Janus Films’ new 4K restoration of Unzipped brings Isaac Mizrahi’s wonderfully unruly portrait of 1990s fashion back into focus.
Janus Films has restored Unzipped (1995) in 4K, which means every stray boom mic, shaky pan, and wisp of cigarette smoke that defined the pioneering documentary appears in a new level of clarity. The film catches the mid-90s at the moment fashion and pop cultureCultureshared traditions, beliefs, values, customs, arts, and social practices that define the identity and way of life of a community, society, or nation.Go to Culture Glossary began to blur together, and it hands viewers an open window into an industry that usually keeps its curtains drawn. 30 years later, that window still offers the best view in the house.
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New York, 1994: The Setting Of Unzipped (1995)
Isaac Mizrahi stars as himself: buzzy, pleasant, and anxious in equal measure. He builds his Fall 1994 collection under the eye of director Douglas Keeve, his then-partner who knew his subject well enough to let him unravel on camera. There’s a gonzo looseness that treats focus as a suggestion, so microphones drift in from the corners and the camera lurches whenever someone says something good, which happens about once a minute. The film opens with Mizrahi reading a brutal review of his previous show, and he handles it the way many of us handle a text from our boss at three in the morning. He finds his rescue in the 1922 documentary Nanook of the North, whose Arctic landscapes send him toward a collection built on furs.
Fashion Without The Filter: The Unapologetically Maximalist Designs Of Isaac Mizrahi
Among his peers, Mizrahi was a no-nonsense maximalist who wanted clothes to look like clothes. His glamour sparkled beside the grunge Marc Jacobs was sending down the runway. His camp made Calvin Klein’s restraint look even more monastic. Watching him now, you get a full portrait of a 20th-century creative, with the neuroses; the chain-smoking; and that New York-ness so thick, you could hail it from the curb.
Scenes arrive and depart as rapidly as Mizrahi talks. His mother, Sarah, steals every one she enters by matching his candor and his humor, extracting laughs from a single raised eyebrow. Within the first 10 minutes, he sits down with Eartha Kitt at the Carlyle as she recalls the night Orson Welles bit her lip onstage when the script called for a kiss. A few scenes later, he wines and dines in Paris with André Leon Talley, where a tarot reader delivers his fortune in French and Talley translates for the table. Back in New York, the then-Vogue fashion director Candy Pratts joins him for takeout lunch as they gush and gossip.
The best moments happen in the gaps between the big ones. Mizrahi plays Bach on the piano and sketches absentmindedly while a fitting drags on around him. He lets a young Carla Bruni borrow a drag from his cigarette. He trades banter with Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell as if they were old classmates. Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Kate Moss wander through backstage, unguarded and thoroughly entertained. Nobody appears to be performing for the camera. It’s an uncanny pleasure to watch supermodels behave like people who simply enjoy their jobs and their friends.
Why Unzipped Remains Unmatched
Unzipped is unpretentious and offbeat. What makes it so legendary is that it sits at a distance from the gilt that defines so much of the industry today. Keeve shoots most of it in black and white, saving the color for the runway show, so the finale lands like a door swinging open onto a party. Mizrahi’s label would fold before the decade ended, and he would go on to reinvent himself with a Target line and a television, but here he stands at the height of his powers, surrounded by equally magnetic collaborators. He draws his inspiration from film and art, and he never takes either one for granted, which may be the most stylish habit in the whole movie.
“Unzipped” is currently available for rent and purchase on Apple TV.
All photos courtesy of Janus Films
Frequently Asked Questions
Unzipped is a documentary about designer Isaac Mizrahi as he creates his Fall 1994 collection, offering a candid look at his creative process and the fashion world around him.
Isaac Mizrahi is an American fashion designer. He stars as himself in Unzipped, which follows his work, relationships, creative anxieties, and preparations for his Fall 1994 fashion show.
Unzipped was filmed in 1994 and captures the American fashion world during a period when fashion and pop culture were increasingly converging.
The documentary features figures including André Leon Talley, Candy Pratts, Carla Bruni, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Kate Moss, among others.
Janus Films recently restored Unzipped in 4K, bringing the documentary back with a newly restored presentation. It is currently available for rent and purchase on Apple TV.
