Fashion and TV is the trendiest new collaboration | | |
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If you watch “Cristóbal Balenciaga”, a drama about the Spanish designer on Disney+, you’ll notice several themes stitched throughout. One is the artistry required to make haute couture. Another is the way in which fashion and politics are interwoven. (In one episode the Nazis take umbrage with Balenciaga’s “provocative” hats.) Above all, it is a tale of control.
For the fashionista (played by Alberto San Juan) is obsessed with ensuring every thread, stitch and sleeve is as he imagined it. He commissions his own fabric so that he can ensure exclusivity. After a journalist has interviewed him at length, he decides he does not like to be talked about, so steals her tapes. Were he alive today, I suspect Balenciaga would have resented being the subject of a miniseries. Then again, were he still around, he would have been able to exert some of that control over the show itself. As I write this week, fashion and television have entered into a close collaboration.
The screen has replaced the glossy magazine as the most effective method of marketing. A partnership can take many forms. Some brands help out with production: Balenciaga, for instance, gave its blessing—and access to its archive—for the show. Others, such as Chanel, help to fund projects starring their ambassadors. A few are going even further. LVMH and Saint Laurent have set up their own production companies. LVMH hopes to use film, TV and podcasts to show off its brands’ “creativity, craftsmanship and excellence”, as one executive has put it.
Fashion is full of drama (and not just the sort you see playing out on “Project Runway”). Take Louis Vuitton, who was orphaned at a young age, fled to Paris, started working as a trunk-maker and attracted the attention of Eugénie de Montijo, the last Empress of the French. Or Emilio Pucci, an Italian aristocrat who was a bomber pilot during the second world war; after trying to flee to Switzerland, he was captured and tortured by the Gestapo. (He later started designing ski suits.) As Amber Butchart, a historian, told me: “I think it’s quite surprising that it’s taken so long for some of these stories to be told on screen, to be honest.”
If fashion houses want to help bring these tales to life, all the better. But, if they want their television shows and films to succeed as entertainment, they should leave the storytellers to it. Fashion adverts sell an airbrushed fantasy. Yet the best dramas offer a warts-and-all picture.
Thanks for reading Plot Twist. What’s the best film or TV show you’ve seen about a company? Let us know by writing to plottwist@economist.com. Thanks to those who shared their most anticipated films of the year. Alexandre Zanotta suggests “Ainda Estou Aqui” (“I’m Still Here”), a Brazilian film about Eunice Paiva, a lawyer and political activist. Garret Fitzgerald describes “The Brutalist”, which had its premiere at Venice, as “terrific”.
Elsewhere in The Economist this week: | | |
Editor’s picks
Must-reads this week | | |
The Economist recommends
What to read, see and listen to | | |
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What to read: A profile of Amanda Jones in the
New York Times.
For the past few years “anti-woke” activists in America have waged campaigns to get books they dislike removed from public libraries. They’ve done well: PEN America, a free-expression watchdog, found that school districts banned 4,349 books in the second half of last year. In this article Alexandra Alter writes about a librarian in Louisiana who fought back against the banners—suing them, co-founding her own pressure group and publishing a memoir—at harrowing personal cost.
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What to listen to: “Perfect Day”. There is no shortage of interview podcasts: if you want to hear celebrities talking about failure, or grief, or their favourite foods, there’s a show for you. Yet Jessica Knappett elicits new revelations by asking her guests about their ideal morning, afternoon and evening. (In practice the conversations range far beyond that conceit.) Emerald Fennell, the writer-director of “Saltburn”, talks about the joys of a “really disgusting” breakfast prepared by her children;
Phil Wang,
a comedian, reflects on the pleasures of simple chores. The podcast makes for an enjoyable, funny listen—and prompts thoughts of your own perfect day.
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What to watch: “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives”, now streaming on Hulu. In recent years a fervid fascination with Mormonism has spread on social media. Housewives from the Christian sect have gone viral on TikTok, luring audiences with clips of domestic toil and daily scriptures. One group of Mormon wives-turned-social-media-stars rocked the internet in 2022 when it was revealed that they were swinging (or exchanging husbands). This docuseries tells the story of the scandal and its aftermath.
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