Saturday 7 April 2012

Bill Cunningham New York.


Earlier this year I found this documentary on street fashion photographer Bill Cunningham on Netflix. I added it to my Instant Queue (along with several exercise videos I added months ago that I haven't looked at). I finally watched it yesterday while I was ironing my work clothes. By the way, I really like ironing. It's the one chore that you can spend ages on without getting wet, dirty or sweaty and you can watch TV at the same time. It's practically my down time/me time. It took me four hours to watch the whole thing because someone kept interrupting me and babbled constantly so I had to keep rewinding. Anyway, back to Bill Cunningham. It's a really good documentary even if you're not interested in fashion. It's an award winning documentary but even if it wasn't Bill Cunningham is a beautiful man with a beautiful soul and it's easy to make anything about him worth watching. It's energising and inspiring to watch someone who loves what he does and takes so much enjoyment out of it and life in general. He has his finger on the pulse of high fashion yet he leads such a humble existence. He is so cute and charming that you can't help but smile. He defines and encapsulates the term joie de vivre.

My favourite bits:

  • when he's talking about photographing people in the rain and snow
  • when he's fixing his poncho with electrical tape
  • when Anna Wintour stops for him but not the other photographers
  • when a woman said to him "Don't take a photo of us or I'll break your f*ing camera" (when hundreds of people would just die to be photographed by him) and he just cycles away with a smile on his face.
  • when he takes photos of street style during Paris fashion week wearing a black plastic bag poncho
  • When a PR girl/usher was asking for his ID and trying to look for his name on the guest list for a fashion show and a man whisked him away and said:

  • when he wore his blue street sweeper jacket to his own award presentation in Paris. Granted it looked like he bought a brand new one for the occasion
Ok, I can go on and on and ruin the whole thing for you so I'll stop now.

My favourite quotes:

  • "Fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life"
  • "Money is the cheapest thing."
  • "Who the hell wants a kitchen and a bathroom? They're just more rooms to clean."
  • "I don't work. I only know how to have fun every day."
  • "He who seeks beauty will find it."
  • "You kids!"

Go ahead, watch the trailer. You know you want to.

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