Yahoo Lifestyle Inside The Making Of The Dior And I Documentary
Diane Kruger and Raf Simons. Photo: Supplied
Being part of the crew on popular fashion films Valentino: The Last Emperor and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel inspired aspiring French filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng to make the director’s chair his own. Tcheng’s timing was perfect – it coincided with Belgian designer Raf Simons being appointed the new creative director of Dior (following the infamous dismissal of John Galliano). Simons had only eight weeks to create his first haute couture collection (a process which usually takes around six months), and Tcheng was granted unlimited access to capture all the drama. The result is his new documentary Dior And I, out this month.
marie claire spoke to Frédéric Tcheng about what went on behind the scenes …
Raf didn’t love the camera
“He’s very private and was obviously stressed out by the situation of taking over Dior. There was something deeply disturbing for him about being filmed and observed by other people.”
They filmed around the clock
“We would start filming at 8am in the morning with the seamstresses in the atelier. When Raf would come in a little later, we would check in on him and Pieter [Mulier, his right-hand man]. They spent days and days choosing fabric and we filmed it all.”
The seamstresses stole the show
“They thought we’d be gone after three days! They only started opening up after they saw us showing up day after day.”
The atelier was haunted
“We filmed in the empty building one night until 1am and had a couple of creepy moments. We also accidentally scared one of the assistants [who was working late at night]. She screamed really loud and told us stories about the ghost.”
The drama was real
“I was happy [the day of the runway show] because Raf cried twice [on camera]. As a filmmaker it’s terrible to say [laughs], but I was very happy he allowed himself to get caught out. I was just hoping he wouldn’t ask for me to delete [the scene], but he didn’t. He was very respectful of the creative process, thank God.”
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