[Victoria Beckham] When I was
a little girl, I lived in Hertfordshire,
which is outside London.
And I just I loved brands.
I loved the idea of luxury.
So today, me and David and the kids
have come to visit my mum and dad
and this is my old bedroom.
Nice memories.
My mum's friend used to wear
a lot of Coco Chanel fragrance.
When she finished her Coco Chanel,
she would give them to me,
I mean, she would drain the bottles,
there was nothing left for me,
but I used to put them
all out on my windowsill
because I loved how they looked.
And I remember one time
she gave me the empty bottles
in a Gucci plastic carrier bag.
Oh, my gosh, I would carry my school books
to school every day
in this Gucci plastic carrier bag
until the bottom fell out.
But I felt so special.
I felt like I was owning
a part of that luxury brand.
I mean, not just the fragrance
but the clothes and bags and shoes.
It was Gucci and it was Donna Karan,
you know, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren,
you know, they meant everything
and that shows the power of brands.
Are we interviewing J.Lo?
That would be a major one
to sh**t, though.
She said she wants to do it.
-You should, I mean, major
-I mean, look at that.
all those supers.
[Enninful] I need to talk
to the producers again.
Nowadays, I come to New York
all the time with British Vogue
and the shoots tend to be
really glamourous.
Okay, I could ask Naomi,
-but she won't get off the phone.
-Ask Naomi,
just send her a message.
[Enninful] When I came here
from London in the early '90s,
oh, my God, the energy was fashion,
it was music.
There was something happening
on the streets that was amazing.
It was a big melting pot.
I mean, there was so many designers
who were influenced by what was going on.
It was that period when
to be cool and to be
to be "real" was valued.
I mean, New York was so different
from London.
I really noticed you were bombarded
everywhere you went
with all these huge billboards.
Sort of selling a dream,
the American dream.
And I remember thinking, "Oh, my God,
one day, I'll have my work up here."
I remember that thought so clearly.
When I first came to America
in the early '90s
to work at Vogue with Anna
Can we talk about November?
I bought you Come on.
[Bowles] at that point,
it was really obvious
that American fashion
was much more commercial.
I haven't seen any of the clothes, but
[Bowles] And I think because of that,
American fashion didn't really get
the same respect as European fashion did.
So it was Anna's job as editor of Vogue
to make America exciting.
You know, I remember looking in Vogue
and seeing all those editorials
that she'd commissioned.
[Goodman] A lot of people don't know
that Anna is half American.
She really understood American fashion.
You know, she immediately
sent out a message which was,
"You're gonna see something new,
"something that appeals
to all different kinds of people.
"And get ready."
She rallied everyone together.
[Wintour] At that time,
American designers were understanding
that fashion would become
more democratic and more accessible.
Not only did they produce amazing clothes,
but where they were all equally genius
was they understood
the power of communication.
And they blanketed the world
with their advertising campaigns.
We work in an industry that represents
change and culture and creativity.
And of all the designers
that we work with at Vogue,
Calvin understood that better than anyone.
I don't have a crystal ball, you know,
I mean, I just I I have feelings.
I like these better too.
And I try and stay in touch
with what's going on.
Fashion is about change.
The exciting thing is we keep
changing and doing something different.
In the early '90s,
Calvin had almost gone out of business.
Where's Yasmine?
[Goodman] But he didn't just bounce back,
he went even bigger,
coming up with a plan to make CK
one of the biggest
and most recognisable brands in the world.
[upbeat rock music playing]
Calvin Klein represented American fashion,
point blank.
He had a remarkable
Has a remarkable aesthetic
which was minimal, chic,
and there was always
an underlying sexuality to everything.
[reporter] It's no wonder
they call him Calvin Clean.
No gimmicks here,
Calvin Klein keeps it simple.
Chills, chills.
I love white.
[Wintour] Calvin was just
a brilliant creative mind
Exquisite!
the cool at every party
He was the absolute pinnacle
of that '90s minimalism.
[Goodman] And he was always
ahead of the curve.
He had created a brand out of a pair
of underpants, that's what it was.
[woman] You wanna know what comes
between me and my Calvins?
Nothing.
And now he was looking
for something that was new.
I've been thinking about
this 20-something Generation X.
They're not just American,
they're all over the world.
I mean, they're
They're Italians and they're French
and they're German and they're English,
and they're everywhere, and they're Asian.
You know, we have work to do.
[Fabien Baron] Working with Calvin
was, for me, absolute heaven.
