As the end of the year approaches, the prospect of lazy days at home beckons, marking the perfect time to work through your watch list without the distractions of the quotidian. The fashion documentaries chosen here – selected by the Wallpaper* style team – provide hours of transporting viewing for both diehard fashion fans who have seen it all (a rare collaboration between Wim Wenders and Yohji Yamamoto; a Charles Atlas-directed doc on Leigh Bowery; a little-known Martin Scorsese short on Giorgio Armani), and the more fashion-curious (docuseries Kingdom of Dreams is a good place to start your understanding contemporary fashion, as are wide-ranging portraits of Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood).
Here, to see you through the holidays, our pick of 22 fashion documentaries that will enlighten and inspire you well into 2025, alongside providing a comprehensive style education.
Fashion documentaries: the Wallpaper* guide
Dior and I (2015)
Frédéric Tcheng’s poetic 2015 film tells the story of Raf Simons’ first haute couture collection for Dior, documenting an eight-week period after the Belgian designer – who is now co-creative director of Prada – moved from Jil Sander to the storied Parisian maison. Charting not only Simons’ quest for creative revolution at the house, defined by meticulous refinement and sleek modernity, it also gives an insight into the virtuosic craft of the Dior haute couture atelier (Alaïa creative Pieter Mulier, who was then Simons’ right-hand man, is also a memorable guest star). Culminating with the show, which was memorably backdropped by thousands of fresh flowers, be prepared for an emotional denouement.
Dries (2017)
This contemplative film on Dries Van Noten from Reiner Holzemer provides a portrait of the Belgian design great at work over the course of a year. The first time that Van Noten allowed himself to be documented on film, it shows a designer working with intuition and emotion, fixated with colour, print and opulent fabrications – much of which draws inspiration from his beloved personal garden, which also features in the film. A re-watch now has particular resonance: not only has Van Noten exited his eponymous label this year, but his replacement, Julian Klausner – a longtime member of the design team – has been announced.
Martin Margiela: In His Own Words (2019)
One of fashion’s most intriguing figures, Martin Margiela spent his career concealed from view, preferring his clothing to do the talking and communicating only via fax releases distributed from the collective ‘Maison’. In 2019, ardent fans of the Belgian designer's work – defined by a subversion of archetypal garments through deconstruction and the repurposing of everyday objects – were treated to this insightful documentary narrated by the designer in a rare interview. Charting his life in fashion – from cutting up clothes for his Barbie doll to working with Jean Paul Gaultier and later establishing his eponymous Maison – it provides a teasing insight into one of fashion’s true geniuses (though true to form, there's still plenty left unsaid).
Valentino: The Last Emperor (2009)
The result of over 250 hours of footage in which filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer was granted rare access to the Roman couturier Valentino Garavani, Valentino: The Last Emperor captures an already bygone era of fashion pomp and ceremony (Garavani has since exited his eponymous house). The charismatic and occasionally tempestuous designer – who here is preparing for a retrospective of his then-45-year career – makes for a captivating protagonist, as does his partner in life and work, Giancarlo Giammetti. We see their relationship unfold across various cities, from Paris to Rome, accompanied by a phalanx of staff, pug dogs, and private jets. Above all, though, it captures Garavani’s steadfast pursuit of beauty – the defining characteristic of the now-retired designer’s career.
Bill Cunningham: New York (2010)
‘We all get dressed for Bill,’ says Anna Wintour in this charming 2010 documentary which captures the photographer Bill Cunningham – who shot street and society style for the New York Times for over 50 years – at work, darting across New York on his bicycle (his favoured mode of transport) and being fastidious about the layouts of his pages (he was a famous perfectionist, as the documentary shows). Filmed when he was 80 years old (Cunningham died later in 2016) there is something nostalgic in watching a time before the full-scale proliferation of social media, when singular photographers like Cunningham were rare portals for people across America to see how the fashion world dressed.
Unzipped (1995)
‘Unhooked, undressed, unhinged,’ Unzipped captures the run-up to Isaac Mizrahi’s Fall 1994 runway show, starring the supermodels du jour – among them Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss. Arguably setting the blueprint for the behind-the-scenes fashion doc, it is energised by the smart-talking Mizrahi and his exchanges with the equally sharp supers, who have to be convinced to let the runway show’s audience see them change looks through a transparent scrim as the show goes on. (‘See us in bras and underwear?’ exclaims Yasmeen Ghauri). The resulting film is at times chaotic, funny, and brimming with affection for its subjects, and, like the best documentaries, filled with lines that even the best screenwriter couldn’t have dreamt up, such as Evangelista’s rant about being asked to wear flat shoes.
Catwalk (1995)
Another document of the supermodel moment – and indeed the glamourous golden era of runway fashion – is Robert Leacock’s Catwalk, which was also released in 1995 and follows American model Christy Turlington as she goes about a Spring fashion week in Milan, New York and Paris. Scored by Malcolm McClaren, it is a slightly sanitised version of the hedonistic era, though nonetheless provides a seductive glimpse into what it was like to walk for some of the most influential runway shows, and designers, of all time. Expect cameos from Turlington’s fellow supers, alongside Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano, who all appear in the film.
Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989)
This esoteric film, directed by seminal German filmmaker Wim Wenders, is as much art film as it is documentary (indeed, it was originally commissioned by Paris’ Pompidou Centre). Centring on a series of conversations between Wenders and Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto – who strike a friendship despite the former’s apparent disdain for fashion – the interview leads to the filmmaker’s more wide-ranging musings on clothing, place and creativity. Interspersed with moody shots of Paris and Tokyo, the poetic film captures illuminating moments between the pair, who have each defined their respective fields.
Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (2007)
With Marc Jacobs having something of a revival (so much so, he was recently guest editor of American Vogue), it is interesting to look back to what was the designer’s original halcyon days: the mid-2000s when he was creative director of Louis Vuitton’s womenswear line, presenting fantastical shows with the blockbuster sets to match (a moving train, a merry-go-round, sets of elevators). This rare French TV movie – which you can watch below on YouTube – sees the irrepressible designer captured by French director Loïc Prigent in Paris, Japan and New York as he works on his S/S 2007 collection. Expect cameos from collaborators Yayoi Kusama and Sofia Coppola, among other cultural luminaries, as well as some typically outré get-ups – including Jacobs himself as a puff-chested grey pigeon for Halloween.
Made in Milan (1990)
This short film, released in 1990, unites two heavyweights from fashion and film respectively: legendary Italian designer Giorgio Armani and Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese. Marking the latter’s first documentary since 1978, it follows Mr Armani as he prepares a collection, backdropped by a particularly elegant-looking Milan, where the designer has long lived and worked. Though short, the rare documentary nonetheless gives an insight into Mr Armani’s creative fixations and design philosophy, all the way back to his childhood, whereby he remembers his mother making him and his siblings clothing by hand. ‘We were the envy of all our classmates,’ he reminisces. ‘We looked rich but we were poor.’
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011)
A collaboration between Lisa Immordino Vreeland (the subject’s granddaughter-in-law), Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel is a celebration of the eccentric Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar fashion editor and her voracious love of fashion, which resulted in distinctly modern and always-transporting editorials (hence the documentary’s name). A starry line-up of talking heads narrates the moving documentary, from Calvin Klein to Diane Von Furstenberg, while flashbacks to Andy Warhol’s Factory and Studio 54 will leave you nostalgic for the liberated glamour of her era. ‘I wasn’t a fashion editor,’ she says, ‘I was the only fashion editor’.
High & Low: John Galliano (2024)
A more recent addition to the fashion documentary canon is High & Low: John Galliano, which explores the turbulent career of John Galliano, from the soaring highs of his tenures at Givenchy and Dior, to his fall into alcoholism and drug addition, and subsequent cancellation after an anti-Semitic outburst at a Paris bar. ‘At the beginning, John said, “I don't want it to have a dark ending,”’ director Kevin Macdonald recounted to Wallpaper* about working with Galliano on the project earlier this year. ‘He said, “There has to be some light at the end of it because my life has come back.”’ Indeed, after much soul-searching and getting sober, Galliano would get his happy ending at Maison Margiela, enjoying a critically acclaimed ten-year tenure (he exited the house earlier this month).
McQueen (2018)
McQueen serves as something of a companion piece to ‘High & Low’, depicting another prodigious British designer who created some of contemporary fashion’s most enduring runway moments against the backdrop of a turbulent life (both also came from humble beginnings; Galliano’s father was a plumber in Streatham, south London, McQueen’s a taxi driver in Stratford in the east). Directed by Ian Bonhôte, the film is full of intimate archival footage of the designer, alongside his runway shows, which capture the energetic spirit of a changing London in the 1990s. A compulsive watch all the way to its tragic end, McQueen nonetheless eschews the tabloid and sensational for a deep-rooted exploration of balancing generational talent with the demands of fame.
Kingdom of Dreams (2022)
McQueen and Galliano both also serve as protagonists in Kingdom of Dreams, a 2022 Sky documentary series based on Dana Thomas’ 2007 book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster. Charting the 1990s and early 2000s in fashion, the documentary explores the rise of the luxury conglomerate – notably LVMH and Kering – who battle it out on the runway with star designers and blockbuster shows. Alongside McQueen and Galliano – who both for a time were creative directors of Givenchy – Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs, best known for their stints at Gucci and Louis Vuitton, are also the subjects of the documentary, each depicted as battling the pressures of performing on a high-stakes world stage as fashion became a multi-billion-dollar industry. A line-up of industry insiders offers insight into the period that would change the way we consume fashion, though it is the reams of archival footage that remain the most compelling thing about this documentary.
