Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Isaac Mizrahi’s “Unzipped” shows why flawed artists matter

In the 1995 documentary, fashion is a dialogue that John Galliano's scrapped Met Gala never had

Published September 5, 2026 12:00PM (EDT)

On a cold November morning, designer Isaac Mizrahi gets up, leaves his apartment, and trudges to the corner newsstand to pick up a copy of Women’s Wear Daily. It’s the day after Mizrahi’s Spring/Summer 1994 show, and the ink on the reviews is still wet. Reading from the pages, he quotes, “‘His usually great color sense failed him, his fabric sense failed him, and certainly, his sense of how a modern woman dresses after 8 p.m. failed him.” The verdict is withering. Mizrahi, one of the great artists of ’90s ready-to-wear fashion, has been tossed out. Disgraced. Lightly “cancelled,” as some might call it these days. 

Douglas Keeve’s sublime 1995 documentary, “Unzipped,” follows Mizrahi in the aftermath of a train wreck, piecing his reputation back together with his next collection, attempting to make something beautiful from the rubble. We find Mizrahi’s world in grayscale, drained of color in the wake of critical and cultural failure. Then, the opening notes of Sandra Bernhard’s 1994 cover of Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” cue the pigmentation, cascading over bright images of models in fittings, garments hanging from racks, and plenty of DayGlo faux furs. In her version, Bernhard alters the lyrics to pay tribute to Sylvester, whose untimely death left an immense legacy. “Sylvester, sister,” Bernhard coos, “You were so beautiful, you were so fragile, you were so . . . real.” 

But just........

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