The Look

Miniseries

1992 · 6 episodes · 4h 54m in all

Series examining the serious side of the fashion industry

Episodes

1. 

   1. Runway

   20 Sept 1992 · 49 min

   The glitzy runway shows of Paris, Milan, London and New York attract designers, models, journalists, buyers, celebrities, wealthy clients and knock-off merchants. They are all players in a multi-billion-dollar industry. But who sits where? This first film explores the political map of fashion. It also looks at the evolution of the superstar model.

2. 

   2. Scenting Money

   27 Sept 1992 · 48 min

   How marketing techniques - diffusion, franchising and licensing - can mean success or failure for a designer. And a look at Giorgio Armani's lessons in labelling.

3. 

   3. Power of the Press

   4 Oct 1992 · 49 min

   There is a complex of interests among designers, buyers, retailers and the fashion media, all of whom share a common goal - continuing turnover in a multi-billion dollar industry. Tonight's film analyses the power of the fashion press, and its love/hate relationship with the PR machines of top designers.

4. 

   4. Uniform and Function

   11 Oct 1992 · 50 min

   From haute couture to high street to street cred, personal identity can be bought off the peg in the form of fads, trends, looks and national styles. Tonight's film analyses the ways in which people create identity through the uniforms they choose to wear.

5. 

   5. Material World

   18 Oct 1992 · 49 min

   For these three fashion designers, cloth is the essence of the art of design. Futurist Issey Miyake makes hi-tech, innovative use of fabric; Gianni Versace , loved by film and pop stars, uses vibrant silk prints; and Christian Lacroix creates clothes out of fabric painstakingly hand-woven by former down-and-outs.

6. 

   6. Yves Saint Laurent

   25 Oct 1992 · 49 min

   No couture season can end without the YSL collection. But the man whom many call the greatest designer of the 20th century is reclusive, sensitive and so dogged by ill health that his company's president Pierre Berge says: "Yves was born with a nervous breakdown." With the benefit of behind-the-scenes access, this profile of Yves Saint Laurent tries to capture the essence of an elusive man.