You know her from Tiny Furniture and Girls (and that Vogue cover that caused so much photoshopping controversy). But Lena Dunham wears many hats – one of which is now fashion documentary maker.
And it’s all about celebrating the making of clothes for non-traditional shapes and identities.
Dunham, who will release her new book of essays this month, is teaming up with HBO for the documentary, Three Suits, which will follow tailor Daniel Friedman and bespoke tailoring business Bindle & Keep as they cater to transgender, genderqueer and drag clients.
Friedman’s story is inspiring: after contracting Lyme’s Disease, which meant losing the ability to read and write, he became an expert tailor, targeting all members of society and particularly those who don’t fit easily into what’s on offer in fast fashion boutiques.
It’s an area that’s been touched on before in award-winning film (and Cyndi-Lauper penned, Tony-winning musical) Kinky Boots – but as a documentary-maker, Dunham is focussing intimately on an area of fashion that is arguably dying out.
Bespoke tailoring is now, alongside couture embroidery houses like Lesage and other intricate, involved fashion processes, an endangered species. The profits of places like Saville Row in London were hit hard by the recession, and a specially tailored suit is now viewed as an opulent luxury in many Western countries, reserved for the very wealthy.
It’s an ancient industry, but as men’s fashion moves increasingly towards off-the-rack suiting, the skills of tailoring are becoming a specialist’s subject. Country Life, in an April 2014 story, called it ‘a dying art’.
And while transgender and cross-dressing people have increasingly been able to draw on specialist stores on the internet to provide clothes tailored for their needs, it’s still notoriously difficult to source clothes that fit and look good on the ‘wrong’ gender’.
We still don’t know what role Dunham herself will have in Three Suits beyond direction – possibly writing – but we hope that it includes interviews with some of Bindle & Keep’s clients, a few of whom are famous on New York’s drag scene. The tailor has already been featured in the New York Times and the Huffington Post, who called its philosophy of gender-bending excellent tailoring ‘an extravagant, practical and revolutionary thing’.
And, obviously, we hope the fashion-loving Dunham has a suit made for herself, too.
Will you be watching Three Suits when it comes out on HBO?
Image: Lena Dunham for Vog
