Isaac Mizrahi’s ‘Unzipped’ Restoration Streams December 1

The 4K (ultra-high-definition) restoration of Isaac Mizrahi’s 1995 fashion documentary “Unzipped” will make its Criterion Channel streaming debut on Dec. 1, Variety reports.

Variety calls the film “groundbreaking.” The 1995 documentary chronicles Mizrahi’s planning and execution of the show for his fall 1994 collection. Its focus on the route from plan to runway presentation, rather than the finished clothes alone, makes the creative process its organizing subject.

Miramax bought the documentary after it became a hit at Sundance in 1995, according to Variety. The credits and appearances extend well beyond Mizrahi’s own collection:

• On-camera appearances: Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, the late André Leon Talley and Eartha Kitt, alongside other fashion insiders and glitterati.
• Direction and photography: Douglas Keeves, Mizrahi’s then-boyfriend, directed the film. Ellen Kuras and Robert Leacock shot it.

Variety places “Unzipped” within a career that continued well beyond that collection. At the height of releasing his eponymous collection, Mizrahi dressed Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Kidman and Natalie Portman. The documentary thus sits early in a career that later crossed design, performance and acting.

Variety reports that, after closing shop in 1998, Mizrahi released collections under different monikers or designed for other brands. He also launched a show-business career with a cabaret act. Most recently, he appeared in “Marty Supreme” as Gwyneth Paltrow’s press agent.

What does the streaming debut add for viewers?

For viewers, the practical change is a Criterion Channel streaming debut for the restored documentary after a limited theatrical release, according to Variety. The Dec. 1 presentation also arrives with a new installment of the Criterion original series “Adventures in Moviegoing.”

In that installment, Mizrahi sits down with Criterion’s Peter Becker to discuss the films that have shaped his “singular sensibility,” as Variety puts it. The pairing matters because it puts Mizrahi’s own account beside the documentary that records his working process. Variety also includes an exclusive clip from the appearance.

Mizrahi is also developing a television series about the life of the legendary and very controversial paparazzi photographer Ron Galella, according to Variety. He is working with producer Christine Vachon, and the proposed project involves the Ron Galella estate.

“We’re doing it with the Ron Galella estate,” Mizrahi told Variety in September. “It’s very exciting. We’re in the first, first, first stages, so we haven’t even pitched it or anything yet. But it’s really such a great idea, only because of what it means culturally to our country.”

The quotation fixes the project at an early stage. Mizrahi said the team had not even pitched the series, despite his description of its cultural importance. “Unzipped,” by contrast, has a firm Dec. 1 streaming date and a defined Criterion companion piece. The next test is whether the Ron Galella project advances beyond that earliest-stage description.