The scenes inside the walls of a glossy magazine or backstage at a glamorous runway show can feel like hermetically sealed worlds, inaccessible to even the most diehard fans. Yes, things have changed thanks to the internet—with few exceptions, fans can now watch livestreams directly on brand’s social media accounts. However, the best fashion documentaries have the power to take things one step further. The best delight, inspire, and transport you mise en scène, providing in some cases, such as Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, unprecedented insight on the industry’s most elusive figures. Some paint tender portraits of modern titans and the teams behind them such as Raf Simons in Dior and I. Documentaries like The September Issue and Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful shed light on how other aspects of the industry operate off the runway—after all, once the shows wrap and before the next season begins, runway samples are couriered across the globe to be worn on red carpets and shot in magazine editorials. While the fall 2026 collectsions make their own circumnavigations, read on to see the best fashion documentaries below.
©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection1/40Unzipped (1995)
Unzipped isn’t just any fashion documentary, it’s one of the documentaries fashion fans must watch. Directed by Douglas Keeve, the documentary revolves around the work of his then boyfriend, designer and ’90s fashion wunderkind Isaac Mizrahi. Following a negative review to his spring 1994 collectsion and the subsequent creation of his next collectsion, it paints an endearing and in-depth picture of one of fashion’s most entertaining, brilliant, and mercurial designers.
Courtesy Everett Collection2/40Dior And I (2014)
Dior and I is for anyone longing for a peek inside the world of couture. The film tells the story of Raf Simons creating his beloved debut for the storied house in just under eight weeks. It’s an intense, high-pressure journey in which he pays beautiful homage to the petites mains who help make his collectsion come to life.
Courtesy Everett Collection3/40High & Low: John Galliano (2024)
Released shortly after John Galliano’s immediately historic Maison Margiela spring 2024 collectsion and prior to his exit from the house, director Kevin Macdonald’s film paints a robust yet nuanced portrait of one of fashion’s most complex characters. The feature neither absolves nor condemns Galliano, who was fired from his post as creative director of Christian Dior in 2011 following antisemitic remarks. Close Galliano confidantes Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss provide insight into the character of the designer, as do former colleagues including LVMH executive Sidney Toledano, who was CEO of Dior at the time of Galliano’s downfall.
4/40Dries (2017)
Before retiring from the runway in 2024, the Belgian designer Dries Van Noten was a mainstay on the Paris schedule and this film offers a new perspective on his creative process. Filmed over an entire year, Dries is an intimate portrait of Van Noten’s life in the design studio and at home, following the creative journey behind four of his expansive, meticulously researched collectsions.
Dogwoof5/40Martin Margiela: In His Own Words (2020)
Documentarian Reiner Holzemer, who also directed Dries, adapts the story of another Belgian fashion legend: the famously elusive Martin Margiela. The designer’s face is never shown on screen, with the camera instead honing in on his hands as he writes notes, constructs garments, and handles treasured objects from his childhood in Genk. After charting Margiela’s upbringing, the film provides a potted history of his illustrious career—zipping from his unconventional shows staged in disused freight trains and Salvation Army stores, to his most memorable creations (the Tabi boot, the photoprint dresses), and finally his exit from the industry in 2009. Could he be tempted to return to the fold? Holzemer believes it’s possible, and the final edit makes you yearn for a comeback.
Everett Collection / Everett Collection6/40McQueen (2018)
Spanning Lee McQueen’s remarkable career, this film is a rich excavation of the mind of the legendary designer. With a focus on his boundary-breaking fashion shows, the documentary traces how this east London lad became the toast of Paris.
- Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Getty Images7/40
Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (2007)
None other than Loïc Prigent, one of contemporary fashion’s most intrepid visual storytellers, could have told the story of Marc Jacobs’s transformational trajectory at Louis Vuitton. Come for snippets of Jacobs’s personal life—like him arriving at a New Year’s Eve party dressed as a pigeon—stay for commentary by everyone from Sofia Coppola to Larry Gagosian.
Photo: Courtesy of Marc Jacobs8/40Marc by Sofia (2026)
Speaking of Sofia Coppola, the acclaimed filmmaker recently set out to create a non-traditional documentary of her close friend Marc Jacobs. The film follows the 12 weeks leading up to his wonderfully kooky spring 2024 collectsion. Though the conversational content doesn’t delve too deeply into the life and biography of the American designer, Coppola wonderfully stitches together scenes from the studio with some of Jacobs’s greatest inspirations, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and anything Bob Fosse ever touched.
