Unzipped:Naomi Campbell on the runway.
Its just about discovery, you know.
You have to be a journalist, but you have to be innocent too.
Unzipped:Naomi Campbell on the runway.
And try not to steer it, just venture to capture it.
As an independent designer, Mizrahi is David to the industrys Goliath.
Its recorded by Keeve, a Californian who considered himself an outsider to fashion.
Unzipped:Linda Evangelista in the atelier.
(He went on to makeSeamlessandHotel Gramercy Park.)
Its but one example of what the director calls an unsaid, unseen narration.
Ultimately, the camera is the stand-in for the zipper in the title.
Unzipped:Isaac Mizrahi, always “on.”
Here, the designer and the director reflect on the film they made 25 years ago.
In the Beginning
Douglas Keeve:I was a fashion photographer.
I think Im a storyteller, and so I always wanted to take fashion photography towards that.
Unzipped:Fashion sketches.
I could never tell the stories in my fashion pictures like Helmut Newton or Steven Klein [could].
Film was how I could express myself more.
It was this hilarious video and people really liked it.
Unzipped:Amber Valletta.
Lets see where this goes.
Unzipped:The official trailer.
Do you think it will come between us working together?
Unzipped:The negative review.
So that made me feel a lot easier, but of course in the end we broke up.
I mean, we would have broken up eventually anyway, but we broke up faster because ofUnzipped.
DK:It was life.
Unzipped:The good review.
There was like, there was a lot of really, really great stuff [in our relationship].
I was difficult to be around just like he was.
I just loved Isaac on every level.
Backstage at Isaac Mizrahi’s fall 1994 collection.
You know, hes a rare bird.
There arent a lot of people like him.
There may be better designers, there may be people who are other things, but he was magical.
Unzipped:Veronica Webb.
I think he still is.
I just interviewed him, and nobody gets the interview out of him that I get.
I know how to light the fuse in a sense and get his brilliance.
Unzipped:The peekaboo scrim; the view from the stage looking out at the aucience.
Unzipped:Linda Evangelista in the atelier.
Unzipped:Isaac Mizrahi, always on.
Unzipped:Fashion sketches.
Unzipped:Cindy Crawford.
Unzipped:Amber Valletta.
Revelations
IM:Especially when [the filming] was in my studio I just had fun.
You couldnt miss the idea to just get a camera in [there and] just start rolling.
Unzipped:The peekaboo scrim; the view from the audience to the stage.
And thats what started it.
But ultimately I didnt, because I knew there was an editing process.
Youre making this thing about yourself and you want it to glorify you?
Unzipped:Mizrahi multitasking.
And so I couldnt take any of it out.
I think Isaacs comfortable anywhere, anyhow, no matter what.
Its funny, I had to bend over backwards to take myself out of the movie.
Unzipped:Shalom Harlow multitasking.
Unzipped:The negative review.
Unzipped:The good review.
It didnt matter to me what happened to him in his next collectiongood, bad, whatever.
Unzipped:Shalom Harlow backstage.
The beauty of documentary is that its all good news.
In those days fashion criticism was a different thing.
It never hurt me personally; it was like this roulette wheel, like: I like it!
Unzipped:The designer takes a bow.
No, its not good.
Thats what fashion criticism used to be.
I have a massive, massive creative ego.
Unzipped:Nina Santisi and Isaac Mizrahi.
Thats kind of whatUnzippedhelps you to get.
Backstage at Isaac Mizrahis fall 1994 collection.
Unzipped:Veronica Webb.
Unzipped:Mark Morris in the atelier.
It was like, No, this is the person I am.
They stood there until you pushed them and on the runway and thats it, you know?
And then somehow in the 90s you had Linda [Evangelista] going, Yeah, no.
Unzipped:Drama.
So somehow like this dialogue [started].
I think thats one reason the film is so influential.
You had this moment where there were transgressive women.
Unzipped:Isaac Mizrahi on his fire escape.
[The 1990s] was just the edge of that.
Like, Oh, am I making a mistake?
I think that people are inspired by that kind of raw energy that took place in the 90s.
Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere bakstage at Isaac Mizrahi’s fall 1994 collection.
And it just happened.
I didnt pay celebrities to sit in the front row; they would show up.
It was like a fun, crazy moment that we earned.
Unzipped:Isaac Mizrahi and Kate Moss.
Now its all business, business, business.
Im not the biggest expert on this, but everything changed [then].
Thats what drives fashion now.
Unzipped:Isaac Mizrahi and Helena Christensen.
Unzipped:The peekaboo scrim; the view from the stage looking out at the aucience.
Unzipped:Cindy Crawford.
Unzipped:The peekaboo scrim; the view from the audience to the stage.
Unzipped:Naomi Campbell.
I have to show her in this crazy vulnerable way.
And so I thought of the scrim idea.
I would always be like, This is not what fashion is about to me: Its about individualism.
It’s a wrap.
I dont want to show on the same runway.
And I was like, Ido?
I dont know how I did the sound.
I dont know how I even held the camera or focused it.
It was not easy and it was not simple.
I dont know if artisanal is the word, but it goes towards that.
You didnt just pick up a camera and run around.
Unzipped:Shalom Harlow multitasking.
And the Super 8 stuff is so beautiful.
Unzipped:Shalom Harlow backstage.
Unzipped:The designer takes a bow.
And he didnt do it in three or four takes.
We did it all in the 20 minutes of the show.
Unzipped:Nina Santisi and Isaac Mizrahi.
Unzipped:Mark Morris in the atelier.
I adore it because that represents something of my young years.
That was really the best part of my life.
By the way, I havent seenUnzippedin its entirety in a very long time.
God time has passed.
Im not trying to pander to them, but Im a showman in a way.
I want to touch people and that informs every single thing I do.
Thats what I reach for.
Unzipped:Isaac Mizrahi on his fire escape.
The competition in those days, there was an insanity about it.
you might see Isaacs wearing his heart on his sleeve, so to speak.
You are not going to tell Isaac about this.
Part of what I love about fashion is how much it matters to those people.
It matters more than anything.
Im not a great believer in balance.
I dont think thats really true.
And fashion is one of the best examples of how you cannot have balance.
You have to be a maniac and you have to care about it more than you care about anything.
And thats just so weird cause its fashion, but I think thats what makes fashion so great.
Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere bakstage at Isaac Mizrahis fall 1994 collection.
And I stick with it and its a success.
I think that it inspires people in that way.
The other thing I know is that its a love letter to New York.
Everybody tells me, I moved to New York because ofUnzipped.
The other thing is, I think its really gay, and that makes me so happy too.
Its like people are gay because ofUnzippedwho other otherwise would have been heterosexuals.
Im very, very proud that its an iconically gay movie.
DK:Its maybe pompous, butUnzippedwas almost too big at the time.
It was distributed by Miramax, in theaters.
It reached so many people.
The very first public screening was with Bergdorfs and all the fashion people came.
I was a nervous wreck and I ran out of the theater a little bit early.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
It was thrilling for those people to see their world in such a way, and that was amazing.
It was really an amazing feat of luck.
Unzipped:Isaac Mizrahi and Kate Moss.
Unzipped:Isaac Mizrahi and Helena Christensen.
Unzipped:Naomi Campbell.
