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Prêt-à-Porter (1994)
5.2/10on IMDb
Released
An ensemble satire set during Paris Fashion Week, where models, designers and industry players gather to work, argue, flirt and scheme. Its sprawling, overlapping style suits the chaos of a show week better than a tidy plot would.
It is uneven and sometimes more pleased with itself than funny, but it catches the trade-fair side of fashion that most films skip: press, buyers and the scramble for attention. Best for viewers who enjoy a crowded canvas as much as the clothes.
More about Prêt-à-Porter26
The Neon Demon (2016)
6.1/10on IMDb
Released
The horror film of the list, treating the modeling business as something that devours people. An aspiring model arrives in Los Angeles, and her youth makes her the target of beauty-obsessed women who will do anything to take what she has.
Castings, shoots and shows are filmed as cold, neon-lit rituals, which makes its point about the industry's appetite for the new hard to forget. It is violent and deliberately excessive, so it suits viewers who want fashion as nightmare rather than fantasy.
More about The Neon Demon27
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2012)
7.5/10on IMDb
Released
The documentary on the editor who taught fashion magazines to dream. Born in Paris in 1903, Diana Vreeland became a celebrated Vogue editor and New York's "Empress of Fashion," and the film follows her through the many stages of that life with obvious affection.
It makes a fine companion to Funny Face, whose magazine editor is said to be partly based on her, and to The September Issue, which shows the job decades later. Expect wit and big personality rather than workroom detail.
More about Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel28
Iris (2014)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
The 2014 documentary on Iris Apfel, not the Iris Murdoch drama of the same name. The 87-year-old filmmaker Albert Maysles follows the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old, who had been a fixture of New York fashion for decades.
It is the pick for anyone more interested in personal style than in the industry machine, and in the idea that dressing well can be a form of play. Funny and generous, it is a fine film to watch with someone who claims not to care about clothes.
More about Iris29
The First Monday in May (2016)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
The documentary about fashion as museum art. It follows Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton as he builds China: Through the Looking Glass, an exploration of Chinese-inspired Western fashion that became the Metropolitan Museum of Art's most attended fashion exhibition.
The curating gets as much attention as the glamour around it, which makes this the film for readers who love exhibitions and want to see how clothes are chosen, argued over and displayed once they leave the runway.
More about The First Monday in May30
Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (2018)
6.2/10on IMDb
Released
The 2018 documentary on Vivienne Westwood, and a rare look at an older designer still fighting over what her company should be. It follows her as she tries to keep her brand's integrity, her principles and her legacy intact while the business keeps growing.
Viewers hoping for a tidy history of punk fashion may find it scattered, but the tension between activism and commerce is the real subject, and it is one every independent label faces sooner or later.
More about Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist31
Mahogany (1975)
6.2/10on IMDb
Released
The 1975 melodrama in which Diana Ross plays Tracy Chambers, an aspiring designer from Chicago's poorest streets who puts herself through fashion school and ends up in Rome, forced to choose between the man she loves and her new success.
It is camp and dated in places, but it is one of the few Hollywood films centered on a Black woman designing her way up, and the fashion-show set pieces are pure 1970s spectacle. Watch it for Ross and for its place in fashion-film history.
More about Mahogany
