Film

Dior and I

Name: Dior and I
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2015
Cast: Raf Simons, Pieter Mulier, Bernard Arnault, Donatella Versace, Anna Wintour

Workplace drama

A ticking-clock documentary that drops you inside the Dior atelier as Raf Simons, newly installed and terrified, has eight weeks to design his first haute couture collection. It's less about clothes than about pressure — the seamstresses' hands, the executives' nerves, the sheer strangeness of turning grief and ambition into fabric. Gorgeous, tense, oddly moving.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy watching a craft unfold in close quarters, the anxious hours of making beautiful things under deadline, more than the glamour that surrounds them.

Skip it if you want a fast-moving documentary with a clear arc and plenty of narration; this one lingers on fittings and rehearsals and keeps its own counsel for long stretches.

What it asks of you: Ninety minutes of patient observation, with long unhurried takes and little explaining, so you have to settle into the rhythm of the studio to get anything from it.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The September Issue2009

Anna Wintour's Vogue assembling its biggest annual issue, with the same backstage access and the same quiet power struggles between creative vision and commercial reality.

But Wintour is a colder, less sympathetic centre than Simons — this is more about institutional power than personal stakes.

McQueen2018

A documentary portrait of a genius under unbearable pressure, tracing how spectacle and personal torment fed each other across a whole career rather than one collection.

But Far darker and sadder by the end — this isn't a hopeful film, and it doesn't pretend otherwise.

Valentino: The Last Emperor2008

Another couture house on camera, but funnier and warmer — Valentino and his partner Giancarlo bicker like an old married couple while an empire quietly changes hands around them.

But Lower stakes than Dior and I — this is about a legacy winding down, not a newcomer proving himself.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Dior and I

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi2011

Swap ateliers for a sushi counter and you get the same structural engine: an obsessive artisan, a punishing standard, and a camera patient enough to watch the work itself become the drama.

A serene, exacting documentary about an elderly sushi master whose entire life is discipline and repetition in pursuit of perfection.

But Almost no tension by comparison — Jiro's world is settled and calm where Dior's is anxious and improvised.

The First Monday in May2016

The Met Gala's chaotic production, with Wintour and Andrew Bolton again showing how much institutional anxiety hides behind a red carpet.

But Spreads itself across many designers and departments, so it never gets as intimate as watching one man carry a whole collection.

House of Gucci2021

If you want the drama dialled up to soap opera, this fictionalised Gucci saga gives you the same house-under-pressure feeling with murder and Lady Gaga's accent thrown in.

But It's trashy and knows it — nothing here has the documentary's texture or restraint.

Halston2021

A scripted miniseries tracking a designer's rise and unravelling inside corporate fashion, with real attention to how creative control gets bought and sold.

But Ewan McGregor's performance is mannered, and the back half sags into standard rise-and-fall biopic beats.

Iris2014

A gentler companion piece — nonagenarian style icon Iris Apfel treats fashion as pure joyful self-expression, a nice antidote to Dior and I's tension.

But Almost no drama or conflict; if you want the pressure-cooker feeling, this won't give it to you.

Coco Before Chanel2009

A dramatised origin story showing how Chanel's severe, modern eye first collided with the fussy couture world Dior himself would later help define.

But Slow, mannered biopic pacing — more interested in atmosphere than incident.

Phantom Thread2017

Paul Thomas Anderson clearly studied this exact world of hands, fabric, and fragile male genius — watching it after Dior and I feels like seeing the documentary's anxieties turned into gothic fiction.

A fictional dressmaker in 1950s London, controlling and brilliant, whose relationship to his craft is as intimate and strange as any real couturier's.

But It's a slow-burn character study with a genuinely unsettling romantic core, not a behind-the-scenes portrait — don't expect documentary rhythms.

Unzipped1995

Same eight-weeks-to-showtime structure two decades earlier, before the genre polished itself — proof this kind of countdown film has always worked because the pressure is real, not staged.

A scrappier, funnier ancestor of the fashion-doc genre, following Isaac Mizrahi through the chaos of assembling a single collection under deadline.

But Cruder camerawork and a much smaller budget — this is fashion documentary before it learned to look elegant.