurent. First of all, this is a first-person story: Saint Laurent recalls the most significant moments of his biography, starting from childhood, and discusses everything in the world. Also, memories are shared by the designer’s close ones: relatives, colleagues and his long-term companion and friend Pierre Berger.

The couturier himself, observing paintings from his distant past, comments with a smile: “Look how happy I was then. How young I was ...”

5. "Secrets of Lagerfeld" / Lagerfeld. Confidential

2007, France, director Rudolf Marconi
Cast: Karl Lagerfeld, Nicole Kidman, Brad Kroenig, Princess Karolina Monakskaya, etc.

For the first time in his long career, the legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld agreed to reveal the secrets of life on the other side of the catwalk. Three years of work, more than three hundred hours of continuous filming - director Rudolf Marconi immerses the viewer in the atmosphere in which Lagerfeld's masterpieces are created, and reveals the intriguing secrets of one of the most mysterious heroes of world fashion.

"Beautifully shot! This is not just a trivial film, but a story about a man and his work. In fact, I look like a man who never works. I like it!" - the master himself comments on the tape.

6. "Christian Dior - The Legend Man" / The man behind the myth

2005, France, Philippe Lanfranche
Cast: Pierre Cardin, John Galliano, Francois Lesage, Jean-Louis Scherrer and others.

Christian Dior is a truly great figure in the history of fashion, and many films are devoted to him, including documentaries. Let's talk about two of them. The film "Christian Dior - The Legend Man" is based on memories, primarily the original texts of Dior himself and his director and associate Susan Lühling. Pierre Cardin, John Galliano, Francois Lesage, Jean-Louis Scherrer and other figures of the fashion industry also talk about Dior.

So, you can hear about the master directly from the lips of those who had the luck of communicating with him, as well as see a detailed analysis of one of the archival dresses.

7. "Monsieur Dior" / Monsieur Dior

1994, France, director Charlotte Vernezh
Cast: Christian Dior et al.

The documentary of Charlotte Vernezh draws a gloomy post-war Paris, devoid of fashion houses and beautiful clothes. Christian Dior, then a perfumer and an unknown designer, decides to bring back luxurious dresses, jackets and hats to Parisian life. What kind of reaction he encountered, Dior tells in person - almost the only interview with the maestro was included in the film.
The tape, which lasts less than an hour, shows all the main stages of the biography of a couturier, and also talks about his main models.

8. "Christian Lacroix: the motionless traveler" / Christian Lacroix: le voyageur immobile

2005, France, directors Christian Dia, Julien Grapp
Cast: Christian Lacroix, Francoise Lacroix, Dominic Serna, Olivier Sayyar, etc.

This tape is primarily about the work of Christian Lacroix, a French fashion designer who knows how to impress with luxury, unexpected color combinations and decor options. The film is described in detail about the colors that are so important for Lacroix, and the tape also contains many shots from the fashion show, including the very first demonstration of his collection that surprised the fashion world.

Couturier talks about what gives him inspiration, where he finds ideas that are embodied after on the catwalk, how he manages to emphasize female beauty and personality with his models.

9. "Tom Ford" / Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind - Tom Ford

2011, USA, director Michael Bonfiglio
Cast: Tom Ford, Annie Leibovitz, Tyler Perry, Beyoncé et al.

A documentary dedicated to one of the most successful and talented designers of our time, tells about the professional ups and downs of esthete Tom Ford. Former creative director Gucci gives a tour of the creative studio, shares personal experiences and recalls the day he left the Italian fashion house. “I remember the day I left Gucci. My last day. I lay down on the bed, drew the curtains and fell asleep. In the morning I opened a diary, which was always filled with meeting schedules in London, Paris, Milan. Now there was nothing in it. “Who am I and what should I do now?” I thought.
Among the celebrities who took part in this peculiar reality show are James Cameron, Annie Leibovitz and Tyler Perry. Michael Bonfiglio, who followed the designer everywhere, took the role of director of the film about Tom in order to capture the brightest moments of his work.

10. "Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton" / Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton

2007, France, director Loic Prizhan
Cast: Marc Jacobs, Bernard Arnault, Diane Kruger, Winona Ryder, Wes Anderson, Dita Von Teese, etc.

The film tells about the period in the work of Marc Jacobs, when he was the art director of the house Louis Vuitton.In 1998, Mark showed the first collection, and also launched a line of shoes, accessories and jewelry. The director of the film, Loic Prijan, presents the protocol shooting of the fashion show in a funny and ironic way, in the style of the designer himself.