Calvin Klein is like a sponge,
he understands what's going on,
like really current and on the page
of, like, you know, culture at the moment.
And so, when Calvin came to me and said,
"We need to come up with something new,"
I was very excited.
The designer has come up
with a brand-new perfume,
nothing unusual about that, except
this perfume is for both men and women.
CK One, the first unisex fragrance.
It's very intimate to be able to share
the fragrance between men and women.
And I thought that was really interesting.
But how does a unisex fragrance smell?
What does it look like?
And how do you
do an advertising campaign for it?
I was working with the genius photographer
Steven Meisel
and the idea was to get the kids
in front of the camera
doing different things and we filmed them.
He had everything: Black people,
g*y people, you know, old people.
The more left field the people were,
the better.
Kate was excited.
[Moss] CK One was fun.
Just a lot of people on set.
And everyone from different ages
and just interesting characters.
[Enninful] I think Calvin knew that
you couldn't sell to the world
with the same generic white faces.
He knew he needed a fresh angle.
He just wanted youth culture
and whatever that meant,
Blacks, Latinos, g*y, non-binary,
he wanted to show that in his campaign.
I mean, Jenny Shimizu was in there,
ex-mechanic, obviously g*y.
[Jenny Shimizu]
That was my first big campaign.
It was kind of like,
"You look great, just go in there."
[Moss] I love Jenny.
She was just the coolest,
she said what she wanted,
she wore what she wanted,
she was just her.
And she could get any girl,
the whole agency.
[chuckles] It was crazy, let me say that.
Before I was a model,
I didn't necessarily think I would model
or wanted to model,
because of everything that I am.
I'm Jenny and I'm gonna show you
how to fix a loose belt in your car.
But Calvin, he never wanted
to take that away
and he was like, "I'm gonna hire you
because of the person you are.
"You walk how you wanna walk,
we know your hair's gonna be short.
"This is, you know,
how we're gonna introduce you."
Even when we filmed the video parts
of the CK One,
he was like, "Talk about the cars,
talk about trucks."
There's nothing worse
than doing something that's boring
and that people don't even notice.
It was one of the first inclusive
advertising campaign in the world.
It was.
[woman] The male one, the female one
CK One.
[reporter] The sweet smell of success
once again for Calvin Klein.
When CK One dropped,
you know, for us Gen Xers,
it was just perfect at the time.
It was cool, it was young, it was sexy.
[reporter] Several hundred fans
stood in line
for a chance to meet
the New York designer.
[Enninful] He's a good businessman.
He knew a lot more people
were gonna be attracted to CK One,
he knew that the bottom dollar
was going to be good.
In its very first year,
it made $100 million.
It was selling
20 bottles a minute globally.
I mean, who sells 20 bottles a minute?
Does anybody? [chuckles]
[reporter] Those Calvin Klein ads
made Klein one of the most
talked about designers in the world.
[Goodman] All of a sudden,
that Calvin Klein aesthetic
was everywhere.
Everybody wanted to be a part of CK.
It was even in films like Clueless.
Oh, my God, I remember watching Clueless
like it was yesterday,
I was obsessed.
I had that exact dress.
I think he definitely
influenced a generation.
At the time,
I was wearing a lot of Calvin,
I was living in New York City
and having a great time
and dating some very cute guys.
There was, you know, this very unsteady
like, I-don't-give-a-f*ck approach
to fashion.
We were who we were
and our clothes reflected that.
Fashion has never, ever existed
in a vacuum.
Calvin saw that things were changing.
That campaign stands the test of time.
You know, there was a vast amount of kids
out there all over the world
who said, "Yes, this is me."
[man] And action!
[Enninful] Like Kate Moss, Jenny Shimizu
became a symbol of that era.
[reporter] She's covered with tattoos,
she is openly g*y,
she's a former mechanic
who loves motorcycles.
She's Jenny Shimizu. She's on the verge
of becoming the next supermodel.
If I choose Jenny Shimizu,
it's because For many reasons.
First, she was different,
she has an attitude,
and she was the girlfriend of Madonna.
I mean
you're not gonna say no
to Madonna in the '90s.
I mean, like, come on, like
not only was it great
feeling like a high-class hooker,
because it really was. It would be,
like, you know, get a phone call,
"Hey, can you meet me at my Paris show?
You're in Europe, right?"
So I'd be like,
"Oh, yeah, I'm just finishing Prada.
"Right after Prada,
I'll catch a plane over,"
you know, and I would.
