Prêt-à-Porter

Altman’s Prêt-à-Porter is a fashion-world frenzy – a sprawling satire filmed amid the real-life theatrics of Paris Fashion Week. With glitzy runway shows, bitchy backstage antics and an all-star ensemble cast featuring Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Kim Basinger and Lauren Bacall, the film favours atmosphere, spectacle and delicious deviance over conventional plot. Folding in a who’s who of ’90s fashion figures – among them Jean-Paul Gaultier, Issey Miyake, Helena Christensen and Claudia Schiffer – it approaches this world with bemusement and curiosity. Arriving after Altman’s critical triumphs The Player and Short Cuts, Prêt-à-Porter was unkindly maligned on release and is now ripe for rediscovery.

35mm collection print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive