Before you check out „The Devil wears Prada” again, you better gaze carefully into the abyss of the hilarious world of fashion addicts, megalomaniac designers and the catfight behind the catwalk:
Iris
Iris Apfel ist the first person alive that was ever awarded with an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art even as she isn’t a fashion designer but a style icon – and currently she’s 98 years old and still alive and kicking. She dedicated her whole life becoming famous for her style and this ambitious plan totally worked out. There’s an Iris Apfel Barbie Doll, she runs her own cosmetics business and in 2015 a documentary about her life hit the screens.
Of course the documentary about Iris Apfel is simply called Iris and it’s one of the most uplifting and inspiring documentaries ever made as it truly proves that style isn’t about age but attitude. Apfel has defined that aging is not just a destination but an art, as John Demsey, President of the Estée Lauder Company, puts it.
Iris is available as Video-on-Demand at iTunes
Phantom Thread
Phantom Thread focusses on the fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock who takes a young waitress as his muse. Seems like a dream come true as his muse becomes his lover as well – but the obsessive and controlling personality of Woodcock might be an obstacle too big to overcome: Woodwock won’t tolerate even the slightest deviations from his daily routines he perfected himself for decades. Even a romantic dinner will start a fight but his muse retaliates with some quite unusual weapons of choice.
The haute couture world of London in the 1950s looks gorgeous as fuck in Phantom Thread and one of the first things the director Paul Thomas Anderson said on set was: “This cannot look like The Crown”. And while The Crown looks amazing as well, its beautifully polished look is a deception: The 50s didn’t’ look that super clean and crystal clear. That’s why every frame in Phantom Thread is filled with haze to create an absolutely unique and utterly fascinating look while discussing whether true art can only be created by extraordinary characters and whether we all have to endure their spleens, neuroses and ostentation.
Phantom Thread is available as Video-on-Demand at Amazon, Sky, Google Play and iTunes.
Personal Shopper
With her captivating performance in Personal Shopper, Kristen Stewart shattered all prejudices that she can’t act and introduced herself to the world of serious actresses after Twilight. Personal Shopper is a very unique, strange and unsettling mixture of character study and ghost story: Stewart stars as the haunted assistant of a famous fashion designer and supermodel, but never reveals her secret to her employer – Stewart is able to communicate with the dead. What sounds like a trashy plotline unravels in such bizarre beauty and subtle comments on the occasionally superficiality of the fashion industry, while the movie will unsettle you more and more. It will never surrender to genre conventions and refuses easy conclusions by telling a complex story about grief, guilt and forgiveness – or is it just a dream within a dream within a dream?
Personal Shopper is available as Video-on-Demand at Amazon, Google Play and iTunes.
Prêt-à-Porter
(Björk and Jean-Paul Gaultier)
The fashion industry takes itself way too serious to make fun of – so let’s make fun of it! With its high class cast and razorsharp dialogues Prêt-à-Porter is one hell of a satire and features the who is who of the fashion world: Jean-Paul Gaultier, Paolo Bulgari, Sonia Rykiel, Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell or Björk, they all perform as themselves in the convoluted plot around the Paris Fashion Week as the Fashion Council head chokes to death on a sandwich, and of course almost everybody got a motive to kill him.
The movie bombed in 1994 but now is the right time to rediscover it again as the gaze of nostalgia makes the weird mixture of satire and slapstick even more satisfying and cringey.
Prêt-à-Porter is available as Video-on-Demand at Amazon, Google Play and maxdome and part of the Joyn PLUS+-flatrate.
Funny Face
Funny Face hit the screens in 1957, long before fashion lost its innocence and is one hilarious and colorful musical ride which will make you smile: Maggie Prescott, a fashion magazine publisher is looing for the next big fashion trend. The new look should be both intellectual and beautiful – and what could be more suitable than pink? Sounds cheesy? Well, it is! But with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire in the leading roles you will soon understand why movies like Funny Face had such an influence on modern day musicals like La La Land.
Funny Face is available as Video-on-Demand at Amazon, Microsoft and Sony.
