''Catwalk'' is a 1995 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

by Robert Leacock, following model Christy Turlington during Spring Fashion Week in Milan, Paris and New York City. Despite being filmed in 1993, it premiered in 1995.

Synopsis

The film depicts model Christy Turlington and her friends Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon,

Kate Moss Katherine Ann Moss (born 16 January 1974) is a British model. Arriving at the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fas ...

, Helena Christensen,

Gail Elliott Gail Elliott (born 1966) is an English fashion designer and former model. Early life Elliot was born in Balham, London, in 1966. She is of mixed Anglo-Indian, Scottish and other European ancestry. Career Modeling Elliot began to model when ...

and Carla Bruni as they jetted between

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

during Spring 1994

Fashion Week A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, where fashion designers, brands or "houses" display their latest collections in runway fashion shows to buyers and the media. These events influence the upcoming fashion ...

. Turlington is featured walking in shows and attending fittings for

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. Chanel specializes in women's ready-to-wear, luxury goods, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear. Chanel is ...

Versace Gianni Versace S.r.l. (), usually referred to as Versace ( ), is an Italian luxury fashion company founded by Gianni Versace in 1978 known for flashy prints and bright colors. The company produces Italian-made ready-to-wear and accessories, as w ...

Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds ...

Giorgio Armani Giorgio Armani (; born 11 July 1934) is an Italian fashion designer. He first gained notoriety working for Cerruti and then for many others, including Allegri, Bagutta and Hilton. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expande ...

Jean Paul Gaultier Jean Paul Gaultier (; born 24 April 1952) is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an "enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including corsets, ...

Karl Lagerfeld Karl Otto Lagerfeld (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, creative director, artist and photographer. He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position held from 1983 ...

John Galliano John Charles Galliano (born 28 November 1960) is a British fashion designer from Gibraltar. He was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior. Since 2014, Galliano has been the creat ...

, Anna Sui and finally Isaac Mizrahi. Between shows, Turlington is shown shooting a cover for '' W'', socialising with her friends and attending a photo exhibition for Bruce Weber. In the final scene, Turlington is depicted being drawn by artist Francesco Clemente. The film was shot in black and white and color and incorporated behind-the-scenes footage of many designers at work, including Lagerfeld,

Valentino Garavani Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani (; born 11 May 1932), known mononymously as Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer, the founder of the Valentino brand and company. His main lines include Valentino, Valentino Garavani, Valentino Roma, a ...

, Azzedine Alaia, a young

, and Gianni Versace four years before his death.

Notable fashion icons

The film features appearances by many well-known and influential people in the fashion industry, including models, fashion photographers and designers.

Designers

* Jean-Paul Gaultier * Isaac Mizrahi *

* Azzedine Alaia * Gianni Versace

Models

* Helena Christensen * Naomi Campbell *

* Yasmin Le Bon *

* Cindy Crawford * Carla Bruni *

Linda Evangelista Linda Evangelista (; born May 10, 1965) is a Canadian fashion model. She is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential models of all time, and has been featured on over 700 magazine covers. Evangelista is primarily known for being ...

Veronica Webb Veronica Webb (born February 25, 1965) is an American model, actress, writer, and television personality. The first African-American to have a major cosmetics contract, Webb has appeared on covers of ''Vogue'', ''Essence'' and ''Elle'' magazines ...

Sarah Murdoch Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pi ...

* Shalom Harlow *

Nadja Auermann Nadja Auermann (born 19 March 1971) is a German supermodel and actress. Fashion designer Valentino once commented on her physical resemblance to Marlene Dietrich. A New York Times fashion columnist, Guy Trebay, wrote of her "ice maiden visage a ...

* Nikki Taylor * Claudia Schiffer * Yasmeen Ghauri * Tatjana Patitz *

Stella Tennant Stella Tennant (17 December 1970 – 22 December 2020) was a British model and fashion designer, who rose to fame in the early 1990s and had a career that spanned almost 30 years. From an unconventional aristocratic family, she worked with Hel ...

Editors

* Anna Wintour * Liz Tilberis * André Leon Talley *

Polly Mellen Polly Mellen (''née'' Allen; born June 18, 1924) is an American stylist and retired fashion editor. For more than sixty years, she served as the fashion editor at ''Harper's Bazaar'' and ''Vogue''. From 1991 to 1999 she was the creative director ...

Others

* Sharon Stone * Peter Lindbergh * Oribe * Francesco Clemente * Jaye Davidson *

Arthur Elgort Arthur Elgort (born June 8, 1940) is an American fashion photographer best known for his work with ''Vogue'' magazine. Life and career Elgort was born in Brooklyn, to Sophie (née Didimamoff) and Harry Elgort (April 10, 1908 – October 23, 1998) ...

RuPaul Charles RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960; stylized as RuPaul) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' ...

Michael J. Fox Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American retired actor. Beginning his career in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom ''Family Ties'' (1 ...

Reception

The film received generally negative reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a score of 29% based on reviews from 7 critics. In 1996, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' gave ''Catwalk'' a negative review, opining "the film makes it clear that Ms. Turlington is used to being stared at by everyone around her. And these star-struck gazes eventually become more interesting than the model herself, since they reveal the aura of privilege that accompanies great beauty. Nothing Ms. Turlington says, no matter how vapid, is greeted with anything less than giddy admiration. So if she seems self-involved, no wonder."

References

1995 films Films about modeling 1995 documentary films 1990s English-language films {{documentary-tv-film-stub