Truly Indie/Courtesy Everett Collection9/40Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008)
Almost 50 years after founding his fashion house, in 1959, Valentino Garavani, one of the world’s most celebrated designers, announced his retirement in 2007. Valentino: The Last Emperor explores the professional and personal life of the designer, paying tribute to his career as he prepares for his final show, and taking a closer look at the relationship between him and his long-term partner in business Giancarlo Giammetti. Following the designer’s death in 2025, this Matt Tyrnauer-directed documentary rings all the more true.
Everett Collection / Everett Collection10/40Westwood: Punk. Icon. Activist. (2018)
The late Vivienne Westwood was one of British fashion’s most dominant forces for decades, yet it took until 2018 for a comprehensive look at the designer’s story on film. While Westwood: Punk. Icon. Activist. looks back over Westwood’s career arc, it also shows her continued talent as a trailblazer in her final years, advocating for sustainability and pushing her brand forward with the same anarchic enthusiasm that made her a legend to begin with.
Koch Lorber Films/courtesy Everett Collection11/40Lagerfeld Confidential (2007)
What did a day in the life of Karl Lagerfeld look like? Lagerfeld Confidential gives you an idea, with its peek inside the everyday routine of the famously private yet extravagant designer, who passed away in 2019. In it, Lagerfeld sheds light on his German upbringing and early career, allowing the camera to follow him into intimate spaces. It’s worth seeing for a glimpse of his chaotic Parisian apartment alone.
- Photo: Foc Kan12/40
Karl (2025)
Part archival footage, part dialogue from some of Karl Lagerfeld’s closest professional and personal confidantes, including sound director Michel Gaubert and Chanel’s head of communications Marie-Louise de Clermont-Tonnerre, Karl paints a retrospective portrait of the legendary late designer. It traces his life through his childhood in Hamburg, to his coming of age in Paris’s exploding creative scene, to his indelible 36-year career at Chanel. Perhaps the most intimate moment is the film’s tender examination of the designer’s experiences as a young boy during World War II, a topic he rarely discussed publicly or privately.
13/40Inside Dior (2016)
Following Raf Simons’s exit, this two-part documentary goes behind the scenes of the hunt for a new creative director, following in the footsteps of Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano and, of course, Christian Dior. Celebrating the brand’s 70th anniversary, the series offers a unique insight into the luxury French fashion house and the transitional period between designers in the lead-up to the appointment of Maria Grazia Chiuri.
Photo: Rob Rusling / Courtesy of Maison Margiela14/40Maison Margiela Artisanal Co-Ed Collection Autumn-Winter 2020 | S.W.A.L.K. (2020)
Yet another deep cut, this 2020 documentary directed by Nick Knight documents the making-of John Galliano’s fall 2020 couture collectsion for Maison Margiela from inspiration to toiles and fittings to the final product. Encompassing self-shot footage, recorded screens featuring decks and video calls, and vlog-style storytelling, this feature sits in the liminal space between contemporary, digital-driven fashion and the age-old tradition of haute couture creation.
- Rex15/40
L’Amour Fou (2010)
L’Amour Fou explores the life of the man behind the Yves Saint Laurent label, focusing in particular on the relationship between the designer and his partner Pierre Bergé.
- Susan Wood/Getty Images16/40
Very Ralph (2019)
Director Susan Lacy charts the trajectory of designer Ralph Lauren from a kid from the Bronx to one of American fashion’s most iconic, recognizable, and enduring names.
Everett Collection / Everett Collection17/40Halston (2019)
American designer Halston is responsible for producing some of the most enduring ensembles of the ’70s: his louche silhouettes, bias-cut draped sequins and fluid fabrics were the uniform of Liza Minnelli, Bianca Jagger, and Anjelica Huston as they strutted through New York’s disco era. Not to mention, he was one of the instrumental designers who traveled to participate in the famous showdown between French and American fashion, now known as The Battle of Versailles. And then, in 1983, the designer created a collectsion for JC Penney which led to a change in the industry’s perception of him. Here, the same team behind Dior and I explore how Halston was responsible for an era-defining aesthetic, but eventually struggled to escape it.
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection18/40Wonder Boy (2019)
This feature on Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s then social media-savvy creative director, focuses on his reinvention of the brand, but primarily centers on his search for identity: Rousteing was adopted as a baby and grew up with no knowledge of his birth parents. Accompanied by filmmaker Anissa Bonnefont, he accesses his adoption file and makes a series of startling discoveries, including the fact that he isn’t (as he’d always assumed) mixed race. It’s an intimate portrait of a designer who became synonymous with the gloss and glamour of Balmain, but behind it all is driven by the very real desire to connect with his origin story.
19/40The Director: An Evolution in Three Acts (2013)
Before Alessandro Michele, Gucci was under the direction of Frida Giannini, who presided over the Italian house between 2006 and 2014. The Director follows the famously press-shy designer, exploring Frida’s Gucci over the course of three collectsions.
