There have been great documentaries about the fashion world. From The First Monday In May, Dior And I, The September Issue, McQueen, Valentino: The Last Emperor to my favorite Unzipped. But I love it, when, in a fiction film, they interject a runway show, complete with angular, gorgeous models strutting down a catwalk, garbed in ludicrous couture. I remember how startled I was when I first saw the that catty dramedy- The Women, when the movie suddenly displayed an elaborate fashion show- and in color! Director George Cukor was unhappy with that segment and wanted it removed, and he’s probably right. It just stops the movie cold. But I’m so glad it exists because it always makes me unreasonably happy. Here are my 20 favorite, ludicrous, fashion shows in movies (not a complete list- just ones that tickled my fashionable fancy).
Fashions Of 1934 (1934) William Powell plays a suave crook who steals Paris fashion designs and sells knock-offs. A glammed-up, young Bette Davis is part of the scam, impersonating an American buyer in order for a cohort to snap covert photos of the gowns. Famous for the bonkers Busby Berkeley choreographed- Spin A Little Web Of Dreams with chorus girls transformed into giant harps.
Roberta (1935) Fred Astaire plays Huck, an Indiana man who inherits a Paris dress shop. He and his football player friend (Randolph Scott) travel to France and Huck helps the woman who runs the business (Irene Dunne) by planning a giant musical revue to promote the new designs. Ginger Rogers shows up to dance with Fred to Smoke Gets In Your Eyes in this breezy romantic comedy. A lovely, blonde Lucille Ball shows up as a runway model.
Colleen (1936) Great Warner Bothers fluff starring Dick Powell as the nephew of the crackpot owner of the Ames Company (Hugh Herbert). He tries to keep his uncle away from the office and from the arms of a gold digger (Joan Blondell). Ruby Keeler plays the earnest bookkeeper and the fashion show is accompanied to I Don’t Have To Dream and a lovely dance between Keeler and Paul Draper.
Mannequin (1937) Joan Crawford plays Jessie, a gal who comes from the Hester Street slums to rise up because of her pluck and beauty. Married to a real jerk, she is romanced by a wealthy tycoon (Spencer Tracy), especially in a scene where she is modeling clothes before him.
Vogues Of 1938 (1937) Joan Bennett plays a debutante who forgoes marrying a wealthy man for working for a high-fashion designer (Warner Baxter). An early Technicolor experiment, the whacky credits roll out on fabric and are cut by lovely models.
Stolen Holiday (1937) Kay Francis plays a beautiful French model who is hired by a shady businessman (Claude Rains) to escort a wealthy financier to an important dinner. It’s such a success she is set up with her own design house. Mercifully there are plenty of fashions and Allison Skipworth is around to infuse humor into the proceedings.
The Women (1939) An all-female cast in George Cukor’s gloriously bitchfest about the well-heeled and well-dressed woman of New York. Norma Shearer stars as the long-suffering ex-wife, whose hubby ran off with a scheming shop girl (Joan Crawford, of course). Rosalind Russell is really a hoot as a scatterbrained gossip, and the fashion show does halt the movie in its tracks.
Cover Girl (1944) Splashy Technicolor musical starring gorgeous Rita Hayworth as Rusty, a chorus girl, who wins a contest to be a cover girl and becomes a huge success. Gene Kelly plays her nightclub-owner boyfriend who fears that she will leave him in the dust because of her new fame. The highlight is the Ziegfeld Follies number accompanied by the title song and Hayworth’s dramatic runway descent.
Lovely To Look At (1952) Basically a remake of Roberta, Howard Keel plays Tony, the American who inherits a dress show, and Kathryn Grayson is the pretty manager of the business. Red Skelton is typically annoying as Tony’s bumbling friend who falls for hoofer Ann Miller. The whole last 20 minutes of the film is this elaborate fashion show that has to be seen to be believed. That section was directed by an uncredited Vincente Minnelli and the gaudy costumes were designed by Adrian.
How To Marry A Millionaire (1953) Three gal friends (Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall) move into a furnished New York apartment in pursuit of landing a wealthy man. There are varying degrees of success, and they get to model fashions in one scene.
Lucy Gallant (1955) Jane Wyman plays Lucy Gallant, who opens a dress shop in Texas and becomes a fashion tycoon. Charlton Heston plays a rancher who romances Lucy and tries to convince her to leave the business for him. When she doesn’t, he joins the US Army and returns to get her out of a financial jam. The fashion show at the end is a riot.
Designing Woman (1957) Can a fashion editor (Lauren Bacall) find love with a sports writer (Gregory Peck)? A groaningly cartoonish romantic comedy but filmed with style and good cheer by Vincente Minnelli with some colorful fashion sequences.
Funny Face (1957) Fred Astaire plays the Richard Avedon-like fashion photographer, the lovely Audrey Hepburn plays a dowdy bookstore employee who is catapulted to model superstardom, and the glorious Kay Thomson is the magazine editor who demands everyone suddenly “think pink!” A sublime musical comedy by Stanley Donen.
Back Street (1961) Fabulous trashy melodrama starring Susan Hayward as aspiring fashion designer Rae Smith, who pines for the man who got away (John Gavin). When they reunite years later, she finds he is unhappily married, and enters into a doomed back street romance with him. My favorite moment is when she is designing the logo for her shop: “rae, all small letters, very chic.
A New Kind Of Love (1963) Torturously unfunny comedy starring handsome Paul Newman as a womanizing journalist in Paris and lovely Joanne Woodward stars as the fashion buyer from New York. Woodward gets a makeover and eventually pretends to be a prostitute named Mimi. Thelma Ritter and Maurice Chevalier show up, but even they can’t save this stinker. Quel Fromage.
Pajama Party (1964) One of the better of the beach party movies AIP put out in the 60s. Tommy Kirk plays a Martian who is sent to earth to pave the way for invasion but falls for Annette Funicello instead. Elsa Lanchester plays the dotty Aunt Wendy, and there is a hilarious fashion show introduced by Dorothy Lamour where the models start frugging like mad. One of them is the wonderful Teri Garr.
Mahogany (1975) Why aren’t all movies this fun? Diana Ross stars in this howler as an aspiring Chicago designer who rockets to fame as the fabulous model “Mahogany,” and travels to Rome, leaving her activist boyfriend (Billy Dee Williams) behind. Anthony Perkins plays the unhinged photographer, and Ross’s Kubuki-style fashion-show is a hilarious highlight.
Pret-A-Porter (Ready To Wear) (1994) I absolutely love director Robert Altman, but even I have to admit his satire of the Paris “couture” fashion scene is a big misfire. With a wild cast- Sophia Loren, Kim Basinger, Marcello Mastroianni, Lauren Bacall, Tim Robbins, Julia Roberts, it’s unfortunately a mess, and not very funny. Though the nude fashion show is pretty outrageous.
Zoolander (2001) I never understood the appeal of this hit comedy starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as warring runway models, but Stiller’s deadpan suck-face look is vaguely amusing. Vaguely. Maybe not to warrant a film sequel though.
Saint Laurent (2014) An artful, prismatic, take on the life of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent (played with beautiful intensity by Gaspard Ulliel). The movie does capture the art of creation- a segment on his innovative and acclaimed 1976 show is thrillingly documented.
