The ones to watch this season
Settle into your own front-row seat to stream the finest in fashion-forward TV, chosen by Scarlett Dargan
Celebrities may be jostling in the frontrow spots at London Fashion Week, but the best seat is your own sofa. From shows about style icons to period dramas exploring the beginnings of the most coveted brands, there are troves of fashion-focused films and TV to enjoy.
Spanish superstar Alberto
San Juan takes on the titular role in Cristóbal Balenciaga (Disney+, launched last month), exploring the designer’s journey from the back streets of war-torn Spain to the glamorous ateliers of Paris. Prepare for lots of brooding, fights with rival couturiers and a disastrous debut at Paris Fashion Week. You’ll be left wondering how the brand now manages to sell out towel skirts for €800.
Balenciaga’s nemesis,
Christian Dior, who he accused of copying his ideas, features in a rival miniseries. The New Look (Apple TV+, which came out last week), sees Ben Mendelsohn portray Dior during his years in Nazi-occupied Paris. There’s plenty of uproar over his
‘raunchy’ designs – cinched waists and matching separates, if you’d believe – and Juliette Binoche is great as an uber-cool but menacing Coco Chanel.
If documentaries are more your thing, later this year In Vogue: The 1990s (Disney+) promises a deep dive into Vogue’s inner workings as the world drooled over the ‘Big Six’ supermodels. It includes interviews with Edward Enninful and fearsome editor Anna Wintour, as well as cameos from ‘leading figures from 90s fashion, music and film’.
Premiering next month is
High & Low: John Galliano. Candid interviews with the former Dior designer are central to Kevin McDonald’s documentary, but everyone from Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss to LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and Charlize Theron will make cameos. Given the 63-year-old designer’s controversial history – he was fired from Dior after an antisemitic drunken rant in 2011 – this one is expected to be suitably drama-filled.
Rounding off the year’s fashion on film is Sadie Frost’s Twiggy, a featurelength documentary about the world’s first supermodel. The cast reads like a roll-call of 60s icons – Paul
McCartney, Pattie
Boyd, Lulu – and they used kooky new VR technology when filming to make a now 74-year-old Twiggy look as if she were walking down Carnaby Street the way it was six decades ago. If you can’t wait, there’s plenty you can rent already. Saint Laurent (Prime Video) stars the late Gaspard Ulliel as the troubled designer and forefronts his struggles as a gay man in 70s Paris, meaning it’s perfect for watching with a friend who’s not quite as fashion obsessed. Or stream the epic House of Gucci (Prime Video) and spend an entire two hours and 40 minutes drooling over Lady Gaga’s fox-fur ski hat and red snowsuit while you lie on the sofa in your pyjamas.