The Secret World of Haute Couture

The closest I get to having an interest in fashion is watching the weekly cattiness on that Tyra Banks modelling reality game show, outside of that I'm really still struggling with the idea that a shirt might cost any more than £50! So when this film opened with a voice-over asking questions about the elite club of Haute Couture and threatened to find out more about what drives these incredibly rich women to spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands on handmade outfits, I immediately got my back up thinking this would not be for me. I immediately assumed I would be spending an hour sick to my stomach and angry at rich people buying a dress for the sort of money that most of us would associate with a four bedroom house in a great school area.

However the film manages to just about keep that aspect of this world at bay by being accessible and interesting from start to finish. It isn't clear if Kinmonth likes this world or not and it is this delivery that keeps the film interesting because she doesn't seem to be pushing an agenda but instead appears to be genuinely on a trip of discovery. As it is the film moves briskly through the world at a high level and gets lots of good interviews from wearers and designers alike. Although I wanted it to kick off, the issue of money is never really brought up as I imagine that they would have considered it crude and the film would have been stopped dead. Perhaps it is like the fashion world itself, operating in the superficial and without time for questions of reality but the film never really questions any of this – and perhaps that is for the best.

Although I did find it quite distasteful at times (the world, not the film) I was engaged by the chance to see these people and this world from the inside (more or less) and this is what made the film interesting. Kinmonth does a good job of pulling it together but she doesn't make as good a presenter and her voice-over narration is occasionally weak – most notable in the unnatural final line of the film, which she delivers like a clunker.

A surprisingly engaging film then that gets the pace and tone spot on and builds up the world thanks to a great range of contributions. Like the world itself, it is operating on a superficial but this is part of why it works and a reason why it is easy to enjoy, accessible and interesting – no matter what you think of it.