NYFW in Your Own Home
If you can't get to the shows, a guide to the top TV programs and films about the stellar industry
New York Fashion Week is in full swing.
Not many of us get to go to the shows, let alone check out the runways from the front row with Anna. (If you have to ask “Anna who?” stop reading.) You can still get into the spirit of the event though with a coveted seat (your sofa) and your streaming service by watching the top sartorial features, TV shows and documentaries about an industry that “Miranda Priestly” once informed us “represents millions of dollars and countless jobs.”
THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE: How the aforementioned Anna Wintour puts together her phone book-size fashion bible.
THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY: Oh, that Vogue editor in chief just doesn’t slow down. This documentary has her planning the Costume exhibit at the Met museum.
OCEAN’S EIGHT: Female thieves steal the jewels from the Met Gala because, really, isn’t it all about accessorizing?
GIA: Angelina Jolie is all attitude as the real-life supermodel turned drug addict.
FASHION: Priyanka Chopra, aka Mrs. Nick Jonas, goes from small-town to supermodel and discovers all that glitters is not gold lamé.
ZOOLANDER: Male models deserve representation, too.
DON’T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER’S DEAD: Teen fakes a fashion resume and becomes a designer — because it’s that easy.
BLOW UP: ‘60s mod style and murder. Who could ask for more?
13 GOING ON 30: The female version of "Big" set at a fashion glossy.
SHOP GIRL: Claire Danes hopes well-to-do customer Steve Martin will rescue her from behind the counter at Saks Fifth Avenue.
BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY: “New Yorker” fact checker, Michael J. Fox, snorts a lot of a certain substance to cope with the realization that his wife only saw him as her ticket to become a model in Manhattan.
PERFUME: Every aspect of the fashion world is represented by this BEN HUR cast of thousands, who improvised all the dialogue.
SCATTER MY ASHES AT BERGDORF’S: Fashion luminaries discuss why the store is to die for. Like we don’t already know.
FUNNY FACE: Fred Astaire may play a photographer and Audrey Hepburn his muse, but the movie stealer is when a fashion editor declares the need for a new black and the whole office breaks out into a rousing chorus of “Think Pink.”
READY TO WEAR: Fashion Week shenanigans with an all-star ensemble.
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S: Isn’t it really about a little black dress and pearls?
COVER GIRL: Iconic ginger Rita Hayworth goes from the chorus to a magazine cover. Surprised?
PHANTOM THREAD: Life falls apart at the seams when a renowned 1950s gown designer gets a girlfriend.
DESIGNING WOMAN: Fashion diva Lauren Bacall marries sports writer Gregory Peck. ‘Nuf said.
SWEET HOME ALABAMA: They may sell her clothes at Bergdorf’s, but once-scrappy Reese Witherspoon, who’s engaged to a Kennedy-esque Patrick Dempsey, gets nostalgic for Civil War re-enactments, Lynyrd Skynyrd and her down-home husband.
INTERN: Retired Robert De Niro proves he’s still got it at Anne Hathaway’s e-commerce clothing company.
UNZIPPED: The year Isaac Mizrahi turned his career around.
THE COLLECTION: Scandal. Betrayal. Feuds. No, it’s not a sample sale. It’s a post-WWII fashion house.
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC: Buying endless amounts of clothes can add up. Go figure.
SEX AND THE CITY: I think we can all finally admit this franchise was all one long commercial for Manolo Blahnik and Patricia Field.
And the grande dame of them all:
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA: A wannabe writer reluctantly takes a fashion magazine job that (all together now) a million girls would kill for.
Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novels "Fat Chick" and "Back to Work She Goes."