I'd go to her hotel,
I would go to the Ritz
at four o'clock in the morning, have sex
and then fly back to Milan.
Like it was really
My wife is gonna k*ll me.
That time was so crazy and fun
but, really, there's something heartfelt
about certain moments.
I remember my friends
brought me to Times Square,
and they're like, "Look!"
and I look up and
I had just done a Banana Republic campaign
and underneath it says, "American Beauty".
Never in my life have I been described
as American and as a beauty.
Being Japanese and, you know, having
my parents go through internment camps
and being g*y and, you know,
to walk down the street
and always get harassed in some way,
for one second, seeing that campaign
and being like, "Wow!"
It was such a
You know, it was a big statement,
and I really am grateful to Calvin,
because he actually did something
that was so positive, globally.
To be on the billboard
everywhere in the world,
that's mind-blowing
for kids from the hood,
that's different for us.
My name is Tyson Beckford.
I grew up in Jamaica, West Indies,
and the Bronx, New York.
There were gangs, you know.
The old saying of,
"Stay strapped or get clapped",
that was the reality for me.
You know, sitting in front of cameras
and stuff, that was fantasy.
That's something you dream about as a kid,
"Man, I wanna be a model."
You know, "I wanna hold Kate Moss."
For everyone at Vogue,
it seemed as if fashion was shifting.
In the '90s, it became mainstream
and it started reaching different places.
People were just rockin' it their own way.
You know, it was all those things
that you take for granted now,
diversity and inclusivity,
sexuality, race.
And at that time, you could see that
even the preppiest fashion houses
were starting to change.
[Lauren] Everyone has
a little bit of a dream.
They wanna be that guy in the movie,
they wanna be that guy
that's living a certain life.
And so, clothing, in my mind,
was the role, you get into it.
[Goodman] What a lot of people
don't know about Ralph
is that he actually grew up
in an ordinary working-class family.
You know, he was a boy from the Bronx.
[Lauren] America's about dreams.
I never thought about money,
I didn't have any
and I didn't think about it.
I thought of things I wanted to do and be.
When I got hired at Ralph Lauren,
I was, you know, in awe.
Like most great designers,
he's a storyteller.
He's about seeing America
through the most beautiful lens
and maybe the life he didn't live
when he was young,
the life that he dreamt of.
We did beautiful suits, tuxedos,
evening gowns,
but he also did Western clothes,
very much Americana.
And he really covered the gamut
of lifestyle, not just fashion.
[woman] But his true genius
lies in his recognition that everybody,
not just a small elite, craves the dream
of glamour and privilege.
[Wang] He is someone that
not only embodies what he believes in,
but he lives it.
[Lauren] If I have a vision for living,
the reason I design worlds
is that worlds are where we live in.
I can design the clothes, I can design
the girl, I can design the home,
I can design the floors, the paint,
and I'm filling their world.
[Wintour] Ralph's advertising campaigns
represented this idealised view
of the American dream.
[narrator] Polo isn't just a game,
it's a tradition.
[Wintour] It was this sense
of aspiration to a country club.
[narrator] Polo by Ralph Lauren.
[Wintour] It was
a very, very different time then.
I mean, there was no controversy,
everybody was happy
and it was an elitist dream.
[Bowles] And can I be honest?
Fashion in the early '90s
was rather white.
[Enninful] And I remember at the time
being out on the street in New York
and I remember I thought
what's really interesting was
the kids who would wear Ralph Lauren,
who'd wear Polo.
There were a group of kids
living in housing projects in Brooklyn
and they call themselves the Lo Lifes.
We're motherfuckin' Ralphy kids
from St. John's, Utica,
and the motherfuckin'
[Thirstin Howl the 3rd]
My name is Thirstin Howl the 3rd.
The Polo Rican, the Skillosopher,
the Skillionaire. I'm one
of the founding members of the Lo Lifes.
You know, it stood
for the second syllable from Polo,
we were representing a Polo life.
My name is Rack Lo.
They call me the Polo godfather.
It was a lifestyle brand, right?
But just because
we couldn't go yachting
didn't mean we couldn't wear
the yachting clothing.
Getting dressed and looking good
and being fly and wearing Ralph Lauren
really made you look like you escaped
or you're not from here,
you know, because it's called getting fly.
Other brands had one logo, Polo had 50.
[Rack Lo] And our crew, Lo Lifes,
it just seemed to keep growing
and growing and growing and growing.
[man] B, how does it feel to be
with the Lo Life posse?
Back then, I remember being on the train,
seeing these kids.
