Doc Corner: 'House of Z'

Fashion documentaries have been going downhill ever since Unzipped. Douglas Keeve’s 1995 portrait of Isaac Mizrahi, a box office smash and critical hit, remains the pinnacle of what so many since have attempted. Like Madonna: Truth or Dare, from which it took much inspiration, that riotously funny glimpse into Mizrahi’s world full of design, famous friends, creativity and wickedly self-depreciating neurosis was a perfect storm of sorts between personality, fashion and celebrity that a film about this sort of person ought to be.  

Every year brings us several of these sorts of documentaries. Like the majority of them, Sandy Chronopoulos’ debut feature, House of Z, is easily digestible and barely raises a sweat; a work of celebrity portraiture that fans won’t regret watching, but which offers little beyond what is promised on the tin. Taking the same narrative hook as Unzipped of a talented young designer’s comeback from the precipice of total failure, House of Z is an act of personality redemption for a man whose career nearly fell apart because of his outlandishness and brattish behaviour. This makes it a humble film in many ways, one that deliberately chooses to show its subject as one appreciative of his position.

That also means that it is a humourless one, too; sapped of the fun and the outrageousness and the glamour that should be natural.I can only imagine how fun this film may have been half a decade ago.

But then, as suggested by the title, House of Z is actually more about Posen’s business than the designer himself. We learn all about the history of the label, yet little about the man behind it. Testimonials reel off the typical praise, often circling around Posen’s ‘vision’ as a designer, but these to-camera interviews come off as unnecessary. Particularly when much of this very vision is left to fly by our eyes in hectic montages that deny the audience the chance to revel in the beauty and admire the craftsmanship of his designs.

Talking heads include childhood friends (like, randomly, Paz de la Huerta) who excitedly talk about his early days of design, but those with whom he has recurring professional relationships with today who excitedly exclaim his name on red carpets like Gwyneth Paltrow and Katie Holmes are nowhere to be found. We only learn he has a partner late into the picture, the first acknowledgment that he has any sort of life outside of his design studio. Particular personal triumphs are also left curiously unexplored. His crowning achievement, a luminescent fibre optic gown worn by Claire Danes to the Met Gala in 2016, feels like a natural denouement, but it barely rates a mention. Instead, the film prefers to climax with House of Z going into profit. I can attest you that this is far from thrilling.

And that’s ultimately what House of Z lacks: a central skeleton that’s worth hanging 80 minutes of documentary onto. A late race against the clock to complete a lavish, multi-tiered dress for the runway is a gallant attempt, but not only does Posen himself seem to have little to actually do with its construction, the film around it doesn’t ever suggest that it’s the career-ending moment that could sink him into bankrupt irrelevancy. Anybody who’s watched an episode of Project Runway lately knows he is doing well for himself.

Despite its frequently dour tone, it’s appropriate in some way that Posen himself offers the film its strongest element. While he is a polarizing figure in the fashion world, his boisterous and passionate words add immeasurably to the film. It’d be easy to roll your eyes when in the film’s trailer Posen states “I’m really tired of not having money”, but it comes from a place of his desire to – like all creatives – simply be able to create and produce his ideas more so than anything to do with the lifestyle and the accoutrements that come with it. The tenacity of his craving to create and his wish to keep the hands-on element alive in his workspace is palpable throughout and is what makes House of Z hum along in spite of itself.

Oscar Chances: None. The documentary branch never go for fashion.

Release: Will begin streaming on Vogue.com from tomorrow.

Comments

[adri]

What a good idea, to see some fashion documentaries to get our minds geared up for Daniel Day Lewis's next film.

I think the last fashion documentary I saw was an old one by Wim Wenders on Yohji Yamamoto, which I really liked. I think it was called Notebooks on Cities and Clothes.

Yamamoto's models all wear flat shoes, because his mother was a dressmaker, and the rich women who patronized her were mean and wore high heels. And as a kid, he hated how cruel they were to his mother.

And how does high fashion look in flats? Those women are fast, and when they move together they are an intimidating wave.

[Glenn Dunks]

Adri, that is one I haven't seen - it's hard to come by! - but I have heard stellar things.