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Another fashion documentary? It’s the gift that keeps on giving. On Thursday, French brand Ami Paris will host the screening of Alexandre Mattiussi, Ami, Naissance d’une Collection (birth of a collection).
It promises to be a lot of fun, with scenes of Ami designer Alexandre Mattiussi dancing. “That’s what fashion is all about,” says director Dominique Miceli. “Having fun — and he has fun every day. What I really wanted to bring out was his way of joking, talking a bit of nonsense at a certain moment, dancing and singing.”
The 52-minute documentary, which traces the backstage goings-on of the Ami Autumn/Winter 2024 collection, will be screened on French TV channel Paris Première on 16 June, with plans for international distribution.
The documentary was not commissioned by the house; Miceli proposed it and convinced Paris Première to back her project, then Ami gave access. But it’s part of a trend: fashion houses are recognising that intimate behind-the-scenes portraits are fascinating to consumers. Gucci released a documentary in March: Who is Sabato De Sarno? A Gucci Story, which is available on Mubi as well as on Air France flights. Bulgari released Inside the Dream, a behind-the-scenes film, on Prime Video in 2022 and is now working on what it describes as a “docufilm” slated to come out in 2025.
Back in February, LVMH announced the launch of 22 Montaigne Entertainment in partnership with Superconnector Studios. It’s described as a single platform to accelerate the push of its 75 maisons into marketing “via premium films, TV and audio formats”. The goal is to allow “more of our maisons to engage authentically with their audience through premium productions”, LVMH North America chairman and CEO Anish Melwani said in a statement.
The list of projects is growing across the industry. Brands like Chanel and Kering-owned Saint Laurent are investing in films. (Ami’s Mattiussi has also personally worked in film production, including as a producer on Niki, a biopic of artist Niki de Saint Phalle by Céline Sallette that premiered at Cannes.)
In the fashion biopic category, both Cristóbal Balenciaga and The New Look were released earlier this year, while Becoming Karl Lagerfeld is upcoming, starring Daniel Brühl as the designer. The series, which will be available to stream on Hulu in the US from 7 June and on Disney+ in France and international territories, received a standing ovation and rave reviews when it premiered at Canneseries in April.
“Increasingly, you need long-form storytelling to really communicate deeper messages,” says Jenna Barnet, CEO of Sunshine, an LA and London-based creative agency specialising in building entertainment strategy for brands. (Sunshine was recently acquired by The Independents, a communications group that includes Karla Otto, Bureau Betak and Lefty.)
Fashion documentaries are not a new phenomenon. Among the highlights of the past three decades, Barnet cites Made in Milan (1990), about Giorgio Armani, directed by Martin Scorsese; Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008); Dior and I (2014) about Raf Simons at Dior; Very Ralph (2019), about Ralph Lauren, screened on HBO; and Wonder Boy (2019), about Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing, streamed on Netflix. Miceli directed the documentary Isabel Marant, Naissance d’une Collection in 2019.
“Even people who are not interested in fashion still wanted to watch them because they told fascinating stories that went beyond just the context of fashion,” Barnet says. This has only become more true. Sunshine is behind Balmain’s entertainment strategy, which resulted in Wonder Boy.
Next up is Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, which will premiere on the opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival on 5 June before launching on Hulu and Disney+ internationally on 25 June.
“You need to make sure documentaries that tell brand stories are not just marketing vehicles but that they have real entertainment value,” says Barnet. “While it can be a painful leap of faith for brands to give complete editorial freedom to the director, to make a good film you have to find the right creative partnership based on trust. Ultimately the director has to be the chief storyteller.”
Miceli echoes this need for creative freedom. “I was interested to see his [Mattiussi’s] creative process,” he says. “It’s only a cameraman and myself. That way, very quickly, Alexandre and his team forget about the camera. It’s important that they’re real, not self-conscious.”
Mattiussi is relaxed about sharing private moments. “The creative process is always very intimate, it’s a place where you’re vulnerable and you don’t hold any truth. The truth comes out on the show day when the collection is presented to the public,” he says. “So I was intimidated but I knew that with Dominique I’d be looked at with kindness and tenderness.”
He adds: “It’s an exercise that’s easier for me because I’m a little more used to it, even if you never get used to it. It was more intimidating for my team — it was the first time that a camera had come so close to us. But in any case the documentary reflects the reality of our work.”
So did Mattiussi have his say on the final cut? He says he had a right to review it. “There’s just one scene that was taken out because I started singing a Celine Dion song and I love her too much, I respect her too much,” he admits. “I wasn’t doing her any credit.”
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