There’s almost no woman — and probably no man — who has picked up a copy of the Sunday New York Times and is not familiar with Bill Cunningham’s work. Who doesn’t flip to Sunday Styles and check out On the Street, his pictorial column detailing what New Yorkers are wearing that week? Few of us regular folk know his name, but it’s revered in the fashion industry. Everyone there, it seems, loves the amiable, thin man who’s obsessed with how his fellow Manhattanites dress. But even those he calls friends admit to knowing little about the private life of someone who catches so many private moments. It’s just one reason “Bill Cunningham New York” is so special. The documentary gives us a detailed portrait of a fascinating man who has so rarely been in front of a camera.
| Onscreen |
| ‘Bill Cunningham New York’ |
| 4 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Bill Cunningham, Anna Wintour, Tom Wolfe |
| Director: Richard Press |
| Rated: Not rated (suitable for all ages) |
| Running time: 84 minutes |
“The best fashion show is on the street. Always has been and always will be,” Cunningham declares. He’s been documenting that show for decades. The eighty-something dropped out of Harvard in the ’40s and moved to New York. He became a milliner — he wasn’t interested in clients like Marilyn Monroe and Ginger Rogers because they “had no style” — before serving in the U.S. Army, which took him to Paris for the first time. It wasn’t long after that he was given his first camera, and turned from writing to photographing.
“I’ve said many times that we all get dressed for Bill,” says Anna Wintour, Vogue editor and arguably the most powerful woman in American fashion. He’s been photographing her since she was 19; to be ignored by Cunningham is “death,” she says. “He sees something that was completely missed by all of us. And in six months it’ll be a trend.” You’ll often see an On the Street column focused on a single item, like, say, big white coats or bubble skirts. The fashion industry doesn’t always dictate what we wear, he seems to be saying; chic women create trends of their own.
Cunningham is a spry man who rides his bicycle everywhere — he’s on his 29th, the previous 28 being stolen. He lives a monastic existence, eating $3 meals in cafes and living in a tiny studio with a makeshift bed surrounded by file cabinets with every negative he’s ever used. “If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do,” he says when explaining why he worked for a magazine without pay for years.
When the director, Richard Press, asks about his romantic life, Cunningham immediately responds, “You want to know if I’m gay.” In fact, he’s never had a single romantic relationship. “It never occurred to me,” he says. He doesn’t have time. He’s too busy documenting the mottled life of one of the most interesting cities in the world. Bill Cunningham, though, is at least as intriguing as the nameless men and women he presents to the world.
