Editor’s Note: Since it came out 32 years ago, Unzipped—a documentary about the lead-up to and aftermath of Isaac Mizrahi’s fall 1994 collection—has never lost its charm. In fashion terms, it’s a “timeless classic.” Ironically, it holds up so well because it’s about far more than clothes; it’s a story of love, vulnerability, and the courage artists need. We first spoke with Isaac Mizrahi and Douglas Keeve about Unzipped for its 25th anniversary. They added more thoughts for its 30th. Now, as the newly restored film hits theaters, Mizrahi, Keeve, and producer Nina Santisi have kindly returned to the topic.

“Good news is good news, and bad news is good news when you’re making a documentary,” says Douglas Keeve, who directed Unzipped, the iconic fashion film restored for a theatrical rerelease 31 years after its 1995 debut. “It’s all about discovery, you know. You have to be a journalist, but you also have to stay innocent. Try not to steer things—just capture them.”

Life can sometimes be stranger than fiction, but every storyteller—whether a dreamer or a documentarian—needs some spark to move the story forward.

The grain of sand around which Keeve builds his rare gem of a movie is a negative fashion review that designer Isaac Mizrahi, the film’s outgoing subject, got for his spring 1994 ready-to-wear collection. What follows is a look at the mostly instinctive and intuitive process that drives Mizrahi to create a fall line that wins critics back.

Fashion’s fleeting nature makes it tricky for film, since it ages quickly. Unzipped, well-received when it first came out, has stood the test of time. On the surface, it’s about making a collection—a topic many filmmakers have tackled since—but Keeve’s film is ultimately bigger than fashion, and that’s why it endures. At its core, Unzipped is an intimate, affectionate portrait of Mizrahi (who was dating Keeve when the movie was made) and a record of the creative process, that intangible mix of magic and madness. As an independent designer, Mizrahi is David against the industry’s Goliath. Caught in the endless cycle of seasons, he’s also like Sisyphus, pushing a boulder uphill. The goal is a fashion show—“the most wonderful 20 minutes of a designer’s life,” as Mizrahi puts it—and then it’s straight back to the drawing board.

At one point in the film, Mizrahi, a true New Yorker, reenacts Mary Tyler Moore’s “I’m going to make it after all” hat toss. It’s captured by Keeve, a Californian who saw himself as an outsider to fashion. (He later made Seamless and Hotel Gramercy Park.) It’s just one example of what the director calls “an unsaid, unseen narration.” In the end, the camera stands in for the zipper in the title.

Here, the film’s subject, its director, and producer Nina Santisi reflect on the movie they made over 30 years ago.

Unzipped: The marvelous Mizrahi is always on!
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax

In the Beginning
Douglas Keeve: I was a fashion photographer. I think of myself as a storyteller, so I always wanted to push fashion photography in that direction. I could never tell stories in my fashion pictures the way Helmut Newton or Steven Klein could. Film was how I could express myself better. And I felt Isaac was bigger than fashion—he had worth beyond what he did, and that’s the person I saw; it wasn’t the fashion designer—it was the “Renaissance man.”

Isaac Mizrahi: Douglas, Nina, and I made a film together for the CFDA when I won one year. It was this hilarious video, and people really liked it. By the way, there are a million different versions of how this [film] started, but my version is that cameras began rolling because of that original collaboration, and we allI thought, “Oh, this could be great. Let’s see where it goes.” By “we,” I mean Nina Santisi, Douglas, and me. Nina played a big part in shaping the project—she helped envision it right alongside us.

Nina Santisi: In 1991, Isaac was winning his second CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year Award. The event had generic packages, and I felt we should make our own film for the show. Douglas had been dating Isaac, had worked as a fashion photographer, and was just starting out in filmmaking, so he was the obvious choice to direct. We wrote a playful, spoofy film. I got Elsa Klensch to do a fake voiceover, and Isaac’s answers were hilarious. The film was such a hit that Bergdorf Goodman asked to run it in their store windows. After that, I remember telling Isaac, “Let’s make a documentary.” He gave me a high five.

Unzipped: Mizrahi multitasking.
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax

A Fine Romance

IM: I remember talking to my therapist between the CFDA film and the early days of Unzipped, saying, “I really like this guy. Do you think it will get in the way of us working together?” He said, “Well, if you two worked well on the first project, why wouldn’t you work well on the second?” That made me feel a lot better, but in the end, we did break up. I mean, we probably would have broken up eventually anyway, but Unzipped sped that up.

