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.
