Hey there, fashionistas! If you have a Netflix subscription, you’d be thrilled to know that there will be an upcoming high fashion-related treat for people like us. The streaming service has no shortage of series and movies to binge, but we will have another to add to our already long list of queued shows come December 21. A new docuseries will follow Karl Lagerfeld and explore the work behind the scenes leading up to one of Chanel major fashion shows this year, and we will all be on it for the ride.
The show in question is directed by Andrew Rossi, the same filmmaker who brought us The First Monday in May, a documentary about one of the fashion’s most anticipated events, The Met Gala. The 2015 ball, which was in theme with the featured exhibit at the time, “China Through the Looking Glass”, offered us glimpses of the preparations behind the multimillion fundraiser and a deeper look into Condé Nast Artistic Director and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour’s work as a board member of The Met. This time around, Rossi leads the docuseries entitled 7 Days Out, which will feature Chanel and its Creative Director Karl Lagerfeld for its first episode. The show will also explore other key personalities in fields besides fashion; there will episodes dedicated to food, entertainment, sports and even space.
Rossi takes us to what happens in the week before Chanel’s Spring and Summer 2018 fashion show. Many of us will remember that it took place in Paris’ Grand Palais, where emerging model Kaia Gerber has strutted in dream-like, floofy garb, Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech Bior became the second black Chanel bride, and when we had to absorb the Grand Palais’ gardens’ beauty including its majestic fountains, the venue an unusual pick for the veteran designer. But of course, there’s more to that than the final runway show. Thankfully, Rossi was given full access to the preparations, even shooting Lagerfeld in his own studio and Chanel’s ateliers. The series can potentially translate the meticulousness that goes into a haute couture garment into film. It can also provide us with more insight in the particulars and possible drama that goes on in the prep of a fashion show for a maison as influential and prestigious as Chanel.
Karl Lagerfeld is no stranger to being a film subject. We’ve seen Lagerfeld Confidential, which first previewed a decade ago, and a four-hour German TV documentary chronicling Chanel’s rise with Lagerfeld. For the latter, fashion’s Renaissance Man even considered fashion as a religion, and considering the man’s career, you’d know where the statement is coming from.
Netflix has enough offerings for subscribers who are both fashion and documentary lovers. There’s Dries, Jeremy Scott: The People’s Designer and Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards, among many others. These are all great starting points for those who want to know more about designers who made an impact on the the industry. Other important and interesting figures in fashion, such as ‘geriatric star’ Iris Apfel and the late Italian Vogue Editor-in-Chief Franca Sozzani, have documentaries especially dedicated to them.
Image credits: Netflix, Magnolia Picture, Slant Magazine, Stephane Cardinale, Kristy Sparow, Slaven Vlasic Getty Images
