Fashion films have always drawn attention to the masses, especially one of the most popular fashion films, The Devil Wears Prada that features Anne Hathaway as an assistant struggling to adjust and please her boss played by Meryl Streep. However, these sorts of films tend to a shine a bad light on the fashion world.
Director, Fredric Tcheng, who also directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, took it upon himself to redefine how the masses view the fashion culture as a whole and to drive away from the “celebrity-driven, gossip aspect of fashion.” In the film, Dior and I, premiering this Friday in Atlanta at the Regal Tara, Tcheng provides a new insight in the fashion through raw, emotional gripping scenes.
The documentary is a breath-taking phenomenon that follows the newly appointed creative director for Dior, Raf Simons. Designing an entirely new collection for one of the most influential and worldly recognized fashion houses sounds like a challenging and nearly impossible task; but having to create the collection in eight weeks takes an army and the right kind of man, namely Raf Simons. Simons was named the new creative director for Dior succeeding John Galliano, and expectedly, the fashion world was critically curious and all eyes were on him to rise to the legacy of the fashion house.
Throughout the documentary, the audience gets to intimately follow Raf and his crew as they go through the strenuous process of creating the much anticipated collection. Raf, a man who Tcheng describes as “Shy, but very focused,” appears as so on screen. Even though he was like a new kid at a school in the fashion house, he was able to productively interact with his new team members, especially the ateliers. The audience is able to grasp a little bit about exactly who Raf Simons is, and also gain insight on the concepts and hard work that goes on behind the scenes.
As far as what his inspiration was for taking the direction he did with the film, Tcheng says, “I want to talk about the creative process between the designer and the people around him and the idea was to turn over some of the stereotypes that usually come with the fashion world as arrogant or inaccessible.” Through the dialogues and events that occur during the creation of the Fall collection, Tcheng was undeniably successful in showing the positive aspects of fashion.