Art, fashion, commerce and celebrity collide in this entertaining documentary from “Page One” filmmaker Andrew Rossi. Using the annual Met Gala and the corresponding launch of a new exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art as its centerpiece, “The First Monday in May” asks if fashion is truly a fine art or merely a decorative one. The film largely argues for fashion’s placement in the pantheon with painting and sculpture, but commercialism and celebrity culture — as well as a few internal detractors like designer Karl Lagerfeld — threaten to undermine its status.
The concerns aren’t just logistical. There’s a constant seesaw of balancing the needs of the Costume Institute, Vogue, the Asian Art Department and the museum as a whole. In addition to the internal issues, “The First Monday in May” also addresses concern around the representation of China and its cultures in fashion overall as well as in the exhibit specifically. Jean Paul Gaultier does the industry no favors when he asserts that it is better for his fellow designers to only experience China through movies and books, rather than visiting the country. Asking for cultural sensitivity from the man behind Madonna’s cone corset may be too much.
“The First Monday in May” also tries to answer accusations of vapidity in the fashion world by addressing a large number of issues, including cultural sensitivity, Orientalism and feminism. It’s a sometimes ambitious offering, but it never really fully explores the topics it raises. In particular, the film fails to answer the question of representation of Chinese culture in this event as well as the whole industry of fashion. A particularly telling scene in Beijing finds Wintour and Bolton awkwardly attempting to answer a Chinese journalist’s queries about how the country’s present will be shown in the exhibit (it won’t be). There’s a constant emphasis on how the exhibit is a “fantasized vision of China,” which is supposed to explain why most of the designs shown are from American and European designers with only a few exceptions.
The documentary does adequately answer the question of whether or not elaborate dresses deserve to be shown next to classical works of art, through both dialogue and what’s shown on screen. Though Lagerfeld strongly asserts that what he and his colleagues create isn’t art, a number of others come to fashion’s defense, and the work often speaks for itself. Lighting and cinematography from Rossi and Bryan Sarkinen capture the beauty of the exhibited designs, as well as the surrounding art, the location’s architecture, and the attendees. The camera lovingly lingers over details, both of the designs and the craftsmanship in their creation.
With Condé Nast Entertainment as one of its production companies, “The First Monday in May” might seem like a 90-minute ad for the Vogue brand and its living embodiment in Wintour. However, it doesn’t shy away from showing Wintour in an unflattering light. Not literally, of course, because she always looks great. But her attitude toward targets as diverse as current Chinese culture, museum visitors and lesser Hollywood stars often isn’t endearing, not that she’s here to make friends. The documentary does celebrate her as a feminist trailblazer who wouldn’t be as criticized for her ambition and demeanor if she were a man. Meanwhile, it also pokes fun at her reputation in the industry and beyond thanks to “The Devil Wears Prada.”
