As fashion week travels around the globe and our news feeds become saturated with pictures from the #frow, gone are the days where you need to blag your way onto a guestlist to see your favorite designer’s collection. We now live in a world where as long as you have access to the Internet you can go to every party, event or fashion show worldwide.
To our delight some of our favorite fashion brands are taking it a step further and creating bespoke content featuring their collections for audiences outside of the fashion arena, with short films especially for the Internet.
Here’s a list of 10 short fashion films you should have watched, ranging from collection stories by top feature directors to your favorite photographers swapping the darkroom for an edit suite. It’s all on YouTube and just a click away, so take a look at our fave fashion flicks…
1. T by Alexander Wang, Undisclosed Event
T by Alexander Wang, the designer’s diffusion label, has always used short films as a platform for experimentation and promotion of their collections. This short, directed by Darren Stein, saw New Yorkers responding to an open call ‘one-time-only’ event. Watch the video to see the excitement and arrival of the social media savvy ‘shoppers’ when they turned up at Alexander Wang’s Undisclosed Event.
2. Alexander McQueen, The Bridegroom Stripped Bare
This film should come with a warning: you will be shocked and baffled by the genius of Alexander McQueen as he displays his sheer natural ability to deconstruct, defy and create fashion in this short, directed by Nick Knight.
3. Gucci, Flora
Chris Cunningham is one of the most acclaimed directors working today, known for his work on music videos with Aphex Twin and Bjork and commercials with Playstation and Levi’s. Back in 2009 he teamed up with Gucci to create this TV commercial featuring Abbey Lee and a remix of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love. Most archive fashion TV commercials are on YouTube now, so watch as many as you can – they’re often real works of art.
4. Prada Presents Castello Cavalcanti
This short film saw Prada team up with BAFTA and Golden Globe winning director Wes Anderson to create an Italian fantasy film of small town secrets and whispers over pasta. Prada have been one of the true pioneers of the fashion film genre often featuring collections in short films and collaborating with top feature directors.
5. CK One
In the age of the selfie this short CK One commercial directed by Mario Sorrenti saw the “Class of 2014” self shoot Calvin Klein’s commercial. Look out for the likes of G-Dragon, Edie Campbell and Petra Collins amongst many others of your favorite icons from last year.
6. Yves Saint Laurent, Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing
Back before Hedi Slimane took the reins at Saint Laurent, former Creative Director Stefano Pilati teamed up with Bruce Weber to create a celebration of menswear with a pretty banging sound track and some very good-looking men.
7. Matthew Frost, Fashion Film
As one of the most iconic flicks of recent years, Matthew Frost’s Fashion Film pokes fun at its stereotypical floaty namesake in this brilliant short spoof.
8. Proenza Schouler, Snowballs
Proenza Schouler autumn/winter 11 saw the brand team up with cult director Harmony Korine to make a series of surreal short films to present the collection. They left the fashion world bemused yet the films are undeniably beautiful and serve to capture a moment in time.
9. Prada, A Therapy
One of the most iconic fashion films of all time saw Prada team up with the stellar cast of Helena Bonham-Carter and Ben Kingsley to create a short, directed by Roman Polanski. The landmark film pioneered the fashion film genre as we see a Prada clad Helena Bonham Carter professing her inner most thoughts and secrets while her therapist – Ben Kinglsey – appears to be hypnotized by her Prada coat.
10. Kenzo Menswear x DIS, Watermarked
Watermarked see’s the guys from DIS magazine create a hyper real, artistic short featuring Kenzo menswear. Inspired by the commercial techniques used in mainstream advertising the film takes on a surreal tone but remains beautifully shot and artistic proving DIS and Kenzo to be perfect collaborators.
Credits
Text Declan Higgins