10 Films for Fashion Lovers

Hey guys!

As I am very much interested in fashion, trends, and icons in the fashion industry, I thought, I would give you a list of my top 10 films for fashion lovers. Some are presenting a huge fashion brand in a behind-the-scenes style, some are feature film-style biographies, some deal with fashion editors and magazines. I think, there is something for everybody and if you are into fashion and how the fashion industry works, check them out and tell me your thoughts in the comments!

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Coco before Chanel

Starting with my favourite of the bunch: Coco before Chanel is a feature film starring Audrey Tautou as Gabrielle Chanel. It begins with her difficult childhood and her and her sister's life in a convent until the age of 18 and continues with her journey until her great success as a trend setter, hat maker, and ultimately with her own fashion boutique in Paris. The personal story and insight into her emotional life and the strokes of fait which she had to go through from a young age make the person Coco Chanel more 'accessible' in a way. Highly recommend!
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Yves Saint Laurent

Same style, different designer. This feature film focuses on the start of young Yves Saint Laurent's career, from living in Algeria to getting to know his life and business partner Pierre Bergé, his muses and addictions to his death having created the major fashion brand YSL. Again, if you like to have an insight in one of the biggest fashion brand's founders, look no further!

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The September Issue

A very interesting behind the scenes-style film dealing with the production of (US) Vogue's September issue of 2007. September is kind of equivalent to January in the world of the fashion so it's Vogue's most extensive issue of the year and the 2007 one the most extensive to date (I think, definitely up to 2007!). The viewer follows Anna Wintour and others of Vogue's employees like Grace Coddington around weeks before the publication. From pitching ideas to choosing outfits for shoots to shooting editorials and the cover to visiting fashion weeks and designer's studios even before the shows to creating the layout of the magazine, there are so much interesting things to see. Through the film, I first heard of Grace Coddington, former model and from 1988 till 2016 creative director at Vogue, whose memoir is now on my reading wishlist. Thumbs up for this one!
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Diana Vreeland - The Eye Has to Travel

I don't know about you but I actually hadn't heard of Diana Vreeland before I read that this is a film for fashion fanatics. Again, it's a biography but this time in a documentary style with sections where the famous fashion editor (former editor-in-chief of Vogue US) appears in person as well as important people from the industry and her friends and comment on her personally and her work and achievements in the fashion world. I found it very interesting to see because she came from a position as a wife who didn't work to such a big influencer and important person in the industry. She also was a major emancipated and hard-working woman who paved the way and is an idol for many women who joined the industry after her.

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House of Versace

Another representative of a feature film showing the dramatic life of the Versace family with envy, jealousy and addiction problems, murder and financial problems but also their way of mastering all of these difficult times as a family and owner of a fashion empire. Definitely worth watching.

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Dior and I

This film shows the first season of Dior's new head designer for women's collections Raf Simons. You see how he is introduced to the employees in the Paris boutique which was purchased by Christian Dior himself, where he gets his inspiration from, how he realizes them in fashion designs, how stressful and complex the process of creating a runway collection can be if you only have 8 weeks until the presentation date, and how even fashion designers become nervous wrecks when they have to proof their quality for the whole world to see. I really liked watching this because it doesn't only show the designer's point of view but also includes the brand's dressmakers, sketchers, etc which are a huge part of the business and are indispensable for the realization of the end result.

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Christian Dior - The Man Behind the Myth

A very detailed film for true Dior fans. It tells the story of Christian Dior's life, his inspirations, his career. For some, this might be one of the rather boring films which I guess is caused by its style which is narrating and partly adds small sequences of people he worked with or which he knew who tell the audience some rather unknown or personal facts about Monsieur Dior and his work.

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Valentino: The Last Emporer

This film is presented in a kind of follow me around-style, showing the preparations for Valentino's very last self-designed collection until its presentation with lots of celebrity fans and friends from the industry like Karl Lagerfeld.

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Lagerfeld Confidential

A film that follows Karl Lagerfeld during his daily tasks and events. It gives the viewers access to behind the scenes of fashion shows, his travels and events, combined with some nostalgic backflashes to his childhood and past fashion shows for Chanel among others, and interview scenes. We can also observe the excentric designer and photographer sketching live in his rather chaotic apartment midst huge amounts of books and shoot outside and in the studio with Nicole Kidman amongst his models.
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Mademoiselle C

Behind the scenes of the creation of fashion editor Carine Roitfeld's first issue of her own fashion magazine CR Fashion Book. Although, to be honest, we probably would not become friends in real life, I found it very interesting to see where she came from career-wise and how she managed establishing her own magazine by selecting the photographer, envisioning the shots, planning the layout, etc etc and finally presenting the first issue with a big event. This lady is truly determined and inspiring and a tough business woman. She knows exactly what she wants and she gets exactly that.

Have you seen any of the above mentioned fashion films? Do you think, I'm missing on a very important one? Who are your fashion inspirations? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear!

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