Unzipped

Not just a flashy documentary portrait, but a dynamic registration of the amazing life behind the veil of a fashion king, the New Yorker Isaac Mizrahi. Mizrahi is followed from the moment he sees the reviews of his badly-received 1993 collection until a year later he manages to come off better. Mizrahi leads a life that can be compared only to pop stars or film stars. Surrounded by bootlicking admirers, he moves in a dream world where only appearances are important. Mizrahi is a hard-working diva who is watched closely all the way from his first sketches to the nerve-racking, all-important show of the new collection. For his new collection, he allowed himself to be inspired by the clothing of the Eskimos as they are seen in Flaherty's classic Nanook of the North. Aware of the political incorrectness of fur, he works inventively with brightly-coloured fake fur (although this only becomes apparent later in the film, because it is in black & white). Mizrahi is horrified to find out that Jean-Paul Gaultier has also developed a kind of eskimo style that he shows in Paris a week before Mizrahi's show. The stunning presence of top models like Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford adds greatly to the glamour of the film. The style reveals clearly that Douglas Keeve has a background as fashion photographer. His familiarity with the fashion world can also be clearly is also obvious in the film.