Does "Cruella," Disney's new movie, demonize fashion? Emma Stone's new film is beautiful but continues to represent fashion through the usual clichés

Arrived on Disney Plus last Friday, Cruella was a particular film compared to those found in the Disney catalog. In the slew of live-action remakes of the great cartoon classics with which entire generations have grown up with, the film is certainly a more mature and dark proposal – all the more so since it is anchored to a kind of historical reality, '70s London, and concerns a more concrete than fairytale world: fashion. The film undoubtedly has its own fashion moments (one in particular, our favorite, includes a garbage truck and a giant train of tens of meters) but a very authoritative voice, that of Vanessa Friedman, has taken off the pages of The New York Times to accuse the film of propagating the stereotype of a "toxic" fashion:

«And thus does the demonization of fashion play on; its role as shorthand for all that is morally corrupt and venal in the world continues. It is one of Hollywood’s most beloved, if increasingly inane, clichés. For as long as there have been films set in the fashion industry, that world has been portrayed as a gilded cesspool of caricatures, cattiness and occasionally criminality, with a twisted value system far removed from the cornfield heart of everyday life — no matter whether the film in question is a comedy, dramedy, satire or musical.».

But how does Cruella represent fashion?

What mainstream audiences know about fashion are often the downsides: from the soap opera that had become the life of the Gucci family in the 80s to the various scandals about the world of modeling, going as far as recent events such as Bottega Veneta's Berlin party, the story of Alexander Wang's sexual harassments and Balenciaga's "thefts" from independent designers – many of the news that has visibility are the least pleasant. At the same time the reality is more layered and complex than this and often finds it better represented in documentaries. One of the best and most famous is Dior and I, which chronicles Raf Simons' debut as creative director of Dior in 2012. Simons, one of the most celebrated and appreciated creatives in the fashion industry, is a long way from the idea of a despotic stylist that is seen in many films: Simons shows up at work in a normal blue sweater, he is kind to everyone, even gets to cry before the show. And while it's also true that at the bottom of every cliché there is a bottom of truth – it might be time to talk about all the other truths about the fashion world.