Great fashion and beauty documentaries have informative commentary, intimate moments, never-before-seen footage, impeccable garments, extraordinary makeup and surprise appearances from family and friends. This article lists and describes 6 of those.
Catwalk (1995)
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The 1990s was the decade of the supermodel and high-end fashion, and Catwalk captures supermodels Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss going to fittings and walking in shows for Anna Sui, Armani, Chanel, Christian Dior, Isaac Mizrahi, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano and Versace in 1993.
House of Z (2017)
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Zac Posen’s rise, fall and resurgence in the fashion industry is public knowledge, and the 2017 documentary House of Z allowed me to hear more about it from Posen, his family members and famous mutual friends André Leon Talley, Claire Danes, Naomi Campbell, Paz de la Huerta and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story (2017)
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Kevyn Aucoin was a professional makeup artist who had the world’s most famous female actresses, singers and models as clients until his untimely death in 2002, and Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story allowed me to learn about the deceased icon that contributed a lot to the fashion and beauty industry in the 80s and 90s.
The Gospel According To André (2017)
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André Leon Talley is a cultured fashion journalist that has broken barriers in the discriminatory fashion industry for several decades, and André Leon Talley and his famous and non-famous compadres link this to his southern upbringing, determination, knowledge, love of aesthetically pleasing things and passion for fashion in the 2017 documentary.
The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion (2019)
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Many black people in the fashion and music industry are innovative, underappreciated and overlooked tastemakers, and the 2019 documentary The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion does an excellent job at shining a bright light on urban fashion legends like Dapper Dan, Misa Hylton, April Walker and Kerby Jean-Raymond.
Unzipped (1995)
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Isaac Mizrahi’s Fall 1994 Ready-to-Wear Collection is an iconic moment in fashion, and Unzipped showed intimate moments, months of preparation, fashion show footage and cameos from Mizhari’s industry peers and famous friends like André Leon Talley, Linda Evangelista and Richard Gere that made the 1995 fashion documentary informative and exciting to me.