Fashion documentaries offer a unique opportunity to educate the industry from within. They will show how collections are popularized, what changes history, how the vision of designers is formed and what price lies behind every success. Behind the scenes there are always sleepless nights, risky decisions and people who are impossible to shy away from. This is cinema, where fashion is theatre, business and special drama at the same time.
Still from the film “Dior and I”, 2014
Today's fashion is dominated by the powerful pantheon of documentary. For example, the film McQueen captured the life of Alexander McQueen as the tragedy of a genius, Dior and I showed Raf Simons in his important debut in his career, The True Cost made it difficult to see the price of the item not in dollars, but in human shares and environmental heritage. The skin stitch acts as both a historical document and a cultural commentary.
At the 2025 Venice Film Festival, the premiere of Marc by Sofia, the first documentary work of Sofia Coppoli, dedicated to Marc Jacobs, premiered. The page presents a new perspective on the atmosphere of the 1990s, New York at that time and the position of a designer who constantly worked on the borders of fashion and theater. During the premiere, we collected a large number of documentaries, and the statements about those other important articles that have gone down in history have become cult.
Marc by Sofia, 2025
Sofia Coppoli's film Marc by Sofia shows Marc Jacobs through archival footage and working on a new collection. For twelve years, Coppola has been preparing for the spring-summer 2024 show, dedicated to the designer’s 40th career.
Let's look at Jacobs in detail: he carefully selects fabrics, works with scenography, quilts the skin – from makeup and brushes to accessories to complete the looks. For anyone, a show is a theater, “Semikhvilinna Vistava”, every detail is important. The film contains materials from different stages of his career: the diploma collection at Parsons, the legendary grunge line for Perry Ellis (1992), which changed American fashion, the rocks of Louis Vuitton and the Takashi Murakami. Coppola constructs the film as a cinematic moodboard, from which Jacobs's world is formed – his tone, aesthetics and way of creating.
High & Low – John Galliano, 2023
The documentary film “John Galliano. The Rise and Fall” (High & Low – John Galliano) directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald shows one of the most famous designers through the complexities of his career.
The line follows Galliano's path from his childhood in Gibraltar and his beginnings at Central Saint Martins to his work at Givenchy and Dior, where his shows became pure theater with dramatic costumes and spectacular final exits. The film is honestly about the scandal of 2010 rock, since the video with anti-Semitic accusations punished Galliano's career at Dior.
In 2014, wines turned into fashion, starting work at Maison Margiela, and this attempt at innovation also became part of history. This film combines both triumph and crisis, creating a portrait of a person who changed fashion trends, only to suddenly become deprived of her weaknesses.
Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, 2020
The documentary “Martin Margiela: In His Own Words” by Rainer Holzmer reveals to the world one of today's most enigmatic designers. The camera doesn’t show Margieli’s exposure—he doesn’t even show his hand, where archives are burning through, sketches are being drawn, speeches of childhood are being stuck out. This decision reflects his principle: in life, never appearing in public, preserving anonymity. Such secrecy functions as a metaphor: his creativity has always spoken instead of himself.
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The film tells the story of radical shows held in abandoned factories and just on the streets of Paris, recalling the iconic Tabi and cloth with photo prints that changed fashion statements. Archival footage is combined with the voice of Margieli himself – calm, precise, but with a distance, which was always protected. This is a story about how you can go out of fashion at the peak of fame and lose it again.
Westwood: Punk. Icon. Activist, 2018
The film “Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist” directed by Lorne Tucker became the first full-length cinematic investigation of the genius of Vince Westwood. The page shows her as a designer who changed British fashion, as a businesswoman who became a powerful brand, and as an activist who turned her collections into manifestos against the injustice of the system.
The film has everything that shaped its decline: the punk aesthetic of the 1970s, created simultaneously by Malcolm McLaren; collections that have created Kate Moss' images for an entire generation; anti-climate change campaigns that conveyed their principled and grassroots position. Westwood stands as a woman who lost her anarchic and unquenched heritage when she became part of the high-fashion establishment. The film demonstrates rare archival materials and daily interviews, which at the same time create a complex portrait of a person who influenced not only the fashion industry, but also politics, culture and family the ruins of their time.
McQueen, 2018
The documentary film “Alexander McQueen” by John Bonot and Peter Ettedg tells the story of Alexander McQueen, a designer whose collections have become some of the most endearing and most theatrical in the world. current fashion.
The line follows his path from childhood in similar London to his beginnings at Central Saint Martins to work at Givenchy and the creation of a powerful brand. Archival materials create the atmosphere of your cult shows: models in gas masks, perched on intangible platforms, trying out gravity, the 1999 rock finale, when a robot sawed out the farb on a white cloth just in the middle of the podium. In these moments you can see how McQueen embraced beauty and cruelty, classicism and provocation. And yet his balancing act on radical positions has made him one of the most prolific designers of his generation. The film ends the 2010 story with rock, as McQueen puts his hands on himself, and records his downfall as a designer who created fashion with my emotions, fears and obsessions.
Dries, 2017
The documentary “Dries Van Noten” by Rainer Holzmer brings to light Dries van Noten, one of the underprivileged designers who has always been on the fringes of the fashion industry. The camera accompanies him as he stretches out to the rock: at the studio, where collections are being made public; in a budinka filled with mysticism; in the gardens that grow with this same respect and powerful ideas.
The film shows the designer's method in detail: mood boards, work with fabrics, combination of colors and prints, which have become recognizable in the wider world. The gardens stand not only as a private space, but as a metaphor for my design – more complete, thoughtful growth, rooted in culture and nature. This film does not sensationalize or dramatize. This is a story about a designer who brought a unique light against a chaotic system: streamlined, precise and extremely special.
Dior and I, 2014
The film “Dior and I” (Dior and I) by Frederic Cheng will be postponed until 2012, if Raf Simons leaves Christian Dior and abandons the task of creating his first couture collection for the house of all ages.
The page shows how a designer with a reputation as a dedicated minimalist enters the world of high fashion and works with atelier masters known as petites mains – people who have been preserving and passing on techniques for decades y traditions. The camera records the entire process: from the first sketches and fittings to the final show in the Parisian palace, the walls of which are covered with thousands of living flowers. “Dior and I” shows that haute couture is alive in the dialogue between now and the past, and that in a short time you can create a collection that becomes part of history.
Valentino: The Last Emperor, 2008
The documentary film “Valentino: The Last Emperor” by Mette Turnauer was famous for the length of two fates and became evidence of the final stage of Valentino Garavani’s career. The plot follows the designer's work and his wasted life, showing also Giancarlo Giammetti's constant partner – a man, without whom this story would not be the same.
The stitch captures the atmosphere of the remaining shows, while still preserving the richness of classic couture. Nowadays, it reveals the secrets: rituals of preparation, master discipline, the complex dynamics of a creative tandem. These details reveal not only the image of a couture, but of a person who gave up her profession in the same way as she did all her life – with joy and relish.
