Lagerfeld Confidential:Dir:Rudolph Marconi:

Building a library of great fashion documentaries should be easier but it is amazing how quickly the good ones go out of print. Already, it is impossible to find Helmut Newton's "Frames From The Edge" or for that matter a most coveted Guy Bourdin TV documentary that seems to have vanished without trace. It drives me nuts that I've never seen it! In the designer ranks there's "Unzipped", the light and frothy Mizrahi time capsule and the Empire Pictures" Yves Saint Laurent His Life and Times/5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris". The latter is invaluable but the second half of the double bill features a long series of YSL fittings that are so tedious the film becomes positively Warholian. Gladly the latest titles for TI's Reference Library on the colorful subjects of Marc Jacobs and Karl Lagerfeld are anything but dull.Talk about a double hit from the two biggest PR manipulators of the moment. (Tom Ford Is Missing ...he's not giving you doc ...just..crotch) Lagerfeld Confidential is full on performance art by the Chanel designer and will totally secure his well tended myth. There are some choice clips all over at Myspace as well a screening starting today at the Film Forum so the artistic merit thereof I strongly feel you will judge for yourself. On my part what inspired me about this documentary was the idea that the shallow and thin milieu which is fashion can actually feed a full and complex life cross referenced with art, literature, history, philosophy, music and some really really good real estate. The footage shot in Lagerfeld's hotel particulier certainly triggered our aspirational itch! Enviable furnishings from every angle... piles and piles of books...Mr Lagerfeld at home having dinner with friends while working the most brilliant floor length Dior Homme ( kilt ?) (man-skirt? ) imaginable is reason enough for me to go home and dig up my self-same ensemble. In tribute.

Marc Jacobs: Louis Vuitton Dir: Loic Prigent

And then there is bad..mad..misunderstood Marc! What we love about the MJ/LV docu is how unguarded Marc is. The most touching moment is at the end when Jacobs is in dialogue with a naturally icy Bernard Arnault. Marc's need for Arnault's thumbs up on the collection is so little-boy-lost that it really shocked me to see this much vulnerability coming from such a venerable designer. But maybe this is why so many kids identify with Marc. Despite all the status and money and power, he's still working through his process, still a misfit that celebrates the awkward and the off and really really invested in creating a brand of fashion that is contemporary and real. For such an inarticulate and giddy guy, Jacobs is a seriously,seriously cerebral designer and people who dismiss him as a Margiela/Commes/Yoji copyist should watch this documentary. (It will be on Sundance early next year) The upshot is Mr Jacobs has etched his odd and personal place in fashion history and there's not a damn thing else to be done but to concede to his incredible passion and talent. But enough of the Mr. Critic voice. How about a fresh serving of hot and steaming industry gossip. You know we got the best tea (wink).

Arena Homme Plus:Ph: Juergen Teller: courtesy of frillr.com
...Starting with Mr Marc. I've been getting emails as to why the once shy Mr Jacobs is on such a PR tear. Nekkid on the cover of Out. Nekkid on the cover of Arena Homme +. Nekkid in the art issue of W as shot by Juergen Teller, though I choked more on the eye-popping quality of the art on the walls rather than on the...err...nevermind. The new Visionaire, ironically titled "Private" is yet another part of the Marc Jacobs/Louis Vuitton cottage industry, this time in collaboration with Mert n Marcus. I do hope Marc's nekkid in this too! This means a MJ cultist could easily drop $400 this month on all this Marc memorabilia. Then there is the post-rehab makeover with the bling-bling and the fresh suits and the 90's "Ceasar" hair cut ("Am I turning into Pharrell?" even Marc asks in AH+) . Is it all Jason's fault? Is it simple convergence in the month of October. Or is it as our Paris Hiss Squad insists, a strategy on Marc's part to up the ante on his newly ending LVMH contact? As in...if you don't feel like paying me what I'm worth why don't I just display my immense cultural value to you. If the hiss is real then it worked no? Lets just say Marc won't be borrowing against salary to buy more million dollar art in the near future....Speaking of a million dollars, which powerhouse agency (in the midst of being sold for beaucoup bucks) just whipped out the checkbook at 1mil plus for that certain legendary agent to defect to their camp. Will he say no? Will he say yes? Our powerhouse tried the same thing with a major major art director who eventually passed. He was to have revamped their entire imaging...with carte blanche...TI can't wait to see who's next in line for the offer... And for the record, yes at the day job, we have indeed heard that IMG's Men's division is rumored to have been sold off. We would like to thank all the various parties who have been so passionate in forwarding this urgent breaking news for two continuous months now... Meanwhile if Jennifer Connolly runs off with the Balenciaga SS08 campaign, Posh Spice kits herself up for Marc Jacobs SS08 and Claudia Schiffer sneaks out with Chanel SS08, what are all those bright young model babes to do? Pray for Prada? You're going to have to kill Sasha Pivovora first who was so moved backstage at the Prada show, she was near to tears while clutching Madame Prada's hands as she congratulated her . If ever a model is 'dark fairy" its SP who will tell ya "it is a bad soldier who does not want to be general" ...

Kate Moss: ID November 2007

We end with a bit of Kate Moss suss. Kate with the Topshop line, the fragrance, the haircare line, (with James Brown) and her very own font has become such a cottage industry rumors are her self-branded income now dwarfs her standard fashion revenue. Or is that another way of saying certain big brands hate that she's turned out to be a better flogger of mass market merch than them. Take it to the bank you fabulous mess you! But what we really want to know is where the new KM pad is going to be? Don't say Mayfair!