Few cities in the world embody fashion as intimately as Paris. With its haute couture heritage, iconic designers, and effortless street style, Paris isn’t just a fashion capital—it’s the heartbeat of global style. This allure is no better captured than through cinema, where the screen becomes a canvas for cultural expression, identity, and art.
In recent years, Emily in Paris, Netflix’s hit series, has reignited international obsession with French fashion. But while Emily's vibrant wardrobe paints a whimsical picture of Parisian style, there’s a world of stories behind the stitches, textures, and legacies of France’s fashion elite.
This blog will take you through some of the most influential French fashion films and documentaries—visual masterpieces that unveil the soul of the style capital and its most brilliant minds. From the poised elegance of Coco Avant Chanel to the modern lens of Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, these films not only clothe their characters in beauty, but also dress the viewer in a rich understanding of France's fashion legacy.
Emily in Paris: Fashion Fantasy Meets French Backdrop
Over the past few years, Emily in Paris has become one of Netflix’s most buzzed-about shows, blending the romanticism of Paris with high-impact fashion. Created by Darren Star, the series follows Emily Cooper, a young American navigating both career and culture shock in the City of Light. While the show is filled with lighthearted charm and Instagram-ready visuals, it has also sparked conversation around what defines Parisian style in a globalized world.
Emily works at Savoir, a luxury marketing agency, where she manages high-profile clients in the fashion, fragrance, and lifestyle sectors. Her work often brings her face-to-face with top designers, creatives, and influencers, immersing her in the very core of the fashion industry. Throughout the seasons, Emily collaborates with fashion houses, plans high-stakes brand events, and crafts campaigns that merge old-world Parisian elegance with new-age digital savvy. Her career serves as a unique lens into how luxury branding intersects with social media and modern consumer culture.
When it comes to wardrobe, the show is just as ambitious. While Patricia Field, famed for her styling in Sex and the City, consulted on the early season, it was French costume designer Marylin Fitoussi who took the reins, bringing local expertise and Parisian authenticity to the series. Tasked with interpreting Emily’s outsider status through fashion, Fitoussi created looks that were bold, colourful, and eclectic—often deliberately contrasting with the understated elegance of her French counterparts.
Emily’s style choices, though sometimes exaggerated, are emblematic of the show’s imaginative and aspirational tone. Rather than aiming for strict realism, the fashion becomes a form of storytelling—expressing character growth, cultural clashes, and creative risks. In that sense, Emily in Paris can be seen as a modern spark—something that inspires curiosity about French fashion’s deeper layers. It brings a sense of fun and approachability that may lead viewers to explore the more nuanced, behind-the-scenes stories found in films and documentaries focused on fashion’s real-world legends and ateliers.
Becoming Karl Lagerfeld (2024): The Making of a Legend
Few designers have left as lasting an imprint on fashion as Karl Lagerfeld. The 2024 biographical series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld opens a window into the personal and professional life of the man who revitalized Chanel and shaped the aesthetics of the 20th and 21st centuries. Far from a standard biopic, the series dives into his youth, ambition, and his rivalry with fellow designer Yves Saint Laurent.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of 1970s Paris, the series offers a dramatized yet grounded portrayal of the culture-shifting moments that defined Lagerfeld’s ascent. It delves into his unique creative drive, his complex personal relationships, and his unrelenting work ethic. The show doesn’t shy away from the tensions he faced—be it competing egos, shifting industry dynamics, or the scrutiny of the press. Lagerfeld’s journey is presented as both dazzling and demanding, where innovation often clashed with expectation.
With lavish sets and period-perfect costumes, the show paints a detailed portrait of a genius both revered and misunderstood. Its visual storytelling is matched by an emotional depth that makes the narrative both entertaining and thought-provoking.
As viewers follow Lagerfeld’s transformation from an ambitious newcomer into a global icon, they’re invited to consider the power of reinvention and the pressures that accompany fashion’s elite circles. It’s a gripping exploration of ego, identity, elegance—and the relentless drive it takes to become a legend.
Haute Couture (2021): Stitching Generations Together
In Haute Couture, directed by Sylvie Ohayon, we step into the quieter, more reflective corners of the fashion world. The story follows Esther, a head seamstress at Dior nearing retirement, who meets Jade, a rebellious young woman with no fashion background. Their encounter sparks an unlikely mentorship that bridges generations, class, and culture.
The film beautifully honours the real hands behind haute couture—the petites mains—who work tirelessly to construct garments for the world’s most exclusive runways. With its focus on detail and craftsmanship, Haute Couture reminds viewers that fashion is not just design, but devotion. From threading needles to fitting bodices, every stitch tells a story of patience and pride. The atelier is portrayed as a place of quiet artistry, where decades of experience are passed through gesture, repetition, and care.
