‘Kingdom of Dreams’

A fascinating four part documentary exploring the rivalry between the haute couture Houses of Dior and Gucci in the late 1980s/early ’90s as the fashion industry exploded into a multi-billion dollar concern.

With the objective of becoming the richest man in the world, ruthless French entrepreneur Bernard Arnault from an early age acquired businesses that led him to ownership of the luxuries of Dior, Louis Vuitton, Moet and Hennessy. With advice from Vogue editor Anna Wintour in her early years of dominance, Arnault appointed the young British designer John Galliano at Dior and, a couple of years later, Alexander McQueen to Vuitton. Simultaneously, teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, Gucci appointed Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole to head up the company. Both Dior and Gucci saw a dramatic reversal of their fortunes in an incredibly short period – with the Italian company being purchased by Arnault rival, Francois Pinault.

It was a dazzling time as the houses and the designers competed with each other (Marc Jacobs was to join the mix), pushing boundaries. But at a price – drug and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, suicide, such was the pressure to create and maintain innovation and dominance.

Using archive footage, rare library material and interviews with friends, assistants, journalists, Kingdom of Dreams as a docuseries builds, reflects and captures the glamour and hardships of the Golden Age of fashion and the dominance of corporate within a creative industry.

Rating: 80%

‘White Hot: the Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch’

Abercrombie & Fitch is the brand seen as more or less responsible for the change in millennial fashion. Preceding the likes of The Gap and Banana Republic, the clothes were nothing remarkable, promoting the casual, jock look. It was all about the marketing – and the brand. But the latest Netflix documentary chooses to sidestep this, instead focussing on the history of the toxic work culture of the brand.

Sex sells and the sexualisation of the brand was at the forefront – as it is ironically pointed out, marketing sold the clothes with male models wearing very little. In the US, promotional policies were firmly targetted at Ivy League, jock-culture. In other words, white, Aryan policies. But it went beyond marketing to include staffing in the 000s of outlets across the US. A hiring handbook (‘no dreadlocks’) provided guidance, with less attractive staff confined to the backrooms.

Whilst shocking, it’s ultimately a lightweight, repititious expose of interviews and archival material along with invasive animated graphics. Director Alison Klayman (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, The Brink) barely scratches the surface of the controversies surrounding A&F (the sexualisation in marketing of pre-teens; pumping harmful chemicals into stores through automated cologne dispensers are just two left out). Ultimately, White Hot.. is as guilty of superficial sexualisation and body beautiful imagery to promote itself as the A&F company.

Rating: 50%

‘House of Gucci’

A fractured, hugely disappointing feature, House of Gucci focuses on the manipulative and ambitious Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga – A Star is Born, Machete Kills) as she climbs from her father’s garbage truck business to wife of Maurizio Gucci, heir to the family fortune.

Taking many liberties with the true story of the Gucci empire and eventual death of Maurizio (a surprisingly passionless Adam Driver – Marriage Story, The Report), director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, The Martian) looks to sensationalise an already extraordinary story of extreme wealth, family feuds, jealousies and murder. Yet there’s no context to the lineage, no history and therefore no emotional investment in the likes of Maurizio, cousin Paolo (an unrecognisable Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club, Suicide Squad) or New York-based uncle, Aldo (Al Pacino – Scarface, The Irishman).

It’s ham all the way in House of Gucci and a narrative where it feels most of the film ended up on the cutting room floor.

Nominated for 1 Oscar in 2022 – make up & hair.

Rating: 50%

‘Halston’

At just five episodes each a little over forty minutes or so long, Halston is an easily binged miniseries.

A man who defined an era, the era of excess, Halston is synonymous with glamour, luxury, sleaze, driving ambition and sex. Friend of the stars and wealthy, the fey, camp Halston (a wholly convincing Ewan McGregor) builds his brand through sheer determination and single-minded arrogance (and a great deal of cocaine). But corporate investment is required to provide and sustain a lifestyle along with the flamboyant designer’s vision.

Best friend to Liza Minnelli (Krysta Rodriguez), attracted to rough trade sexual encounters and very late nights preferably at New York’s famed Studio 54, Halston was on a mission to self-destruct. Constant conflict with his investors, the excessive use of drugs along with an open relationship with lover, former rent boy Victor (Gian Franco Rodriguez) full of casual sexual encounters and orgies, eventually caught up with Halston. A disillusioned, burnt out icon died in 1990 from HIV/AIDS.

Halston is engrossing if something of an easy ride – showing remarkable restraint from the usually excessive Ryan Murphy (although Murphy acts as executive producer rather than producer here). McGregor is remarkable, remaining on the right side of fey rather than stereotypical camp, and his relationships with the likes of Minnelli and long-term collaborators – his go-to model and eventual jewellery designer Elsa Peretti (Rebecca Dayan) and illustrator Joe Eula (David Pittu) in particular – are the grounding of the twenty years or so covered by the series.

Selective it may be in its telling of the man’s life (there’s little of his earlier life), Halston is an enjoyable insight into an audacious personality, as much aggravating as genius. This was a man who, with so much cocaine in his system, could miss vital deadlines but who would invite guests to lunch in his Montauk getaway but have the food prepared and flown in from New York.

Rating: 68%