NS: It was pretty essential that Isaac and Douglas were in a relationship because Douglas could capture moments that were very intimate and central to the film. He’s filming Isaac in the bathtub, filming Isaac in bed watching Nanook of the North. He was right there for so many of those moments, and that mattered. But it was also tough when we were editing because Douglas was stuck in his apartment working seven days a week. We had a serious deadline, and Isaac didn’t see the film until the very end. It was around that time that their relationship started to fall apart.

DK: It was life. There was a lot of really, really great stuff in our relationship. And I think in Mizrahi’s memoir, he was totally right: I was moody, and I suffered for my work just like he did. I was hard to be around, just like he was. We were all very human and very devoted to our art. Unzipped didn’t ruin our relationship, but it was part of our lives.

I just loved Isaac on every level. He’s a rare bird—there aren’t many people like him. There may be better designers, or people who excel in other ways, but he was magical. I think he still is. I just interviewed him, and no one gets the kind of interview out of him that I do. I know how to light the fuse, so to speak, and bring out his brilliance. I think I knew how to do that back then too; it just takes one question.

Revelations

IM: Especially when the filming was in my studio, I just had fun. You know that scene with Amber Valletta where I’m sort of up her skirt, adjusting the straps under her bodysuit? That was fun, even with a huge crew around. A lot was happening, but it didn’t bother me because it felt like a circus, which was the original idea.

If you had been at my studio in the 1990s, you’d see the House of Mizrahi one minute, then Candace Bushnell and Julia Roberts the next, and my mother and Manolo Blahnik talking about Xavier Cugat with Shalom Harlow, telling her how much she looked like Ava Gardner—it was just too wonderful. You couldn’t miss the chance to get a camera in there and just start rolling. That’s how it all began.

It didn’t feel vulnerable; it felt empowering, until it turned into something more structured. Then yes, I felt vulnerable in that way. But in the end, I didn’t, because I knew there was an editing process. Still, after it was edited, there were so many revealing moments about myself that I thought, “You have to keep these in, because otherwise it’s sickening. You’re making this thing about yourself, and you want it to glorify you? No way.”Absolutely not. That’s just gross. So I couldn’t take any of it out.

DK: We didn’t live together, but we spent a lot of time together, and I think that partly made the film work. Isaac feels at ease anywhere, in any situation, no matter what.

It’s funny—I had to go out of my way to keep myself out of the movie. I appeared in a lot of the footage, and I didn’t want to, so I’m mostly not in it. I come across more like this nosy guy peeking into a world he doesn’t feel part of and wishes he did. I’ve always felt like an outsider, and I think that’s central to the film. I don’t have that brilliance or that wildness those people have, nor the artistic temperament, which I think is so important.

Unzipped: Fashion sketches.
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax

Behind the Seams
IM: I don’t really recall specific moments from filming, except Douglas telling me we’d be shooting with Eartha Kitt one night and how strongly I resisted it because it felt like a trap (which it was), but it turned out to be one of the most loved scenes in the movie. He basically had to drag me there.

NS: It was heartbreaking when Women’s Wear Daily published Gautier’s Eskimo Chic look before our show. I was also making the film and knew we had to capture that moment. When Douglas saw the cover, he said, “Oh my God, we have to film this,” and he set up the camera and left the room. I tried to get Robert Best—Isaac’s assistant—to bring the issue to him so he could see it. Isaac needed to know what was happening, but we also wanted to record it for the film. It was a tough moment because I knew how he’d react. Anyway, Robert refused to bring it in. No one wanted to, so I had to show it to him, and he lost it, as you’d expect. Watching that scene in the film is hard because I remember the agony of that moment, but it added drama and was good for the movie. In the end, it didn’t affect Isaac’s collection.

DK: The thing about Isaac is that he’s so unaware of himself. I could walk into the bathroom or find him in the tub, on the phone with his mother, or sketching, and I was just part of the background. There’s no way I’d let anyone film me in the bath, like most people wouldn’t. So everything I thought would be tough was easy. The hard part was when Isaac plays Clair de Lune in the film; I was filming him playing, and he was practicing, stopping, and making errors. When he saw the final cut, he said, “You’re cutting that out.” I asked, “What do you mean?” He replied, “I’m playing terribly; no one can see that. You’re removing it.” We had a big fight that went on for ages. I said, “I’m not cutting it out,” because his performance is so beautiful—the pauses and mistakes give it a poetic quality that matches what we see on screen, like him walking through the snow. I don’t win many arguments with Isaac, but I won that one. Maybe that’s why we’re still friends.

