How fashion conquered television

From Tokyo to Seoul, on to New York, London, Milan and Paris, there are more “fashion weeks” in September than there are weeks in the month. Models parade down catwalks in whimsical creations that people may marvel at in years to come—or not. Recently haute couture has also been starring in some of television’s most viewed and talked-about shows.

With sumptuous gowns and eye-catching accessories, fashion has conquered streaming. In addition to “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld”—a drama which follows the late German designer before he took over as Chanel’s creative director and adopted his signature monochrome outfit—Disney+ has also released “Cristóbal Balenciaga”. The show scrutinises the dressmaker called “the master of us all” by his peer, Christian Dior, and spans three decades of Balenciaga’s career, from his arrival in Paris in 1937 to his retirement in 1968.
“The New Look”, released on Apple TV+ in February, is set in the same era of French fashion, but examines Coco Chanel’s and Dior’s contrasting fortunes during the second world war. While Chanel collaborates with the Nazis, Dior almost loses his sister to a concentration camp.
There have been documentaries about John Galliano, a British designer who was fired by Dior after his drunken and racist tirades were made public, and Diane von Furstenberg, a Belgian designer who broke sexual and wardrobe conventions with her partying lifestyle and popular wrap dress. There is more material to come. Netflix recently announced a docuseries focusing on Victoria Beckham, a Spice Girl turned fashion and beauty mogul. Another biopic of Lagerfeld, starring Jared Leto, is in the works, as is a series about the Gucci dynasty (which was previously dramatised by Sir Ridley Scott in 2021).
Why is fashion so chic among television and film producers? One reason is that high fashion lends itself to high drama. It is an industry populated by creative, glamorous people, who, as these shows attest, may be controlling, stubborn and tortured, as well as talented. The designers are often driven by rivalry: Lagerfeld with Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga with Dior and Dior with Chanel.
It can be hard to make visually engrossing biopics of writers, since one black-and-white page looks much like another. The same is not true of fashionistas. Using fabric, stitches and seams, Balenciaga sculpted innovative silhouettes. Dior described a dress as “a piece of ephemeral architecture”. Clothes, on TV and in real life, are reflections of their wearers; they can produce moments of striking transformation. “Screen storytelling relies on visual codes; clothing and fashion rely on visual codes,” says Amber Butchart, a historian of textiles and design. “You have this shared understanding of medium.”
Another reason for the trend is that Hollywood is currently hooked on brands. Studios want to make stories about popular products, from Barbies to Ferraris. Content about couturiers is a safe bet, as viewers already recognise the names from boutiques or cosmetics, even if they know little about their namesakes.
Fashion houses themselves are now getting involved in storytelling. This has not always been the case: the producers of “The Devil Wears Prada” initially struggled to get brands to lend clothes to the costume department, for fear of upsetting Vogue’s Anna Wintour (the inspiration for the diabolical character played by Meryl Streep). But 20 years on, Balenciaga and Dior gave their blessing for “Cristóbal Balenciaga” and “The New Look”, say Xabier Berzosa and Helen Shaver, producers on the shows. The houses allowed the crews access to their archives. Bina Daigeler, one of the costume designers on “Cristóbal Balenciaga”, says she “was always in contact” with Balenciaga, as well as with Chanel and Dior, to make sure that the clothes were depicted in a “respectful and accurate” manner.
By lending their services in this way, fashion houses are adroitly “controlling their image”, says Marnie Fogg, the author of “Screen Style”, a book about TV costumes. The final scene of “The New Look”—a montage of Dior’s outfits unfurling to soppy music—feels more like an advert than the conclusion of a quality drama. Not one to miss a sales opportunity, Dior released a fragrance to coincide with the show’s release.
Some houses have gone even further in breaking down the boundaries between branding and entertainment. In 2021 “Fracture”, a miniseries about a fictional singer-songwriter, was developed by Balmain to feature its latest collection. Chanel has helped to finance films that star Kristen Stewart, one of its ambassadors. No wonder, then, that Ms Stewart was wearing rather a lot of Chanel while playing Princess Diana in “Spencer”. (Searches for Chanel blazers and bags spiked in the wake of the film’s premiere.)
Last year Saint Laurent launched Saint Laurent Productions and co-produced three feature films—a musical crime-comedy, a fantasy drama and a horror flick—which aired at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The film studio is overseen by Anthony Vaccarello, who is also the house’s artistic director; he is credited as the “costume artistic director” on each movie. As well as kitting out characters in Saint Laurent, the house has provided stars with outfits for the promotional circuit.
This year LVMH , a luxury group and one of Europe’s most valuable companies, launched its own media outlet, 22 Montaigne Entertainment. It will make films, TV shows and podcasts based on the brands in LVMH’s stable—or, as Anish Melwani, the chairman and chief executive for the company in North America, put it, “identify entertainment projects that honour and authentically showcase their unique creative portfolios”. Given that LVMH owns 14 of the world’s most famous fashion “maisons”—including Celine, Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Loewe and Louis Vuitton—there will be no shortage of projects for storytellers to style.
Coming up next season…
Ultimately the wealth of entertainment about fashion reflects a changed media landscape. Although the luxury-fashion business is expected to bring in $116bn in revenue this year, up from $86bn in 2020, the old methods no longer tempt buyers as they once did. “You’re not going to reach your whole audience in Vogue. You just aren’t,” says Jenna Barnet of Sunshine, a consultancy that helps brands with entertainment strategy. “It’s not going to do the whole thing for you anymore.”
As a result, entertainment and advertising are “converging into one thing”, Ms Barnet says, “and now we have these incredible means to tell richer and richer stories, longer and longer stories, more valuable stories.” For now, audiences seem happy to lap up branded content and fashion bosses, unlike models on a catwalk, are smiling. But what seems á la mode today can easily become passé tomorrow.
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