Characters of couture in vogue

For fashion – and some fiction – as stylish screen productions bring stories of renowned trendsetters to the screen.

Naomi Watts as Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. Picture: Pari Dukovic/FX

Fashion has long offered escapism and the glittering possibility of transformation. With its larger-than-life characters, ruthlessness, ego battles and glossy glamour (albeit much of it smoke and mirrors) it also, as it happens, makes for excellent telly.

Last year was a particularly good year for fashion on-screen – both big and small. A slew of releases highlighted both real-life (and thinly disguised) fashion personalities, the inner workings of the fashion industry and some seriously good style. The industry, meanwhile, is taking note, with the likes of luxury conglomerate LVMH, owner of brands such as Louis Vuitton and Dior, investing in an entertainment company, and Saint Laurent debuting three films at the Cannes Film Festival via its movie production company.

Whether you’re seeking escapism or inspiration, The Australian charts 2024’s most stylish offerings.

Tom Hollander as Truman Capote in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. Picture: FX

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans

The year started with a swan song, charting the coterie of glamorous Upper East Side women who writer Truman Capote befriended, and ultimately, betrayed. With powerhouse performances from Naomi Watts as Babe Paley, the queen of Capote’s “swans”, and Chloe Sevigny as the patrician C. Z. Guest, the show’s sets, jewels and exquisite outfits are a shrine to style. They serve as a reminder too, that all this style and good taste, can come at a cost – even if it’s imperceptible at the surface. As Guest herself once said, “style is about surviving, about having been through a lot and making it look easy”.

Streaming on Binge

Diane von Furstenberg: A Woman in Charge

That Diane von Furstenberg was a pioneer for women is readily apparent by the guest appearances in this documentary, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton. In the line-up? Hillary Rodham-Clinton, cultural critic Fran Lebowitz, feminist Gloria Steinem and fashion designer Marc Jacobs to name just a few. The 78-year-old von Furstenberg, still inordinately sexy and glamorous and perhaps the original influencer, has lived an immensely colourful life. It has included everything from being a princess and a mogul, a fixture at Studio 54 and a natural hustler on the QVC shopping channel. Like most people who’ve really lived there have been giddy highs and crushing lows – but von Furstenberg, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, never let the lows get her down. Fear, as she says in the documentary, is not an option. Von Furstenberg changed fashion – and how women moved through the world – with the invention of her nifty little jersey wrap dresses, a style that has had many iterations and intergenerational appeal. As Lebowitz says in the piece, the wrap dress was such a huge success because it allowed all women to think that they too could be a bit like Diane von Furstenberg by wearing them. That is, a woman in charge.

Watch on Disney+

Diane von Furstenberg speaks to camera in Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge. Picture: Supplied

Emily in Paris

Souffle-light and deliciously divisive, the fourth season of Emily in Paris – charting the adventures and mishaps of a cheerful, ambitious extremely American marketing executive living and working in Paris – is fashion escapism at her best. Yes, Emily’s outfits are outrageous, but everybody knows the real style star of the show is her elegant and oh-so-Parisienne boss, Sylvie.

Streaming on Netflix

La Maison

This French-language series might be a fictionalised account of two rival families in the fashion world, but its depiction of the high-stakes pressure of the rarefied atmosphere of couture is close-to-the bone accurate. Starring Lambert Wilson, Amira Casar (Call Me by Your Name), Carole Bouquet and Zita Hanrot (César Award-winning actor for Fatima), the series depicts how a scandal – captured on a smart phone – undoes decades of prestige. While the show offers an insider account of the fashion world, it’s also a story of ambition, power, reinvention, the pull of family and the cost of pursuing perfection.

Streaming on Apple TV+

Lee

The story of Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller – fashion model turned muse to surrealist Man Ray, and war photographer – was brought to the big screen starring Kate Winslet, and was co-written by former Vogue Australia editor Marion Hume. The film charts how Miller left a mark on 20th century art and photojournalism.

Cinema release

Kate Winslet during the filming of Lee. Picture: Kimberley French

Becoming Karl

There is no one to whom the label “larger-than-life” applies more appropriately than Karl Lagerfeld, the late former creative director of both Chanel and Fendi and unparalleled dispenser of devastating bon mots. This series charts the beginning of his career, and the myth-making of his own creation. Starring Daniel Brühl as Lagerfeld, the series begins in 1972, when he was the life of the party and a freelance fashion designer working in Paris.

Watch on Disney+

Daniel Brühl and Theodore Pellerin in a scene from Becoming Karl Lagerfeld. Picture: Disney+

Cristobal Balenciaga

Dubbed by Christian Dior as “the master of us all,” Spanish couturier Cristobal Balenciaga’s influence on fashion reaches well beyond the exquisite creations and new shapes he created in his atelier on Avenue Georges V in Paris.
Coco Chanel called Balenciaga “a couturier in the truest sense of the word. The others are simply fashion designers”. In this sumptuous series, Alberto San Juan plays Balenciaga, who is recounting his life to a journalist.

A scene from Cristóbal Balenciaga. Picture: Supplied

The New Look

Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn stars as couturier Christian Dior, telling the story of Dior’s war years in occupied Paris, when his sister was imprisoned by the Nazis. Two years after this harrowing experience, Dior debuted his much celebrated, enduring testament to glamour, femininity and beauty, the nipped-in bar skirt suit that was dubbed by fashion editor Carmel Snow, “the new look”. As a separate, and occasionally entwined story, the series also examines the war years of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, with Juliette Binoche playing the designer.

Streaming on Apple TV+

Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior in The New Look. Picture: Roger Do Minh