They were draped in Ralph Lauren
from head to toe
and I thought to myself,
"These kids are in high school.
"They're the same age as
You know, as me,"
so I'm looking at them like,
"Where you getting all this gear?"
I didn't know anybody
who could just go buy stuff like that.
"Where did you get that?" You know.
It was stolen.
Not to glorify it,
but Lo Lifes was known
for their boosting sprees.
That's when you run up and you just snatch
everything in the store and you rush out.
Yo, they probably got the red jacket, man.
They got every other colour, though.
[Rack Lo] In one particular
boosting spree,
we went into the store and we noticed
that they had the Polo robes
in different flavours and colours.
There was no security
and it was right near the exit.
You know, scoped around real quick
and within seconds
We cleaned them out
for every Polo robe they had.
People were dropping robes,
detectives screaming, "Stop, stop."
I remember running where I get a block,
I probably got three heroes chasing me.
The further I ran,
the more heroes were behind,
and we showed up that afternoon
at Empire Skating Rink.
[Rack Lo] The people couldn't believe
that we came to the skating rink
dressed in actual bathrobes.
[Howl] And we had so many robes
that when we walked into the skating rink,
we dressed everybody.
It was a sight to see.
You know, not to condone this
and not to glorify this,
but to be honest, that's one of the most
monumental Lo Life days ever.
No store was safe, no women were safe,
because we were all out for the women,
or should I say,
the women were out for us.
They were coming after you heavy.
Don't let my wife hear that. [chuckles]
I mean, we made Polo official in the hood.
We made it a religious article
that people would dedicate their lives
just to this one brand.
[Lauren] People have responded to it
and I'm not quite sure
what they're getting out of it,
maybe they're getting the same dream I am
and it's a certain life
they wanna have for themselves
and that's how they wanna look.
They said, "Ralph, how did you know?"
[Howl] The American dream or
the American, how should I say, façade,
is the gangster.
It's the American way.
The Black community, we swaggy.
It is what it is.
We are swaggy.
It's like, you know,
here come this community
of, you know, people with this style
and so, it probably made the designers
start paying attention to the streets.
[Lauren] One of the things
about this business
is you can't really look back.
You have to move forward
and you gotta make sure that
you hear that voice out there
and you're tuned in to change it.
That was the moment when the amazing
young model, Tyson Beckford,
landed in Ralph's lap.
[Beckford] And I was kind of, like,
this tough street kid from the Bronx.
I got into modelling
because of my late brother, Patrick.
I had done a photo sh**t
with The Source hip-hop magazine.
I remember showing him
and him being excited for me,
basically told me,
"Stop being in the street
"and go be an actor, go be a model,
go be whatever you wanna be."
And I remember I got the call, like,
maybe, like, 3:00 a.m.
that he had been m*rder*d.
My head was just f*cked up, you know,
and I'm, like, on the subway
to go m*rder the guys that m*rder*d him.
You know, I'm I'm loading my g*n
and I remember his words,
like if he was, like, standing next to me.
Just dawned that
this is not the life any more, you know?
And it basically changed my life.
I went from doing bad sh*t
to turning around, wanting to go
to auditions and castings.
One day, we got a call
for a Ralph Lauren audition.
I tried not to be, like, too excited,
but they had me take some Polaroids
without my shirt on.
There was like two giddy school girls,
like, giggling and happy and they're like,
"Okay, thank you.
We're gonna go speak to Ralph."
I'm not thinking it's the Ralph.
-Let me cut these off.
-[Lauren] Great.
You know, I'm about 20, 30 minutes
outside of the casting,
my phone rings and it's my agent
on the other line and he's like,
"Oh, my God! You got it!"
I was like, "What?
"The place I just came from? No way."
After the Polo ads came out,
all of a sudden,
now I'm the face of the brand?
That day, that instant, my life changed.
People started looking at me
very different that day.
For us as Black creatives in fashion,
that was a pivotal moment.
When you see Tyson Beckford,
all you can see is model,
like, fine Black man.
Like, so fine and so handsome
and he was like perfect for Ralph Lauren,
like, he sold those clothes.
[woman] Tyson, isn't this crazy?
[Beckford] They sent me on in stores,
which was never, never done before.
[crowd clamouring]
I even went to one in Singapore.
As far as the eye could see,
it was just screaming girls
and a few A few males were there too.
-What do you think of Tyson?
-Beautiful!
Fabulous!
Good shot here, Tyson!
I was in prison when I started seeing
Tyson in the ads.
We was like, "Wow."
