Fashion fills all the space. This selection features 4 current series about great designers, where every stitch tells a story of a life full of passions, mistakes, and greatness.

Fashion is not only the glitter of runways, but also shattered destinies and dramas. This selection features 4 relatively recent series about great designers, where every stitch tells a story of a life full of passions, mistakes, and greatness.

In recent years, fashion series have captured the audience's attention, opening the doors to the most famous fashion houses of Paris, Rome, and other capitals of this industry. On screen, the gloss of elegant fabrics and the brilliance of actors present the history of the biggest names.

Instead of putting fashion geniuses on a pedestal, the authors show them from a new perspective: they allow them to be imperfect, far from the ideals of beauty they themselves created. Those once considered unattainable are presented to viewers as ordinary people—with their fears, flaws, and life mistakes. This makes their images more vivid and relatable, shattering the myth of perfection.

«Becoming Karl Lagerfeld» (2024)

«Memoirs? I don't know what to answer. I make an effort to forget what happened to me». That was the opinion the Kaiser of fashion expressed in recent years about his own biography. But still, on June 7, 2024, on the 5th anniversary of Karl Lagerfeld's death, the miniseries «Becoming Karl Lagerfeld» was released on Disney+.

The series covers a key decade in Lagerfeld's life—from 1972 to 1983—when he transforms from a modest designer who preferred to work anonymously into one of the most influential people in the fashion world.

This is not the first story about the most scandalous fashion genius on screen. The series is based on a posthumously published biography by Raphaëlle Bacqué, a journalist from Le Monde. She worked on it for 3 years starting in October 2017. If not for Bacqué, we might never have known what troubled the heart of the cold and secretive Karl. The journalist's co-authors were Isabelle Desgeorges and Arnaud de Crémiers.

Viewers will not get a free interpretation of Karl's story, but rather attend the most important lessons of fashion. The series focuses on his professional successes before his appointment at Chanel in 1983 cemented his place at the top of the fashion hierarchy.

The 1970s mark the rise of two masters of the fashion industry of the last century: Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent. Dressed to the nines but with nothing special behind him, a «craftsman» in every sense, decides he is no worse than his friend, later rival, Yves Saint Laurent, who is already known on the world stage. In addition, we get a deeper look into the problems and experiences of the Kaiser of fashion.

Amidst the clashes of egos, the glamour and chic of every frame shine through. The costumes and style of the character not only let us understand their position among the golden youth of Paris but also tell the personal stories of the heroes. As Daniel Brühl, who plays Karl Lagerfeld, said, fashion is «a way of embodying the spirit of the times, reflecting the true nature of society».

«Cristóbal Balenciaga» (2024)

«Fashion is not what it used to be», declares a journalist to the couturier at the funeral of the «Great Mademoiselle» Coco Chanel in a new glossy drama released on the same Disney+. The miniseries, consisting of 6 episodes, immerses us in the middle of the last century and covers 30 years of the life of the «master of us all», according to Christian Dior—Cristóbal Balenciaga.

Each episode is accompanied by quotes from fellow couturiers about his genius. He could not have imagined that the designs setting trends in Spain would be warmly received in the refined empire of fashion, already dominated by brands such as Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy. Guided by his obsession in all aspects of his life, Balenciaga defines his style and will ultimately become the greatest of all.

Some may feel the series falls into clichés, as we learn his story through an interview, which he avoided for most of his career. Balenciaga bluntly recounts events from his life to journalist Prudence Glynn, covering the years he spent in Paris, some of which passed under Nazi occupation.

In these troubled times, Balenciaga must decide what is worth fighting for and whether there is a place for his art in such far-reaching misfortune. But despite the losses suffered on a personal and global scale, he ultimately realized that his work and making the world a more beautiful place, one outfit at a time, is a worthy cause.

The series allows us to dive into the history of the creation of truly legendary fashion objects over the couturier's thirty-year career.

«Cristóbal Balenciaga» is not just a story about the rise of one fashion designer, but about a man who did not care about fame, whose vision of perfection brought order amidst global upheavals.

«Balenciaga is the last true designer, all the rest are just seamstresses».

«The New Look: Revolution of Style» (2024)

«The New Look: Revolution of Style» (2024) carefully threads the needle into the life of Christian Dior, tearing apart some of the most outstanding figures of fashion at the seams. On Apple TV+, another dramatic series has been released, this time focusing on Christian Dior and Coco Chanel. What happens on screen at first glance looks like a confrontation between two knights of French fashion, but it is not that at all.

The opening credits already set the scene: World War II and the horrors consuming not only soldiers but also ordinary French people who will be forced to serve the Nazi government. What should the main titans of the fashion craft do? In such a difficult and heavy period, Coco's personal choice was to close all boutiques and stop working. Dior, on the contrary, set aside his worries and decided to pull himself together and create, just to feed his family.

«The New Look: Revolution of Style» covers three key events in the designers' lives: 1943—the occupation of Paris, 1947—the creation of the New Look collection, and 1955—the decline of Dior's career. Parallel to the fashion intrigue, the personal dramas of the heroes unfold: Dior tries to save his sister Catherine, a Resistance member, from Gestapo captivity, while Coco unexpectedly begins a romance with a German spy, which will create even more problems for her in the future.

You don't need to understand fashion to watch this work: the central issues of the story are not the choice of fabrics, but the moral choices related to survival conditions during the war. Was Madame Chanel a cunning collaborator, or did she have to make such a decision out of desperation? It is not clear. The authors left this question open for the viewer, so that everyone can form their own opinion.

«Halston» (2021)

«An inaccurate, fictionalized account», according to the family of the famous American designer, was released on Netflix in 2021. Despite the family's objections, the series is based on the biography Simply Halston by Steven Gaines. «Halston» presents us with all the dramatic ups and downs of an extremely creative pioneer in the fashion industry, who created a national phenomenon around his inventive designs. Ultimately, he gained international recognition under his nickname «Halston».

«I have a vision. I'm going to change the face of American fashion», declares Ewan McGregor, who plays the designer himself, in the series. The events unfold in the same fashionable 60s; the streets of Europe are already filled with boutiques and fashion houses, but who dresses America? The starting point of his career is the creation of a legendary hat for Jackie Kennedy, worn on the day of her husband's inauguration; matrons in pillbox hats whisper in quiet voices: «That's Halston.»

The series doesn't let you get bored, as viewers are invited to all the most iconic parties of New York's golden youth; the glitter and excess of the legendary nightclub Studio 54 will repeatedly lead to key acquaintances and pivotal events in the hero's life. But besides parties and chic, of course, we will observe his creative aspirations to the top of the fashion industry.

America and Europe are two different worlds, and the series «Halston» emphasizes this from the first frames. There is no room here for long searches for inspiration or contemplative creativity. Unlike European fashion, where traditions, history, and art for art's sake are valued, here everything revolves around deals, investments, scaling, and mass production. This is not just a difference in approaches—it is a clash of two mentalities, two philosophies.

At the peak of his career, Halston signs a contract with mass retailer JCPenney, which becomes a fatal mistake. The high fashion industry rejects him, believing he betrayed his principles for commercial success. At the same time, Halston faces personal problems: drug addiction, loss of control over his brand, and deteriorating health.

America's top fashion designer becomes a hostage to his own success and loses himself; pressure from the industry and illness force him to reflect on the price of such recognition. The bitter realization of the commercialization of art and the race for ratings become a fire from which Halston will not be able to escape.