21 Documentaries For Fashion Creatives

The Fashion Industry has often been described as shallow and frivolous by those who are looking from the outside, but the people in these documentaries will let you take a peek into what is really like to live their lives, walk their paths and have their fears and their dreams. 

On The Industry

Future Of Fashion: It began with Alexa Chung approaching Vogue over coffee, with the desire to tell the truth about fashion as she found it. The plan was to show this world from the inside out, to dispel the myths of a frivolous unprofitable industry and introduce young people to exactly what being in fashion means today and what opportunities there are for everyone.

The True Cost: The True Cost is a documentary film exploring the impact of fashion on people and the planet.

On Designers

L’Amour Fou: A documentary on the relationship between fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent and his lover, Pierre Berge. 

Ultrasuede - In Search of Halston: No one represented the 70 s quite like legendary designer Halston and, in his new documentary, Ultrasuede - In Search of Halston filmmaker Whitney Sudler -Smith takes us on a fabulous fun-and-fact filled journey through that man s life and times.

Dior and I: Dior and I brings the viewer inside the storied world of the Christian Dior fashion house with a privileged, behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Raf Simons’ first haute couture.

Valentino: The Last Emperor: A look at the life of legendary fashion designer Valentino.

Paul Smith: Gentleman Designer: An intimate and provoking portrait of “Lord Paul Smith”, quirky designer and formidable businessman, through exclusive access to a poet of British fashion.

On Creatives

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.

Helmut Newton: Frames from the Edge: A camera crew follows Helmut Newton, the fashion and ad photographer whose images of tall, blond, big-breasted women are part of the iconography of twentieth-century erotic fantasy. 

Bill Cunningham New York: A profile of the noted and extraordinarily cheerful veteran New York City fashion photographer.

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens: This film traces the artistic self-realization of Annie Leibovitz, from childhood through the death of her beloved friend, Susan Sontag, and includes snippets of Leibovitz’s last visual memories of Sontag.

Vidal Sassoon: The Movie: Vidal Sassoon is more than just a hairdresser-he’s a rock star, an artist, a craftsman who “changed the world with a pair of scissors.”

The Powder and The Glory: it tells the story of two of the first highly successful women entrepreneurs in America, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein.

On Magazines

Diana Vreeland - The Eye Has to Travel: A look at the life and work of the influential fashion editor of Harpers Bazaar, Diana Vreeland.

The September Issue: A documentary chronicling Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour’s preparations for the 2007 fall-fashion issue.

Mademoiselle C: A documentary focused on former Vogue Paris editor-in-chief and fashion stylist Carine Roitfeld as she moves to New York to launch her own magazine.

On Style

Iris: A documentary about fashion icon Iris Apfel from legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles.

Advanced Style: Advanced Style examines the lives of seven unique New Yorkers whose eclectic personal style and vital spirit have guided their approach to aging.

On Shops

Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s: A documentary on the Manhattan department store with interviews from an array of fashion designers, style icons, and celebrities.

Secrets of Selfridges: The story of the innovative retailer, Harry Gordon Selfridge, and the landmark department store he founded.

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