This past weekend, I spent several hours watching some interesting fashion documentaries. With the release of McQueen, the documentary about the legendary fashion designer Alexander McQueen, I got to thinking about the other fashion documentaries I watched, like The September Issue, Dior and I, and Four Seasons With Dior.
A few years ago, I flipped on the TV and began watching a documentary on “supermodels.” It didn’t feature Gisele Bundchen or Miranda Kerr or Cindy Crawford, but it featured such timeless icons as Cheryl Tiegs, Beverly Johnson, and Paulina Porizkova, and many other supermodels of their time.
About Face: The Supermodels, Then and Now is “an uncensored look at many of the biggest names in modeling.” Directed by portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, this film features candid interviews as each woman shares their experiences and their philosophies on life in the fashion industry. There is beautiful archival footage included, as well as interviews with designer Calvin Klein and agency head Eileen Ford.
Some of the women admit to having either plastic surgery or Botox, while others question why someone would want to have plastic surgery or Botox.
“When asked her view of cosmetic surgery, Carmen Dell’Orefice replies, ‘”That’s a very polite way of asking me, I’m sure, ‘Have you had a facelift?’ Well, if you had the ceiling falling down in your living room, would you not go and have a repair?” Model and actress Isabella Rossellini offers a different perspective, wondering, “Is this the new foot binding? Is this a new way to be misogynist? Is this a new way to tell women that you are ugly?”” (quote taken from About Face page on HBO website)
They speak openly about drugs, sex, wild parties, and how and why they got into modeling. Some of them talk about how they overcame their shyness by doing cocaine. They talked about partying with Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali, and how AIDS affected the modeling industry.
The models featured in the documentary include Christie Brinkley, Jerry Hall, Carol Alt, China Machado, Beverly Johnson, Kim Alexis, Esme, Nancy Donahue, Christy Turlington Burns, Isabella Rossellini, Carmen Dell’Orefice, Marisa Berenson, Karen Bjornson, Pat Cleveland, Bethann Hardison, and Lisa Taylor.
About Face on HBO
“When you get older, you build something else in your core, which goes beyond the physical, because it has to,” says Marisa Berenson. As Jerry Hall puts it, “Of course it’s no fun getting old and sick and dying. We all know that’s coming and it’s a bore,” she says. “Why shouldn’t we be allowed to age? When I turned 50, I felt a sense of achievement.” {Quote from HBO website}
Shot in color, as well as in black and white, this documentary is a great peek into the lives of the supermodels from back in the day. They have all aged gracefully and are still looked at as supermodels. Some of them are still modeling today and many of them have gone on to pursue other careers both in and out of the fashion and modeling industry.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (the director) has done several films, including Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart, which won a Grammy Award and Thinking XXX. Also, his portraiture is displayed in museums around the world.
If you like fashion, enjoy documentaries, or appreciate beautiful women who exude wonderful self-esteem without being arrogant about being a supermodel, then you would enjoy watching About Face.
One other fashion documentary I can’t wait to watch is McQueen, about the life of legendary fashion designer Alexander McQueen. I did enjoy watching McQueen of Scots, which looked at “his life and how his Scottish/Skye connections influenced his work. Highland Rape and Widows of Culloden, two of McQueen’s most controversial autumn/winter collections were influenced by the characters and events of the Jacobite rising in 1746.”
And if you liked The September Issue, then you’d like In Vogue: The Editor’s Eye. “Celebrate the 120th anniversary of ‘Vogue’ with this profile of fashion’s most influential magazine. Told through the eyes of several of its most iconic editors, the film explores the cultural impact of ‘Vogue’ over a century of changing trends.” I also liked, and recommend {if you like stories about historical fashion moments}, Battle at Versailles, which “follows an event in 1973 at Versailles that pitted France’s best designers against the best America had to offer. It was the first time the fashion world’s gaze was fixated on American design.” {Source: IMDb}
Created by Eleanor Lambert and Versailles curator Gerald Van der Kemp, the show pitted French designers (Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro, Christian Dior, and Hubert de Givenchy) against American designers (Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows, Halston, Bill Blass, and Anne Klein, who brought along her assistant, Donna Karan).
Fashion documentaries on my watch list
Iris
Dries
Inside Dior
Mademoiselle C
Lagerfeld Confidential
Bill Cunningham New York
Valentino: The Last Emperor
Alexa Chung: The Future of Fashion
Jeremy Scott: The People’s Designer
The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel
Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue
What are some of your favorite fashion documentaries?
Yours Truly,
Vanessa
{Images borrowed from IMDb, Telegraph UK, Steal the Look, and Harper’s Bazaar}
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