Robert Altman’s Prêt-à-Porter isn’t so much a movie as it is a kaleidoscope of fashion’s glorious absurdity.
Set during Paris Fashion Week, the film is a whirlwind of overlapping storylines, larger-than-life characters, and moments
so ridiculous they feel painfully real.
Love triangles? Check. Professional rivalries? Absolutely.
A journalistic scandal involving a questionable pair of heels? Naturally.
But let’s be honest — the plot isn’t the point.
Altman uses the chaos of Paris Fashion Week to paint a satire
so sharp it cuts through the couture.
The film doesn’t just poke fun at the industry; it magnifies its most outrageous traits.
Designers, models, editors, and paparazzi collide in a cacophony of egos and glitter, where vanity reigns supreme and everyone fights to be the loudest voice in the room.
Robert Altman didn’t just cast anyone to populate this absurd theater. He brought in legends who defined their era.
Prêt-à-Porter is less a film and more a chaotic fever dream where icons play themselves and compete for attention.
Gaultier, Mugler, and Rykiel command the screen, while Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington redefine presence with every step.
Björk drifts in from another dimension, Cher steals the scene without trying. Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni bring absurdity to perfection, their chemistry capturing the film’s essence: dazzling, ridiculous, and utterly hypnotic.
Prêt-à-Porter takes aim at the industry: its absurd rivalries, egocentric designers, and superficial obsessions. But here’s the real dilemma: is it truly a problem that fashion isn’t “intelligent” in the traditional sense?
The truth is, fashion doesn’t need to be practical or rational. Its intelligence lies elsewhere: in the harmony of colors, the balance of shapes, and the way a silhouette can capture an emotion or tell a story without uttering a word.
Mocking this aesthetic intelligence is like ridiculing a Rothko painting for lacking figures!
When the models walk naked under trench coats in the film’s finale, Robert Altman seems to say :
Fashion doesn’t need explanations. It’s already shouting!
In a post-Prêt-à-Porter world, fashion sometimes feels reduced to a popularity contest on Instagram. But Robert Altman saw it coming: his organized chaos remains as relevant as ever.
And as the old cliché goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. By 2025, fashion will likely have nothing but images left to speak.
Just like the rest of the cultural world !
Prêt-à-Porter doesn’t ridicule fashion.
It reminds us that its intelligence isn’t measured in words, but in lines, colors, and textures. Fashion doesn’t need to be “useful” or “deep.”
It exists to create, to surprise, to provoke.
If it has nothing intelligent to say, it’s because it has never needed to speak.
It simply needs to be seen— and that is its true power.