[Howl] Like, "Look at this dude, man."
It just said a lot, you know.
Like, "A'ight, there's one of us
up there now doing it."
Whenever I would see him,
I was like, "Do you really understand?
"You are the most famous.
They put 'Black' in our names.
"There's nothing to do with colour,
"you are the most famous
male model of all time."
And I just remember being so proud of him.
You seem to be like the hottest guy,
-I mean, I see you everywhere now.
-Uh-huh.
I was born in April, this picture
Wait a minute, this picture here,
hang on, oh, boy, it looks like
the water was very cold.
Ye No! It was very warm.
It was just crazy.
And then along came a lady
by the name of Naomi Campbell.
In that period of the '90s,
I used to do fashion shows
for many people,
but when it came to the ads,
not even a thought, and that hurt.
I was just like, "Why not?"
But Ralph was just
an extraordinary gentleman
and he said to me, at my fitting,
"I'm gonna give you the campaign."
So I was like, "There's no way
you're gonna put me with Tyson Beckford.
"The whole advertising campaign is Black,
I don't believe, I can't believe."
And I just was shocked
that this man kept his word.
[Beckford] This is said to be
one of Ralph's favourite pictures.
My second lifetime coming back,
I don't know if I could do anything
that iconic, you know?
[Goodman] When those ads came out
in the pages of Vogue,
everyone could see
it was a really important moment for
For fashion. I mean, not just
American fashion, but all fashion.
The impact of that most definitely
has been a game changer.
[Campbell] I mean, when he signed Tyson,
that was a revolution in itself.
And then to have us both,
two strong Jamaicans in a campaign,
I didn't know it would create
such an impact, and it did.
This thing was around the world,
you know, in a matter of days,
this was around the world,
these photos, because Ralph's reach
was everywhere.
Everybody wanted a Ralph Lauren,
everybody wanted Polo.
I remember I had cousins in Manchester
who were like,
"Please when you come from America,
bring me a Polo, bring me Polo." I mean
You know, let's face it,
Black people have style,
and when Black people embrace you,
you know, that's really true style.
And it was funny for me to see
Ralph Lauren sort of the aristocrat,
you know, horse riding,
become this symbol of urban authenticity.
I think that's one of the biggest
success stories of the '90s.
People
everywhere was catching onto it.
You know, I wore a lot of ski jackets,
but I mean, we did it our way.
I do remember the image
of myself and David in Manchester
and I had tracksuit bottoms,
I had a baseball cap,
and I had like a puffer coat
by Ralph Lauren.
And that is a picture that my kids look at
and they go,
"Mum, you were so cool in the '90s."
What's in a brand name?
Well, Ralph Lauren's Polo brand,
about $767 million.
[man] And Ohio cast 144 votes
for the next
president of the United States,
-Bill Clinton!
-[all cheering]
What was astonishing was that
it wasn't just in the streets
where fashion was changing.
[Goodman] The Clintons
came into the country
like a big breath of fresh air.
Of course, it wasn't just a new president,
it was a new presidential couple.
[Hillary Clinton] It was an incredible
and very meaningful time.
My husband was, quote,
"The first baby boomer President,"
I was the, quote, "First professional
First Lady" whatever that means.
The way we lived, the way we looked
were subjects of great, you know,
fascination all over the world.
Do you ever wake up and say,
"Wow, I'm living in the White House"?
You know, I sometimes still pinch myself.
But I have to confess, I've never paid
a lot of attention to fashion or clothes.
It was not something
that came naturally to me.
[chuckles]
And so, a few of my friends enlisted Donna
to give me some guidance.
I was just so surprised, I was happy.
I guess I didn't do things the normal way,
and I figured that would be really cool.
[Goodman] Donna Karan was remarkable.
Her brand DKNY was absolutely huge.
It was everywhere.
I can't believe you.
[reporter] The biggest fashion house
to emerge in the last decade
Morning, everybody.
[reporter] Her company's grossed
$275 million in 1992.
Donna Karan really has epitomised
the American working woman.
She is that woman, she loves that woman,
she understands her customer.
Donna had created a wardrobe
that was very modern,
very up to the minute.
[Paltrow] She had these beautiful pieces
that made women feel cool and sexy.
Donna Karan is just an icon, you know,
brilliant female entrepreneur.
She was a mother, she was a wife.
She spoke about her husband,
she spoke about her daughter, Gabby.
Gabby, you're not wearing the clothes!
You're gonna be in trouble for this one.
