Unzipped

Douglas Keeve, USA 1995, 84 minutes

Forget Pret-a-Porter. You want supermodels? You want stars? You want bickering, crises and stitching? You want to know what really goes on backstage at a fashion show? You want Unzipped.

Following New York fashion doyen Isaac Mizrahi as he prepares for the autumn 1994 fashion show, this portrait of the world of high fashion is as real as you are going to get. Shot by Isaac's friend Douglas Keeve over several months, with complete access to everything in the Mizrahi world, it is as compelling and funny as it is entertaining and revealing.

In black-and-white and colour, using a variety of formats, Unzipped shows the glitz and the glamour, the drudgery and the grit (but mostly the glitz and glamour) of all who walk the cat. Isaac's chats with Eartha Kitt and Sandra Bernhart and the overt pretentiousness of the fashion media inject colour and humour. Meanwhile Linda, Cindy, Naomi, Kate, Christy and co. add a certain interest. Rewarding to watch, this coat of many colours is a perfect match of performance and cinema verite, even if the nearest you've ever been to haute couture is an Oxfam shop.

Review by Scott M Keir
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98