If you’re craving a little style, a little fashion during these days when no one seems to be dressed in anything more exciting than sweatpants, spend an hour (and fourteen minutes) watching The Times of Bill Cunningham, the latest documentary about the New York Times icon who showed the world what people were wearing on the street every week in his beloved column.
Cunningham mostly tells his own story through a 1994 interview with Mark Bozek, and he is just a delight. Authentic, animated and genuinely charming, Cunningham is self-deprecating and matter of fact but always positive. His passion for fashion is obvious in everything he says — not to mention in his gorgeous previously unpublished photos that we get to admire for the first time here.
There was another documentary, Bill Cunningham New York, about the self-proclaimed fashion historian that was released in 2011 and, although, honestly, it was more entertaining, this one helps us get to know the man with the blue jacket and the bicycle better.
Cunningham tells us about his early career as a milliner and laughs that one shot of a stylish woman on the street — who he photographed because he liked her coat — changed his whole life when that woman turned out to be Greta Garbo and his photo landed in the New York Times.
He talks about living in a tiny cave in Carnegie Hall Studios, his relationships with Jackie Kennedy and Diana Vreeland and, in a vulnerable moment which brings him to tears, the devastating loss of some of his close friends due to AIDS.
In many ways, this is a perfect time to watch this documentary. According to Cunningham, “the streets reflect precisely what’s going on in the political world, the social upheaval.” With New York City streets empty, there’s something uplifting about remembering what they once looked like through Cunningham’s eyes and imagining what they will look like at some point in the future — although we’ll never experience it again through his lens.
The legendary street photographer died in 2016, ending an era. This documentary reminds us of the power of fashion to make us feel good — and may even make us trade in our sweatpants for a day or two.
You can watch The Times of Bill Cunningham at home on demand through Angelika, my favorite theater, here.
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