[Paltrow] It was cool,
it was different, you know.
It wasn't like somebody just trying
to play as if they were one of the boys.
Like, she was fully a woman.
[Karan] You know, in those days,
it was really about
myself understanding a woman.
And she was a strong woman,
she was a powerful woman,
that's who I was talking to.
Women on the go,
women who were constantly busy,
you know, doing their things
from day to night, and that was Hillary.
Donna has a saying,
"No matter what age a woman is,
her shoulders always look good."
This here, this never gains weight.
I don't care about the rest of the body,
this never gains weight.
So, she was big
on the cold shoulder dress.
I had this great idea.
In the daytime, you have your turtleneck,
then take your jacket off,
you have your cold shoulders
and you have a sexy look,
ready to go from day to night.
I tried it on and I loved it.
I thought it was so clever. I mean, I
I had never seen anything like it.
And, well, it was one of our very earliest
dinners at the White House
and I wore it.
[Karan] Look how gorgeous
she looked in it.
She's beautiful.
[Clinton] We were just kind of
going along with it.
It was exciting, it was fun.
Put on a cold shoulder dress,
have a good time.
Next thing I knew, I was on the front page
of the New York Times.
I guess it made a statement.
Hillary Clinton really turned the idea
of what a First Lady
should be on its head.
We had been living with the Bushes
and before that you had,
you know, the Reagans.
So, basically, for a long time,
there was no style.
To have such a different First Lady
in the White House
felt like we were moving
into a different era.
And then there was a similarity
in what Donna was standing for
in as much as the First Lady was,
I mean, it was a perfect pairing.
Hello, how are you?
The Vogue team would constantly be over at
550 Seventh Avenue visiting Donna Karan.
And now, it's not only for collection
but it's all DKNY as well.
[Wintour] There was no such thing as
a quick visit, you'd be there for hours.
Like, she would strip in front of you,
try on all the clothes,
ask you what you were feeling,
what you would want.
It was always so much fun.
For a woman to buy clothes today,
I think they have to be special.
They'd have to say, "Buy me."
You know, it can't say,
"I'm just a basic."
This is so cool.
-What, honey?
-Gabby has
Wants to talk to you for just one minute.
Could you Could you take it?
I am employee number one
at the Donna Karan company.
Lots of different powerful women
would visit us all the time.
We worked with Gwyneth.
She would try on everything.
Liza would walk around the halls
and, you know, modelling.
Madonna used to come up
and Lourdes, her daughter,
was playing under my desk,
but Hillary was really like the ultimate.
Look who's back!
[Wintour] Because she was
her own person with her own career
and not standing behind the president,
smiling politely.
And so, at Vogue we planned this sh**t
to celebrate that.
[Karan] Anna sent Annie Leibovitz
to the White House
and it was very exciting.
When we were sh**ting,
we listened to Barbra Streisand,
that was like a great way
to kind of get into the mood.
[Clinton] Of course I was wearing
a Donna Karan dress.
Look at her there.
First of all,
they look a little bit like me.
To-die-over gorgeous.
You look at pictures of yourself
from 25 years before and you go, "Wow!"
[chuckles] You know?
The pictures were kind of glamorous,
somewhat sensual
and kind of grabbed the attention
and I was thrilled by that.
And so, at Vogue, we were as surprised
as anyone by the reaction it had.
All of a sudden, everybody thought
it was an outrage.
[woman] She has put herself up
to be judged on that level.
It was talked about endlessly,
you know, everywhere.
Your wife, the First Lady, appears to be
the most controversial First Lady,
at least in modern politics.
I was like, "I don't understand,
why would they be negative?
"Because she looks so gorgeous?"
You know, when you're in the White House,
everything causes a reaction,
because there was a
It was a big cultural moment of change.
[Cohen] You know, it's so funny
because after that sh**t
and all the press that it generated,
of course, boom, it really exploded.
[reporter] There isn't a top name
in fashion
unrepresented here on Bond Street
and Donna Karan has moved in.
It's not Donna Kar-ran, it's Donna Karan.
We were building, building, building.
Stores were opening everywhere,
everywhere.
Southeast Asia, Singapore, London.
[crowd cheering]
I know we were in a part of China
but I don't remember which part.
Ended up with 97 stores
in the Middle East.
I remember being in Hong Kong.
And she'd say, "Call Israel." I said,
"Do you have their phone number?"
I mean, she
We should've been a reality show.
[Karan] I think there's a difference
between designing a collection
and designing a brand.
