A BLACK-AND-WHITE PORTRAIT OF A FASHION DESIGNER’S CHARISMATIC, CREATIVE MIND
By Kaitlyn Simpson
Last weekend, I decided to watch a new non-fiction series on the fashion industry in the 1990s called In Vogue: The 90s. While the show was fine, a documentary mentioned in the film piqued my interest much more. It was called Unzipped.
Released in 1995, Unzipped brings viewers into the designer’s mind, proving that high fashion can be entertaining even if you know very little about the esoteric world of garments.
The impact of this film is undeniable. Since its success, documentaries profiling the creative minds of famous designers have proliferated. Notable highlights include: Jeremey Scott: The People’s Designer (2015); House of Z (2017); Dries (2017); McQueen (2018); and most recently; High & Low – John Galliano (2023).
Fashion documentaries have since become their own sub-genre, allowing viewers to peak behind the runway into the creative minds and worlds behind haute couture and red carpets.
Unzipped was made by Douglas Keeve and centres around his ex-lover, fashion designer Issac Mizrahi. In the film, we follow Mizrahi as he attempts to make a comeback following the monumental flop of his Spring 1994 collection.
The film benefits from Mazrahi’s natural charisma; he views the world as inspiration for his art. We watch as he chats about glamourous fake fur while laying in bed, getting his hair cut, or chain-smoking. Much of Mizrahi’s inspiration comes from other art forms, including old movies (like Nanook of the North), music, and paintings.
There’s a homemade quality to the filmmaking. Often the camera shakes, giving the sense that Keeve is standing just behind Mizrahi’s shoulder documenting for a home movie.
To illustrate the fluid motion of the creative process, Keeve overlays moving shots with Mizrahi’s rambling ideas as a voiceover. Flipping between black and white and colour adds a dreamy and charming aesthetic to the film.
Mizrahi in Unzipped.
The entire story leads up to the fashion show, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the chaos of a huge production with a lot on the line. The camera captures everything, from models changing their outfits to guests being rejected at the door. At one point, a model carried the camera down the runway. This level of access added depth and honesty to the film.
Unzipped is excellent, not only for being the first of its kind, but for its success in bringing the fashion world to a wider audience and offering an entertaining portrait of a deeply creative mind.
Image Credit: Decades Inc. and True Films.