Courtesy of Netflix20/407 Days Out (2018)
Netflix’s 7 Days Out focuses on the week leading up to Chanel’s spring 2018 couture collectsion and sees Karl Lagerfeld at work through fittings, castings and backstage at the Grand Palais on show day.
- Foc Kan21/40
The Look (1992)
The Look is a BBC-produced six-episode docu-series that takes a behind-the-scenes look into the fashion world, focusing on designers (Yves Saint Laurent has an episode dedicated to him), the power of the press, the business of fragrance, and the runway show, among other topics, explored through archival footage and a deliciously anthropological voiceover.
22/40House of Cardin (2019)
Fashion legend Pierre Cardin is the subject of this P David Ebersole and Todd Hughes project. It reflects on the French mogul’s impact on the industry, examining his collaborations with Christian Dior (Cardin worked on the New Look collectsion of 1947), his pioneering Space Age designs, and his desire to democratize fashion through ready-to-wear and licensing. There are cameos from Naomi Campbell, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Sharon Stone, who praise Cardin’s remarkable vision, but the film is anchored by frank interviews with the man himself. At 97, he was witty, warm, and fiercely forward-looking, still the greatest ambassador for his own brand of whimsical 1960s futurism.
23/40Jeremy Scott: The People’s Designer (2015)
The People’s Designer tells Jeremy Scott’s Cinderella story, from small-town Missouri to his then role as creative director of Moschino. Watch out for cameos from a host of his celeb super-fans, including Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora, Katy Perry, and the Hilton sisters.
Everett Collection / Everett Collection24/40The Boy Who Made Shoes For Lizards (2017)
The Boy Who Made Shoes For Lizards follows one of fashion’s most acclaimed shoemakers, Manolo Blahnik, as his business flourishes. With a who’s who of the fashion industry—Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, John Galliano, Karlie Kloss—singing his praises, it’s a must-watch for anyone who owns (or dreams of owning) Manolos.
©Arrow Releasing/Courtesy Everett Collection25/40Catwalk (1995)
From backstage at Versace in Milan to jetsetting to Chanel in Paris, Catwalk followers supermodel Christy Turlington over the course of the spring 1994 shows. While Turlington is the centerpiece of the documentary, the film also offers insight on the early years of a generational cohort of models including Kate Moss and Helena Christensen as they made names for themselves working with legendary designers like John Galliano and Gianni Versace.
Courtesy of Apple TV+26/40The Super Models (2023)
You know their names: Linda, Christy, Naomi, and Cindy. Beginning in the early ’80s, The Super Models captures their seemingly meteoric rise to the forefront of fashion’s most glamorous runways. The four-part mini series traces the evolution of their lives and careers as they transitioned into entrepreneurs, activists, humanitarians, and mothers.
©Magnolia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection27/40Bethann Hardison: Invisible Beauty (2023)
Bethann Hardison is one of fashion’s most beloved faces, and one of its most important iconoclasts. The model-turned-model agent-turned-advocate and activist has seen it all and been in every room, and this portrait—well, self-portrait, given that Hardison co-wrote and co-directed the feature with Frédéric Tcheng of Dior & I and The Eye Has to Travel—showcases Hardison at her very best, as a leader and culture-maker.
©Zeitgeist Films/Courtesy Everett Collection28/40Bill Cunningham: New York (2010)
Bill Cunningham: New York shows the late photographer and longtime New York Times contributor at work. The original street-style snapper, Cunningham made his name photographing the colorful streets of New York, getting around the city via his trademark bicycle. He was a photographer beloved by all; indeed, as Anna Wintour explains in the film, “we all get dressed for Bill.”
©Kino International/Courtesy Everett Collection29/40Helmut Newton: The Bad And The Beautiful (2020)
Helmut Newton’s subjects, including Claudia Schiffer, Grace Jones, and Marianne Faithfull, share their first-hand experiences of working with the late German photographer on some of fashion’s most powerful—and often controversial—imagery. Discover the inspiration, the execution, and the lasting impact of Newton’s trailblazing work.
Courtesy Everett Collection30/40Calendar Girl (2020)
Ruth Finley’s contribution to fashion can’t be overstated. In 1945, the American businesswoman founded the Fashion Calendar, the first resource of its kind for scheduling shows and press appointments in New York. Even as the city’s Fashion Week grew, moving from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, Finley was still hard at work resolving conflicts, advising designers, and nurturing new talent (she continued until 2014, when the calendar was acquired by the CFDA). Christian D Bruun’s touching documentary is an assessment of her legacy in the wake of her death in 2018—and a fitting tribute to one of the industry’s most formidable, and often overlooked, matriarchs.