The September Issue (2009)
Arguably the most well-known fashion documentary of all time, The September Issue documents the creation of the September 2007 issue of American Vogue, the year’s most important issue (as Vogue editor Candy Pratts-Price memorably declares ‘September is the January of fashion’). It is the steely Anna Wintour who stands at the film’s centre, delivering spiky missives to her staff: ‘It’s Vogue, please let’s lift it,’ she says to Edward Enninful, years before his 2017 appointment as editor-in-chief of British Vogue. Though Grace Coddington, the Welsh creative director-at-large who spars with Wintour throughout the film, is equally as intriguing. As is the late, great André Leon Talley: ‘It’s a famine of beauty, honey,’ he exclaims in one of the film’s most quoted lines.
Boss Woman (2000)
A far less glossy depiction of Wintour at work comes from this obscure – but perhaps more revealing – documentary short from the BBC, which followed her as she created the February 2000 issue of American Vogue. Available to watch now only on YouTube, it captures Wintour a little before she became a household name (a less fearsome devil in Prada, she is seen as a working woman set on modernising a once-stuffy title). Trailing Wintour from the magazine’s Times Square offices to couture week in Paris, the British journalist Plum Sykes is the film’s other star – a mile-a-minute talker who offers Boss Woman’s most amusing asides.
Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards (2017)
This intriguingly titled documentary explores the life and legacy of Spanish shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, from a childhood spent on the Canary Islands (it was there he would make ‘shoes’ for the native lizard population from shiny sweet wrappers), to his rise to fame in Swinging 1960s London (helped by Diana Vreeland who memorably told him to only focus on shoes), and his current renown as arguably fashion’s best-known shoemaker. Blahnik, who appears in the film, is a documentarian’s dream subject: sanguine, eccentric and a raconteur, he charms Michael Roberts’ camera every time he’s on film. Though despite a convivial facade, like all creative greats, he is also steadfast in his ideas: ‘when I don’t like something I just give hell,’ he says.
Franca: Chaos and Creation (2016)
This 2016 documentary provides a touching portrait of late editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue Franca Sozzani, directed by her son Francesco Carrozzini the year prior to her death. Cinematically shot in a series of intimate, black and white shots, the film charts Sozzani’s revolutionary tenure at the magazine, which saw it gain fame as the most boundary-pushing international edition of the magazine (there was ‘The Black Issue’ which only featured models of colour, alongside provocative editorials inspired by plastic surgery and celebrity culture). ‘After my father died, I realised I didn’t ask him questions,’ says Carrozzini. ‘So I grabbed my camera, took my mother to Central Park and started interviewing her. There was no way back. I had to tell her story.’
The Legend of Leigh Bowery (2002)
An enduring subcultural icon and legend of London’s queer scene, Leigh Bowery remains best known for his outré, transformative outfits, which he made and designed himself. Much-referenced by contemporary designers – Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens and Gareth Pugh have all cited Bowery as inspiration for collections – his incandescent spirit is captured in this documentary by Charles Atlas, featuring contributions from Michael Clark, Cerith Wyn Evans, Bella Freud, Boy George, Damien Hirst and Sue Tilley, among others. The shape-shifting Bowery, who died on New Year’s Eve in 1994 after a battle with AIDS, is remembered here in the extraordinary collage of archival footage, which depicts a quest for self-definition with a gleeful disregard for decorum.
L’Amour Fou (2011)
This 2011 documentary explores the life of Yves Saint Laurent, France’s best-known couturier alongside Christian Dior, through a series of conversations with Pierre Bergé, the designer’s business partner and longtime lover. Promising a glimpse into the private world of the couple (Pierre Thoretton's camera lurks in Bergé’s home among their shared belongings), the documentary centres around an auction of their art collection held after Yves’ death. The film is both frank and poetic: Bergé describes the designer’s battles with depression throughout his lifetime, though L’Amour Fou is also a testament to his enduring elegance and innate creativity, a success against the odds. ‘He was a man who understood his times better than anybody,’ says Bergé. ‘Yves had genius’.
Girl Model (2011)
Far from an easy watch, Ashley Sabin and David Redmon’s stark 2011 film Girl Model tells the story of a 13-year-old model recruited from Siberia by an American agent. Depicting line-ups of young models endlessly measured and dissected by international model agents, it is a dark indictment of the industry’s desire for new faces. Thankfully, and partly down to the film’s success at festivals like TIFF and the Rome Film Festival, this kind of scouting is largely a thing of the past, with far stricter rules about models’ ages and weights at major fashion weeks. Though it is a reminder that, beyond fashion’s glittering facade, there can still lurk something more insidious.
Westwood: Punk. Icon. Activist (2018)
‘I think you’ll have to just let me talk and then get it over with,’ says Vivienne Westwood at the beginning of this 2018 documentary which, despite her involvement, is not quite the deep-rooted exploration of the revolutionary designer and her influence she deserves. That said, there is still plenty to enjoy about this documentary, not least Westwood herself, who is delightfully gruff when it comes to discussing fashion (‘I don’t know if I want to show any of this shit,’ she says while leafing through a rail of samples), coming alive instead when discussing her many years of activism. Use it as a starting point to explore some of the other interviews with the designer on YouTube – from an appearance on Newsnight with Jeremy Clarkson in 1991 to calling Theresa May ’wrong-headed’ on Good Morning Britain – which show her at her unspoken best.