The Verdict
DK: I knew from the moment we went to the newsstand and he got that bad review that we had something at stake and a story to tell. I didn’t care what happened with his next collection—good or bad, it didn’t matter. The beauty of documentary is that everything is good material.

IM: I’ll always find it ironic that people think I was hanging on every word of that review. In truth, I was thrilled because I thought, “Great, more appointments, more dresses sold, more business. Hooray!” You know? Back then, fashion criticism was different. It never bothered me personally; it was like a game of roulette.Like: “I love it!” “No, that’s terrible. Nobody go.” “Everyone go.” That’s what fashion criticism used to be. I know who I am as an artist, but back then, criticism was mostly about selling clothes, and that’s why I was so anxious. I love doing what I do, but if you don’t sell clothes, you can’t keep doing it. And if you don’t get good reviews, you don’t sell many clothes, and eventually you go out of business, right? So that’s why I was always so desperate about reviews—not because of what you might think, like, “What a big ego, what a huge creative ego.” It’s true. I have an enormous creative ego. And you know what they say, darling, big ego…

DK: I don’t know what Isaac’s clothes did… but I know what he did, which is why I made the film. It’s one thing to look at a mood board and think you understand someone’s process, but it’s another thing to sit with Isaac and learn what he’s thinking and why. Because it ties into things like what you learned in high school, whether you liked Cheerios, trying not to repeat yourself, and having been to the Metropolitan Museum and seen the medieval armor on display—all of that comes together. That’s kind of what Unzipped helps you understand.

Unzipped: Veronica Webb.
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax

Three graces backstage.
Photo: WWD / Getty Images

Back in the Day

IM: In the ’90s, fashion was becoming more about the individual. It was like, “No, this is who I am.” When I started at Perry Ellis, we used to have these big fashion shows with Kim Alexis, Esmé Marshall, Nancy Donahue, and those girls did what you told them. They stood there until you pushed them onto the runway, and that was it, you know? Then, in the ’90s, you had Linda Evangelista saying, “Yeah, no. I like this shoe.” So somehow, a dialogue started. I think that’s one reason the film is so influential. You had this moment where women were breaking the rules.

In those days, those girls were going out into the world and conquering it in an almost super-heroic way, you know? The ’90s was just the edge of that. Before the supermodels, women did what they were told about how they looked; after them, it became this almost fetishy, delicate thing. Like, “Oh, am I making a mistake?” I think people are inspired by that raw energy from the ’90s. It was before all those crazy, huge fashion shows, before the democratization of fashion, before any of that. And it just happened. I didn’t pay celebrities to sit in the front row; they would just show up. It was a fun, wild moment that we earned. Now it’s all business, business, business.

DK: Fashion has always looked back and borrowed from the past; I think that’s the natural order of things. It’s just that the ’90s feel so close to us because everything got turned upside down then. I’m not the biggest expert on this, but everything changed. There was this quote about the ’90s being a time when there were all these small designers who were kind of mad geniuses doing what they wanted, and it was about the beauty of fashion. And it went from creativity to commerce; now it’s all commerce—it’s all about numbers, the bottom line, and focus groups. That’s what drives fashion now. It’s a different world. It’s just different. It doesn’t mean there aren’t great people out there; it means the business of fashion has overtaken the art.

I’m very nostalgic because you have to remember your roots, remember where you came from, and you have to try really, really hard to get back to a place of childlike innocence.

IM: I’m not exactly nostalgic for that time because I’m always striving toward something. But I will say there’s a wistful, even melancholic feeling when I catch a glimpse of the movie (it’s very hard for me to watch it from beginning to end).I think it’s hard to really grasp how much time has passed.

NS: The culture’s fascination with the ’90s really helps the film. There’s a sense of nostalgia for that era, especially the glamour of the supermodels in fashion. In many ways, it felt like a simpler time, and people who lived through it remember that. A lot of things made that film popular. We were shooting right as supermodels were becoming famous. It captured Isaac’s creative process beautifully, and it was all so glamorous—New York, fashion, the ’90s. Isaac was such a talented designer, and that particular collection was full of color. There’s so much beauty in that film.