What makes Haute Couture especially moving is its emotional depth. It's a meditation on legacy—on what we pass down not only in technique but in spirit. As much a film about human connection as it is about fashion, it showcases how style can become a bridge between different worlds and generations. In Esther and Jade’s growing bond, we see a reminder that fashion’s future often begins with honouring its past.
Coco Before Chanel (2009): The Birth of a Revolution
Starring Audrey Tautou in the titular role, Coco Before Chanel is a deeply human portrait of a woman who changed the course of fashion forever. The film charts Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s early life—marked by hardship, ambition, and a fierce independence that would later define her brand and philosophy.
Director Anne Fontaine takes us back to a time when corsets and ornate embellishments dominated women’s fashion. Chanel’s rebellion against these norms wasn't merely stylistic—it was revolutionary. Inspired by men’s tailoring and minimalist sensibilities, she created a new vision for how women could dress, move, and feel in their clothing. Her designs offered both physical freedom and symbolic liberation in an era when women’s roles were tightly confined.
Through lush cinematography and meticulous costume design, the film captures not only Chanel’s evolution, but also the cultural shift she helped ignite. Her resilience and clarity of vision serve as a powerful reminder that fashion, at its best, is an expression of freedom and identity.
Coco Before Chanel doesn’t glamorize the path to success—it highlights the grit and foresight required to disrupt an industry and transform it from within. Chanel’s early struggles are not just back story; they are the foundation of a legacy that still shapes fashion today.
House of Cardin (2019): Visionary or Vanity?
House of Cardin, the 2019 documentary about Pierre Cardin, profiles one of fashion’s most fascinating and controversial figures. Known for his futuristic designs and business-savvy brand expansion, Cardin redefined what it meant to be a fashion designer in the modern era. The film takes a closer look at the man behind the empire and questions whether his vast licensing empire enhanced or diluted his creative legacy.
Directed by P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes, the documentary is built around candid interviews, rare archival footage, and insights from fashion insiders. It traces Cardin’s early life in Italy, his move to France, and his boundary-pushing designs that challenged norms of gender and structure in clothing. His work wasn’t just about aesthetics—it was about shaping a new world, one where the future and fashion collided in imaginative ways.
What emerges is a portrait of a man who constantly pushed limits—not only in design but also in business. His ventures into furniture, automobiles, and even branded food products sparked both admiration and criticism. House of Cardin invites viewers to consider fashion’s role in mass culture, asking whether democratization through branding is a triumph or a compromise. It’s a compelling reflection on how visionaries navigate the balance between creativity and commerce.
Dior and I (2014): Behind the Curtain
Dior and I, directed by Frédéric Tcheng, offers one of the most intimate looks into the world of haute couture. Following Raf Simons’ appointment as artistic director at Christian Dior, the documentary captures the whirlwind eight-week period in which he must produce his first couture collection for the house.
The documentary doesn’t focus solely on Simons, but also highlights the incredible team of seamstresses—some of whom have worked at Dior for decades. Their craftsmanship, emotional investment, and teamwork are the quiet forces that make haute couture possible. The film deftly balances the pressure of creative innovation with the respect for tradition and legacy. Through each fitting, fabric swatch, and design adjustment, viewers witness the emotional and physical labor that underpins fashion’s grand spectacle.
What makes Dior and I especially powerful is its storytelling. Interwoven with diary excerpts from Christian Dior, it becomes a time-spanning conversation between two visionaries. It’s an exploration of vulnerability, leadership, and the quiet strength of collaboration in a high-stakes environment. The film doesn’t glamorize the process—it reveals the tension, exhaustion, and triumph that come from transforming artistic vision into wearable poetry.
Looking Beyond the Glamour
What unites all these films—beyond their Parisian settings and couture cameos—is their commitment to revealing the human side of fashion. While Emily in Paris glamorizes the aesthetic and emotional excitement of discovering Parisian fashion, these films and documentaries offer a deeper exploration of the artistry, labor, and legacy that lie beneath the surface.
French fashion, as these stories reveal, is about more than clothes. It's about revolution (Coco Before Chanel), inclusivity (Haute Couture), legacy (Dior and I), innovation (House of Cardin), and resilience (Becoming Karl Lagerfeld). Fashion is memory. Fashion is identity. And fashion—especially in France—is art.
If Emily in Paris sparks surface-level interest in Parisian fashion, these films encourage a deeper dive. They remind us that fashion isn't just something to consume—it's something to understand, to question, and to feel. Watching them is like stepping into an atelier, brushing fingers across silk, and hearing the whispers of those who shaped the world through fabric and form.
Together, these stories celebrate fashion as a language that speaks across generations. From the delicate handiwork behind a Dior dress to the bold reinventions of Karl Lagerfeld, they show us that true style has a story. And it's one worth watching, feeling, and remembering.