Calvin, Ralph, Donna,
each one of us, from our hearts,
designed the brand,
because it's not about clothes,
it's about life.
I was just sort of connecting the dots.
[Wintour] At that time,
it seemed to all of us
that Calvin, Ralph and Donna
ruled the world.
Their marketing is terrific.
I mean, I think the advertising campaigns
of the three designers are superb.
For all of us who love fashion
and creativity, it was so exciting.
Everybody knew who they were.
I mean, it was the first time
designers had become rock stars.
Ralph, Calvin and Donna, all were able
to capture different imaginations
of different demographics in the country
and then, as is the norm
with American culture,
certainly then, it kind of cascades out
into the rest of the world.
It was at that point that another American
tried to seize their crown.
[reporter] Enter Tom Ford.
Vogue says Gucci's new designer,
Tom Ford, is hot.
[woman] Marrying American verve
with Italian craftsmanship,
Tom put the Gucci label
back in the forefront of chic.
I was American
but I was living in Italy,
and designing
for a historical house, Gucci.
[Bowles] We always loved going to see Tom.
You know, Anna's heart skips a beat
when she sees black
Black is our number one
best-selling colour
in everything, every season, always.
-Through spring and summer as well?
-Absolutely. Through bags, shoes, clothes,
-black is our number one best-selling.
-Music to my ears.
He'd already rescued Gucci,
but now you could see how driven he was
to take everything to the next level
and compete with the American brands.
You don't let people tell you
what they want,
you tell them what they want.
And then when they see it,
their first reaction might be, "Oh,"
and then, "Wow, oh, I love that."
Tom had such a complete vision
for what Gucci should be
and he did collection after collection,
and his shows were simply astonishing.
It never ceases to amaze me
what a crazy zoo
these fashion crowds can be,
but, you know, who can blame them?
This show is for Gucci!
The whole worth of the brand hinges
on the success of the women's collection.
You know, everyone judges you
on the women's fashion.
Oh, my God, it was so exciting.
[Coddington] Each season got
more and more sexy
and more and more daring.
He just pushed it
as far as he could do it.
There's a little pad up front,
but in the back,
you got nothing but a string, baby.
The G-string was really about pushing
that idea of sexuality, very blatant
and still, I hope,
sensual to the absolute limit.
And I showed it on both a girl and a guy.
I had a great model.
As he turned to go out on the runway,
I noticed, oh, my God,
I mean, it was like Peter Cottontail.
And I turned to our hairdresser
at the time
and I said, "Give me some clippers,"
and I literally asked this young man
to bend over
and I very quickly gave him
an early manscaping
and he stood up and went down the runway.
And it was outrageous.
They were boys, they walked down
towards you and then they'd turn around.
You know,
it was quite an entertaining show.
And people really did react.
Seeing the thong on the runway,
oh, my God, that's so crazy.
I have so many pieces
from that collection.
Tom Ford opened up my eyes
to, like, a whole different idea
of just, like, chicness.
[Ford] And I ended that show
with a series of white dresses.
These incredible dresses,
white, very simple,
but it had a cut-out
and that revealed a G-string
or something
that was not meant to be seen,
kind of astonishing.
This is what I love, I love sexy.
And this was one of the best
and it's real,
people can wear this.
It's just pure glamour.
[Kardashian] And the white dress,
I remember,
all of my friends were like,
"This is our wedding dress."
[reporter speaking Italian]
Powerful. Sensual
but above all exhibitionist.
Here on the Catwalk is the Tom Ford Woman.
[in English] That collection
was so wearable, so covetable,
everybody wanted the bags,
they wanted the shoes and
It wasn't even fashion any more.
A Tom Ford show now was a world event.
One of the biggest R&B songs of the time,
Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart,"
which also featured the model
of the moment, Tyson Beckford,
was all about Toni in that white
Tom Ford dress with the Gucci logo.
[R&B ballad playing,
Toni Braxton "Un-Break My Heart"]
[Beckford] She had come out of the trailer
in that Tom Ford white dress like an angel
just descending down,
you know, upon us mortals.
It was just stunning.
Watching Toni Braxton sing that song
in that dress was everything.
All I knew was that that was Gucci.
In the "Mama" video, I was wearing
a pair of Tom Ford Gucci trousers,
I think there was a slit detail
in the trousers,
and a little bikini top.
It was sexy for a video
where I'm gonna be in it with my mum,
which was bizarre, but it didn't matter,
because it was Gucci.
