High fashion visits Dunedin this weekend when the film Dior and I screens as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival. Jude Hathaway talked to New York-based director Frederic Tcheng about the eight weeks he spent filming at the House of Dior.
Of course there are the breathtaking gowns.
But in the 90-minute film Dior and I, director Frederic Tcheng has achieved much more than a fascinating documentary on the legendary House of Dior.
This is a fashion thriller about guts and sweat - with the white work-gloves on please; about dedication, hard work, loyalty, humour and the tension that surrounded the creation of a haute couture collection in an almost impossible eight short weeks.
It is more commonly achieved across five or six months.
It is also the clear-sighted portrayal of the power of collaboration as a team puts everything on the line for a project about which they are passionate.
The screen story takes place in that brief period of time between the arrival of Dior's newly appointed artistic director, Belgian Raf Simons, and the staging of his first haute couture collection for autumn/winter 2012.
The question of who would fill the role left empty by the much publicised dismissal of John Galliano following a drunken tirade, had generated speculation and gossip.
The attention continued following Simons' appointment, as the the international fashion world anticipated the fast-approaching Paris haute couture show.
Here was a man whose career had been built in ready-to-wear, first through his menswear collections then as designer for Jil Sander, a label with a spare and minimalistic design aesthetic.
''Many were surprised at the choice because of Raf's work being so different from the embellished luxury and romance of Dior,'' says Tcheng, on the phone from France.
Tcheng was well aware of Raf Simons and his design aesthetic long before starting work on the film and had an idea of his character from the few interviews he had done.
''I felt a kinship with him in his attitude towards his work and the way he prefers to express himself through his work, to let it speak for itself rather than talking about it. He is quite shy, preferring to focus on the work, not the image.
''He is also a person who is not completely immersed in the world of fashion but a little bit of an outsider.
"He does not socialise in the fashion world or particularly like the media attention,'' says Tcheng, who adds that he does not consider himself a fashion film-maker but rather ''a film-maker who makes fashion films''.
Tcheng had already completed two film works about fashion when he met Olivier Bialabos, Dior's international communications chief, who suggested the Dior project.
He had co-produced, co-edited and shot Valentino: The Last Emperor, which was short-listed for the best documentary Oscar and co-directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel.
He embraced the challenge.
''I knew that here was a great story.
"It had taken the house a long time to select the new designer and when Raf Simons was chosen many in the industry thought that he was an odd fit for the position and I saw that here was a fascinating mix of modernity and tradition.''
Less enthusiastic was Raf Simons himself, who gave Tcheng just one week of filming.
Tcheng was philosophical, approaching the shoot with a discreet sensitivity.
''I respected his attitude. It must have been hard for him to let us film even for one week.''
However, at the week's end Tcheng was invited by Simons to stay on.
''He seemed surprised when he saw us packing up and suggested that we accompany him on his planned visit to the archives the next day,'' Tcheng said, adding that the change of attitude saw them remain filming for the whole eight weeks.
''You know, the position of being a film-maker is quite strange in that because you are focused on filming them you go through everything with them and often form an emotional empathy while the subject has very little knowledge about the person behind the camera.''
Much is captured.
Simons' vulnerability is palpable from the opening moments of the film, when he and his right-hand man Pieter Mulier are accorded a warm welcome by the Dior team, from top management through to the accomplished seamstresses who work in the house's three ateliers.
Overwhelming, too, is the strong presence of Christian Dior within the building.
''He is everywhere,'' Tcheng remarks.
''It was kind of eerie at times as there are a lot of parallels between the two men.
"It really became obvious to me when I was reading Christian Dior's biography, the way he talks about his job, about how he goes about making a collection, the emotions that he has, and his relationship to the press.
"All are similar to Raf's.
''In fact this is where I found the structure for the film.
"When I was shooting I would go back home at the end of the day and I would pick up Dior's biography.
"It was uncanny because in many instances I felt that I was repeating what I had just experienced during that day.
''This, I believe, not only says much about the two men's similarity.
"It also says a lot about the power of tradition and that the way of working in haute couture has not changed much in 65 years.''
There were times during filming that Simons became anxious about what had been filmed and would tell Tcheng not to include something that he had shot.
But by the next day he had forgotten about it.
''These times of vulnerability are often, unfortunately, when it becomes interesting for film-makers.
"But I felt it was important that the film showed Raf feeling overwhelmed and convey a sense of the panic he must have felt knowing he had such big shoes to fill.''
There is one particularly powerful scene on the visit to the archives when a model dons the white ''Bar'' jacket of 1947 that epitomised Dior's hugely influential ''New Look''.
Simons muses: ''It is quite a challenge to face a legacy that is so gigantic and so sublime''.
This is a film in which the audience is treated to a feast of scenes, revealing, uplifting, amusing and poignant, along the way.
The chance to see Raf Simons put his stamp on his first Dior collection is one; a delightful interlude when Simons visits Christian Dior's childhood home in Granville, Normandy, is another.
Also spell-binding is the access to the world of Dior's white-smocked seamstresses as they work their magic on opulent garments under the leadership of two premiers.
Not only does this provide a splendid insight into the rarefied air of haute couture but also reveals the economic realities of the house, as the work on the collection is balanced against the demands of important clients.
Described by Madame Catherine Riviere, director of haute couture at Dior, as ''the soul of the house'' the seamstresses bring grace and humour as well as their skills to the project.
It is in fact a scene involving seven or eight interns and seamstresses, filmed after midnight on the night before the show as they work on the last gown together, quietly sharing their excitement, that is a personal favourite of Tcheng's.
''I like the mood. But I also like the way it says such a lot about collaboration, how each of the seamstresses around that table brings something to that last gown.
''And later when I was editing the film I realised that this was what the creative process is all about.
"It stays the same whether you are making a film or a fashion collection or whether it is in 1947 or 2012.
"It's about collaborating with other people, the emotions that come into it and the way everyone puts a little of their spirit into the project.
"And then at the end of the journey it is presented to the public and it becomes something different, an object, with the people often not thinking about the ups and downs and the emotions that have been so much part of that creative story.''
See it
Dior and I screens at the Regent Theatre on Saturday at 11.15am and Sunday at 6pm; then at the St James, Gore on Saturday, August 23 at 1.15pm and on Sunday, August 24 at 6.30pm.
