Comingsoon.net is taking a look at the best movies about the wildly innovative fashion industry. Check out our picks in the gallery below!
There’s a reason the Oscars celebrate costume design: the way a filmmaker dresses their characters is hugely important. The medium of film is best utilized when covering stories that deal with incredibly visual subjects—action films, animated features, even a good drama. That’s what makes the fashion industry such an obvious choice for plenty of movies.
Clothing and the way it can be styled makes for such an excellent subject on-film. From movies about fashion designers to stories about the people who model the things those fashion designers make, there are all kinds of possibilities for a story set within the world of couture. With this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best movies about the fashion industry.
Fashion movies
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Funny Face (1957)
One of Audrey Hepburn’s most impressive performances, 1957’s Funny Face is a Stanley Donen musical with just as much pizazz as Singin’ in the Rain but half the notoriety. The musical numbers—especially the opening one—are exquisitely crafted, telling the story of a girl who works in a department store who is whisked away by a fashion magazine to become their most prized model.
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Personal Shopper (2016)
Oliver Assayas is a French filmmaker (and film critic) known best for his gritty dramas that embrace the seediness that can arise from various moral dilemmas—his 2016 film Personal Shopper immerses itself into the world of Paris fashion and brings forth a modern ghost story for the ages. It’s the only horror movie here, but it’s a standout for more reasons than just that.
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Phantom Thread (2017)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s vehicle for Daniel Day-Lewis’s final performance, Phantom Thread, is just as funny as the other two comedies in this collection (but a lot more deadpan). Not to mention, Paul Thomas Anderson’s style is inimitable and his movies are always stupendous. This one follows a neurotic fashion designer and his toxic relationship with his girlfriend and muse.
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The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Definitely one of the seminal films about fashion, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway star in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada—the story of a hapless woman who lands an assistant job for the most well-known fashion magazine editor in the world. As someone who knows very little about fashion is paired up with the one who decides what’s trendy and what’s not, the movie is basically a goldmine for plenty of great outfits and great jokes.
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Zoolander (2001)
Speaking of great outfits and great jokes, Zoolander skas Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell in this spoof of the world of modeling. It’s ridiculous, to be sure, but it’s hard to deny just how funny (and fashionable) Zoolander is.