©Magnolia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection31/40The First Monday in May (2016)
Director Andrew Rossi takes on the challenge of documenting the mysterious yet enchanting process of putting together both the Met Gala and the exhibition it celebrates, in this case 2015’s “China: Through The Looking Glass.” Rossi focuses largely on the role of Andrew Bolton, who is under pressure to deliver a knockout exhibition with the success of “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” looming over his shoulder. The First Monday in May is equal parts a riveting examination of what happens behind closed doors ahead of the Met Gala and a compelling analysis of why the work of Bolton and his team at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is crucial to expanding our understanding of fashion as an anthropological tool.
©Roadside Attractions/Courtesy Everett Collection32/40The September Issue (2009)
The aptly-named documentary follows the making of American Vogue’s 2007 September issue, traditionally the most important issue of the year (that particular issue remains US Vogue’s largest to date). At the time, the documentary gave the public unprecedented access to the inner workings of Vogue. Although it’s intriguing watching Anna Wintour hard at work, it’s Grace Coddington, the magazine’s former creative director, who really steals the show, her flame-red hair and steadfast passion for imagery and clothes making her an icon for the times. A timely watch while we wait for the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Stephen Lovekin33/40In Replica Handbags Shop The Editor’s Eye (2015)
A few years later, the US Vogue editors returned to screens with In Replica Handbags Shop The Editor’s Eye, commemorating the magazine’s 120th anniversary. Rather than focusing on a specific issue, it takes a look at how some of the publication’s most famous editorials came to life. As well as the editors, many famous faces that have contributed to the magazine’s legacy make an appearance, with the film featuring interviews with design talents such as Marc Jacobs and Nicolas Ghesquière, and Hollywood stars including Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman.
©Magnolia Pictures / Everett Collection34/40The Gospel According To André (2017)
“He was so many things he wasn’t supposed to be, and they couldn’t get around it,” expresses Whoopi Goldberg in The Gospel According To André, the ultimate portrait of André Leon Talley, the iconic Vogue editor and fashion’s biggest champion. From the beginning of his career at Andy Warhol’s Factory in the 1970s to posts at WWD, W, and Vogue, this feature charts the career, and, most importantly, the enduring legacy of Leon Talley with insight by André himself in addition to Anna Wintour, Tom Ford, and Manolo Blahnik. A favorite tidbit? “He’s the Nelson Mandela of couture, the Kofi Annan of what you got on,” as said by will.i.am.
Fairchild Archive/Getty Images35/40Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011)
Before editors were personalities, before street style stars and bloggers were the trendsetters, there was the vivacious empress of fashion: Diana Vreeland, the editor who helped bring the industry into the modern age during the ’60s. This film takes a look at her life, from society girl, to Vogue editor-in-chief, to mainspring behind the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, telling the story of exactly how she became one of the most legendary fashion editors to date.
- Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images36/40
Franca: Chaos & Creation (2016)
Directed by her son, Francesco Carrozzini, Franca documents the work of the legendary Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani. While the documentary features interviews with iconic names and Sozzani co-conspirators including Karl Lagerfeld, Baz Luhrmann, and Courtney Love, it is the tender portrait of her relationship with her son that makes this a unique portrait of one of fashion’s true visionaries. It was released only a few months prior to Sozzani’s passing in December of 2016, making it a true treasure of fashion media.
37/40Mademoiselle C (2013)
Mademoiselle C follows former Paris Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld on her quest to found her new publication CR Fashion Book, following her departure from Condé Nast. A friend of Karl Lagerfeld and muse to Tom Ford (both of whom cameo in the film), Carine’s rich and interesting life is exposed as she sets out, with her debut magazine, to create a new fashion agenda.
- Jason Nevader38/40
Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons (2022)
This three-part documentary by Matt Tyrnauer examines the rise and fall of the omnipresent lingerie brand, focusing particularly on Les Wexner, its former CEO, and his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It is an exhaustive and compelling retelling and study of the cultural phenomenon that was Victoria’s Secret, and of its long lasting impact.
- YouTube / Untold39/40
The True Cost (2015)
Fashion for all, but at what cost? As the director of this documentary, which goes behind the scenes at various mass-produced clothing factories says, “the film is not a guilt trip.” Instead, it is an important acknowledgment of the hands and lives behind clothing, as well as an exercise in broadening the conversation around fashion.
- Rob Kim/Getty Images40/40
Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s (2013)
A delicious inside look, Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s exposes the inner workings of the iconic Manhattan luxury store, Bergdorf Goodman. It features a cast of characters including Giorgio Armani, Candice Bergen, Manolo Blahnik, and Isaac Mizrahi who, together with employees and clients, profess their love for the fashion institution, one of the last of its kind. The name is lifted from a 1990 cartoon by Victoria Roberts that appeared in pages of The New Yorker.