[Enninful] I always loved Victoria
because while the others were sort of,
you know, giving you the street fashion,
she was just wearing Tom Ford,
but the others didn't know.
So while they were all out
on Carnaby Street,
Victoria was spending the budget
on Tom Ford.
And I was like, "Yeah, happy days."
I mean, that's my girl. [chuckles]
[reporter] Tom Ford's meteoric rise
at the House of Gucci
has been one of the great success stories
of the decade,
generating sales
of over $1 billion a year.
Gucci plans to open 20 more stores
in the next two years,
growth in Japan
and the rest of the Asian Pacific region,
surpassing that of the United States
and Western Europe.
Everything he did, it reminded me
a little bit of Calvin in the early days,
whether it was the white goddess dresses
or the famous G-string
or the amazing advertising campaigns
that he did.
It was very risqué and out there,
but always beautifully controlled.
You know, they were very daring.
There was a moment in our culture
where every fashion designer
basically sent out a logo'd collection.
Almost all of my clothes
were G, G, G, G, G.
I thought, you know,
"This has gone so far,
"why don't we have a man
logo-ing his girlfriend?"
There was a woman in Los Angeles
that a lot of models
and people were seeing
who would cut your pubic hair
into anything you want.
She could make it into an American flag,
she would dye it, she would trim it.
It was later picked up in an episode
of Sex and the City
where Samantha goes out with a guy
who cuts a lightning bolt
into her pubic hair.
[Carrie] Thor kept right on shaving.
[Ford] She thinks,
"Wow, that's so cool, he did this."
And she goes to the gym
and she sees another woman
with the same lightning bolt.
And she realises, "Oh, my God,
he's sleeping with her too,
"he's doing this to every woman
he sleeps with."
[Carrie] Samantha discovered
that lightning does indeed strike twice.
So I thought, "Okay,
this would be great, let's do this."
And I shaved a G
in a young woman's pubic hair.
[Goodman] There's the famous, uh
Well, what How do we
Famous vag*na,
what can I tell you, right?
What What do you call it?
I mean, when they shaved the Gucci into
I mean,
it was a brilliant picture, brilliant.
So this idea of branding,
which I probably would not do today.
Today, I might have her brand him,
you know, I don't know.
But at that moment in time,
it seemed very culturally relevant.
[Enninful] Oh, my God,
when Vogue ran that ad,
it caused an uproar.
The Daily Mail was incensed.
The gossip columnists were incensed.
Even the Advertising Standards Agency
got involved
and tried to pull the magazine
off the stand.
[Wintour] I mean, people weren't being
maybe as careful as they are today.
Tom didn't think that way.
He wanted to be provocative
but not upsetting.
He He just wanted to change the eye.
Back then, you were flicking pages,
today, you're scrolling.
What you wanted is for something
to catch your eye [snaps]
and you look at it.
And that's always been important
in creating an image,
it has to stop you in your tracks.
Well, that one stopped people
in their tracks,
they read the word Gucci,
Gucci goes into their head
and that's the point of advertising.
[audience applauding]
The 1990s was when my career took off.
It was an incredible decade.
It was about glamour, it was about music,
it was about supermodels.
[laughs] It was like, "Hello!"
It seemed really joyous.
It was just such a fun time.
[Shimizu] The '90s were incredible,
everybody was included.
Every kind of music, every kind of style.
Fashion was suddenly about youth
and not the establishment.
Everybody had their own identity
and everybody wanted to do
only what they wanted to do.
Innocence, daring,
fearlessness.
We all had this collective urge
to tell our stories.
I think there was, you know,
this I-don't-give-a-f*ck approach
to fashion.
You know, we were who we were
and our clothes reflected that.
If you just be yourself,
that's all it takes to change the world.
[Wintour] It was a whole generation of
designers that were looking at the world
and showing us the world
in a different way.
It sounds a little bit corny
that they dreamed big
and that they really had an intention
to break the rules,
but that's pretty accurate. [chuckles]
At the end of it, you're like,
"Wow. Did that really happen?"
You're making me
want to go back to the '90s!
Through it all, we had fun.
It was special. I do miss it.
I thought it was a very free time
which meant it was very creative,
and how amazing is that?
[theme music playing]
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01x06 - The American Moment
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the definitive story of the fashion industry in the 90s through the eyes of Vogue editors, Hamish Bowles, Edward Enninful, Tonne Goodman and Anna Wintour.
the definitive story of the fashion industry in the 90s through the eyes of Vogue editors, Hamish Bowles, Edward Enninful, Tonne Goodman and Anna Wintour.