Scrim-mage
IM: The reason I did that show with the scrim—and I’m not going to lie—is that the woman I dressed was always the smartest, most politically correct woman. There was nothing really bad about her. It was a little after grunge, but that whole heroin-chic thing was still everywhere. It was rampant, and all anyone wanted to look at were those “bad girls”—super skinny, pale, and there were no Black people in that scene, honestly. It was this crazy trend, and I just couldn’t bring myself to glorify something like that. I couldn’t do it.

So I thought, “Okay, I’m showing these beautiful women in these amazing clothes, but I have to bring them down a notch somehow. I have to show them in a vulnerable, almost awkward way.” And I figured, if the audience could see them the way I see them in the fitting room—just putting on their clothes—it would break down that image and make it okay for these women to be seen as good, not bad. That’s where the scrim idea came from. I thought the only way to win over those people who were too cool for school and only wanted to see the bad girls was to show the models undressed, you know? That would grab their attention. So that’s how the idea started, and I stuck with it and made it happen.

I also remember another reason: I felt I needed to do something to stand out from all the other designers showing in the tents at Bryant Park. That was around the time the tents started—maybe season six—and I never wanted to take part. I always thought, “This isn’t what fashion is about to me. It’s about individuality. I don’t want to show on the same runway as everyone else. It’s unfair that other designers can book the same models I want. I want my own.” You’d have about 25 models, and every single one of them walked in every show, so you had to find a way to set yourself apart. I remember Anna Wintour called me and said, “No, you really have to show in the tent.” And I said, “I do? Okay.” So I agreed to it, and then I thought, “Now what the hell do I do?” That was a big part of it too—trying to keep my show distinct.

Unzipped: Shalom Harlow multitasking.
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax

Guys on Film
DK: To be honest, I don’t even know how I made that film—I really don’t. There’s a scene where Isaac is lying in bed watching Nanook of the North, talking about banana splits and the fur jumpsuit. I was there in his bedroom alone with a 16-millimeter camera. I have no idea how I managed the sound, or even how I held the camera and kept it in focus. It wasn’t like shooting video today. You had changing bags—those black bags you’d stick your hands into to swap out the film. It wasn’t easy or simple. I don’t know if “artisanal” is the right word, but it was close to that. You couldn’t just pick up a camera and run around. Some parts were shot on Super 8, which was a bit easier, but still not just point-and-shoot. And the Super 8 footage is gorgeous—so tangible, with all that grain and contrast. It’s incredible. But most of it was 16 millimeter, Super 16.

IM: The film is much more focused on the story, and then—All that art direction just comes from the clothes, the models, and the way it was shot. And Douglas, bless him, he really captured that runway moment at the end—he was completely on it. He didn’t need multiple takes. We did it all within the 20 minutes of the show. That was it. He had a crane, cameras set up everywhere, he even gave Shalom a camera, and there were cameras backstage too. We caught a few backstage moments of the girls changing, but that was all; the rest was exactly what you see.

Stop and Replay
IM: I love the parts with Nina [Santisi, then VP of the company], because Nina is a friend of mine and I adore her. And that scene with Mark Morris in my office—I love it. It represents something from my younger years. That was truly the best time of my life.

By the way, I haven’t watched Unzipped in full for a very long time. About five years ago, I went to a screening, stood at the back for the last seven minutes, and actually started crying. Not because of the ending and the big fashion show—I mean, that alone would make you cry—but for me personally, it hit me like, “God, I’m old. Time has flown.”

DK: I make films so I can stand at the back of the theater and watch the audience laugh and cry. I’m not trying to please them just for the sake of it, but I’m a showman at heart. I want to move people, and that drives everything I do. Good films are more powerful than people realize because they stay with you, touch you, and change you—and very few films achieve that. That’s what I aim for.

I got into fashion as a clueless surfer kid with nothing but a misguided dream, and I ended up in Milan wanting to be a fashion photographer. Back then, the competition was insane. Isaac being scooped by [Jean Paul] Gaultier is—I don’t even know if you can grasp the pain of that moment in the film. You can see Isaac’s heart on his sleeve. We knew it was coming, and I said, “Nina, do not go in there until I have a camera ready. You are not going to tell Isaac about this.” So I went in, placed the camera in a corner or somewhere, left the room, and then she went in and handed him the paper. That way, he could see it and react without an audience or anyone else in the room. In the middle of all his drama, I slipped back in, picked up the camera, and started moving around with it. Part of what I love about fashion is how much it means to those people. It matters more than anything else. I don’t really believe in balance. These days, everyone says you can work out, be smart, and have it all. I don’t think that’s true. Fashion is one of the clearest examples that you can’t have balance. You have to be obsessed and care about it more than anything. And that’s strange because it’s just fashion, but I think that’s what makes it so great.

