‘Coco Chanel Unbuttoned’ Director on Making the BBC/Fremantle Documentary: ‘She Was the First Influencer’
variety.comK.J. Yossman Coco Chanel is one of the world’s most famous fashion icons, but her legacy has rarely been tackled on screen.
Director Hannah Berryman aims to change that with a new feature-length BBC Two documentary about the designer. Chanel’s absence on screen is partly down to the fact that very little footage of her exists aside from a couple of interviews from the 1950s and some 1930s B-roll.
But it’s also, the director says, because Chanel has long been underestimated. “She’s — for me — the most legendary designer ever, not even just ‘woman designer,’” says Berryman, who has directed documentaries about topics as varied as music studios, robots and beauty queens and is a former creative director of film at British Vogue.
In “Unbuttoned,” which was produced by WhyNow Studios and executive produced by Janet Lee, Berryman examines Chanel’s life and legacy, including her early years as an orphan and, later, her romantic dalliances with glamorous men including the Duke of Westminster.
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