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Why fashion needs Zoolander 2

LONDON — Who knows what deal, if any, was struck between Valentino and Paramount, the studio behind Zoolander 2, but announcing the movie’s arrival via one of the most prestigious shows during last week’s Paris Fashion Week was a stroke of marketing genius, even if it meant that the exquisite collection by Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, Valentino’s creative directors, was more or less completely upstaged.

Ben Stiller (left) and Owen Wilson wear creations for Valentino’s collection at Paris Fashion Week.
Photo: AP

Ben Stiller (left) and Owen Wilson wear creations for Valentino’s collection at Paris Fashion Week.
Photo: AP

LONDON — Who knows what deal, if any, was struck between Valentino and Paramount, the studio behind Zoolander 2, but announcing the movie’s arrival via one of the most prestigious shows during last week’s Paris Fashion Week was a stroke of marketing genius, even if it meant that the exquisite collection by Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, Valentino’s creative directors, was more or less completely upstaged.

When Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson strutted down the Valentino catwalk on Tuesday, in character as Derek Zoolander and Hansel McDonald, the two ludicrous male models they played in Zoolander, the house erupted. Zoolander is one of the most critically and commercially successful fashion spoofs of all time. (Granted, the list is not long, but there are facets of the fashion world so ludicrous they defy parody.)

If Stiller hasn’t lost his touch, the jokes may be far darker this time. In the last decade, fashion has been heavily implicated in most of the major, as well as some of the more recherche, -isms: Racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, sizeism, ageism, you name it. It has found itself in a pickle with its working practices in the developing world and some of its most feted photographers alleged “working” practices in the studio. Oh and let’s not forget the drugs, fiscal and phone-throwing scandals.

It has been 14 years since Zoolander was released, which makes it only marginally younger than some of the models. In that time, much that was unthinkable has been thought and, in some cases, come to pass. Four of fashion’s then biggest names have lost their seats of power. Tom Ford, Gucci’s emperor, moved on — then wrote and directed a critically acclaimed film. Marc Jacobs left Louis Vuitton. John Galliano imploded. Alexander McQueen committed suicide.

Some labels have disappeared. Others have been subsumed into mighty conglomerates whose reach and influence sometimes seem to be all-conquering. Bags started to cost thousands; shoes gave us vertigo, then plummeted back down to earth; and the Russians became the new dictators of taste, then the Chinese, then the Kardashians.

And then there is the rise of social media, the advent of selfies and the circus outside the shows, where narcissism is not so much a character defect as a strategy for launching oneself as a brand. Full marks to Stiller and Wilson for shoulder-robing (wearing your coat on your shoulders rather than putting your arms through the sleeves) down the catwalk. Shoulder-robing, by the way, is part of a mandatory skill set among street stylers, along with tucking your hair into your collar so it looks as though you’ve had a bad bob without going near a hairdresser. Predictably, Wilson/Hansel’s shoulder-robing ended badly, with his pastel coat slithering onto the catwalk. But if he and Stiller/Derek really want to capture the fashion zeitgeist, their characters will return not as models, but as Instagram stars. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

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