It’s a wrap.
Photo: WWD / Getty Images

Reaction
IM: Many artists tell me the movie inspires them because it shows me insisting, “No, I’m going to do it this way. I know I could lose everything, but this is my vision, and if I don’t stick to it, I’ll be lost.” And I stay true to it, and it works out. I think that’s what inspires people. The other thing I hear is that it’s a love letter to New York. Everyone says, “I moved to New York because of Unzipped.” And also, I think it’s very gay, which makes me so happy. It’s like people become gay because of Unzipped who otherwise would have been straight. I’m very, very proud that it’s an iconic gay film.

DK: It might sound pompous, but Unzipped was almost too big at the time. It was incredible. It was distributed by Miramax and shown in theaters. Over and over, people tell me, “That film is why I became…”I’m an artist—that’s why I became a designer.” People like Ryan McGinley would say, “Oh my God, I saw that movie and I came to New York.” It reached so many people.

The very first public screening was with Bergdorf’s, and all the fashion crowd showed up. I was a nervous wreck and slipped out of the theater a bit early. The first two people to come running through the door afterward were Paul Cavaco and Steven Meisel, and they were just like, “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.” It was thrilling for those people to see their world captured that way, and that was amazing. It was really an incredible stroke of luck.

Legacy

IM: Well, I think the film’s legacy is that moment of the supermodel and the super fashion show. I think the movie resonates with people because it tells the story of having a vision and following it no matter what anyone says. And of course, it has a happy ending. I’ve heard from so many friends—not just designers but artists too—who say it captures what it means to trust in an artistic vision.

DK: I guess part of the film’s success was because I didn’t care about the clothes at all. But I did care about the process, and I cared about Isaac, and I think that comes through in the film.

Why does it touch people? I don’t know, but it does. When we were making it, I refused to screen it for anyone in fashion. Instead, I showed it to truck drivers, baristas, and anyone else who would watch—but nobody even remotely connected to the fashion world. I didn’t want to make it for fashion people; I wanted to make it for everyone else. I wanted the world to see what this world was like, how great it was, and how sensational. So I didn’t stop until those everyday people told me it moved them. That’s who I really made the film for. What makes me happy is when people say, “I don’t care about fashion, I don’t even like fashion, and I love the movie.”

Unzipped: Shalom Harlow backstage.
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax

Unzipped: The designer takes a bow.
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax

Re-zipped

NS: Two years ago, Sundance got in touch because they wanted to restore the film as part of our 30th anniversary, which was a great honor. So we worked with them on the restoration, and at the same time, the lawyers finally reached an agreement that the three filmmakers were the rightful owners. It was shown in January of last year. We hired Cinetic Media and Isadora Johnson, who then sold the film to Criterion Janus. So now we’re in the Criterion Collection, which is fabulous, and Janus is their film distribution arm, so they’re releasing the film in theaters.

DK: The technology today is just better than it was 30 years ago. So it’s basically a facelift, which we all need after 30 years.

When we announced we were releasing Unzipped again, there was this huge surge of interest in Isaac, and it’s because he’s the last of a breed. People are so captivated by him, by his wit and his knowledge—everything about him is just so rare. I think Isaac is extraordinary, and I loved him so much for who he was.

When I finally made it to New York… I was seeing these amazing people I had never even dreamed of, and I think that pushed me to rise to the occasion. I had to show others what I saw in Isaac and in the business—how completely important it was and how completely silly at the same time; that’s the dichotomy of fashion. I find humor in everything when I’m around the fashion world. It’s self-important and incredibly important all at once, and that’s why people love it.

You kind of have to pinch me, because the fact that people remember is just so touching. When we first announced the re-release, I posted on Instagram and there were all these comments. One person said something like, “It’s not the best documentary ever made. It’s the best film ever made,” and I was just like, “Yeah.” That’s very tongue in cheek, but Unzipped is unique for fashion films and unique for documentaries because there aren’t many like it.There are so many documentaries that are so uplifting and inspiring that they make you want to get up and create something. So many people have told me, “It inspired me to move to New York,” or “It inspired me to come out of the closet,” and so on. That’s what film should do—it’s film’s job, and it’s rare.

___Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Click here to listen to Isaac Mizrahi on The Runthrough podcast.

___Unzipped will play at the Film Forum in New York City from September 25 to October 1.

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