Fashion docu takes broader look at ’90s milestones

“In Vogue: The ’90s” —Disney+

The limited docu-series “In Vogue: The ’90s” continues to feed into the interest of this particular decade especially when it comes to fashion. Last year, at around the same time, Apple TV+ came out with its documentary “The Super Models.” That four-episode series gathered the four top models of the ’90s—Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford—to recall the heady days when they reigned supreme on the international fashion runways.

The six-part series, “In Vogue: The ’90s” (Disney+), takes a broader look at the decade, identifying key moments that led to changes in the fashion industry.

Interspersed between interviews with Hollywood celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Claire Danes and Kim Kardashian are interviews with fashion designers, as well as four of the series’ executive producers: Hamish Bowles, Edward Enninful, Tonne Goodman and Vogue global editorial director Anna Wintour.

Wintour recalls that until she took over as editor in chief of American Vogue in 1988, the magazine had become stagnant, churning out the “same” airbrushed covers of models wearing heavy makeup, shot in extreme close up.

Old-world glamor

Her lightbulb moment came when she was seated next to a man on a flight who said he loved Vogue because for him it represented the old-world glamor of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly. She went the opposite direction and chose to put a young Madonna on the cover with her hair wet, posing in a pool.

It was such a different take that when the issue was finally sent off for printing, they got a call asking if they had made a mistake with the cover. The printers didn’t recognize Madonna who, until then, had always been photographed in full makeup wearing outlandish clothes.

The influential Material Girl is mentioned several times in the series, including the time she attended the MTV video music awards wearing a full outfit by designer Tom Ford for Gucci. The next day, the fashion house was inundated with phone calls and requests for fittings of his satin button-down shirts and flared pants.

Remember that line in “The Devil Wears Prada” where Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep channeling Wintour) in an exasperated tone says, “I need to see all the things that Nigel has pulled for Gwyneth’s second cover try”? Turns out, this really happened.

Apparently, Vogue had photographed Paltrow several times, but Wintour didn’t like any of the results hence the reshoots. The fourth attempt was an outdoor shoot where actor Brad Pitt, who was dating Paltrow at the time, dropped by. Their photo didn’t make it on the cover—they went with a solo of the actress perched on a fence—but the issue was a success, and paved the way for other Hollywood stars to appear on the cover.

A few of the supermodels like Campbell and Evangelista are interviewed, but more air time is given to Kate Moss, the waif who “threatened” the other models’ livelihood despite being short and having a crooked smile. “Fangy” is the word Enninful uses to describe her teeth.

As one of the series’ executive producers, he is able to express himself freely and, one thinks, quite boastfully. Enninful recalls his time as a young model in London and his job at i-D magazine, where he was one of its youngest employees.

Designer John Galliano who fell from grace after a drunken, anti-Semitic tirade in 2011 when he was still at Christian Dior is practically reinstalled on a pedestal gauging by the amount of air time he receives. He’s obviously a favorite of Wintour.

“In Vogue: The ’90s” is really a vanity project for the Vogue team. It’s given them the chance to take control of the narrative in a world that can twist things to their liking.