The 1995 documentary Unzipped, which offered a raw, black-and-white look behind the scenes of Isaac Mizrahi’s Fall 1994 collection, has returned to theaters. A 4K restoration of the 1995 documentary Unzipped officially premiered in New York on September 25, 2026, handled by Janus Films.
The restoration was a collaborative effort funded by Isaac Mizrahi Entertainment and completed through the Sundance Institute and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. While the film is celebrated for its authenticity, Mizrahi himself remains conflicted about the retrospective. Despite his involvement in bringing the film back to the big screen, the designer stated in a recent interview that he “hates looking back” and often finds it difficult to view his past work.
The Devil Wears Prada 2
The restoration arrives just months after the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2 in May 2026. For Mizrahi, the documentary offers a contrast to scripted Hollywood depictions of the fashion industry, capturing the unscripted chaos of his daily life during the creation of a collection.
Where Unzipped showed the genuine anxiety of a designer facing the pressure of a new line, the 1995 documentary continues to be recognized for its unscripted reality. The revival provides a look at the creative process that differs from the tropes often found in fictional films about the fashion world.
The John Galliano Exhibition Cancellation
The designer’s reflections on the industry also touched upon recent controversies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Costume Institute recently canceled a planned exhibition dedicated to John Galliano that was scheduled for 2026. Galliano, who appears in Unzipped as a contemporary and friend of Mizrahi during the 1990s, remains a polarizing figure in the industry.
The cancellation marks a significant shift in how institutions handle the legacies of controversial designers. For Mizrahi, seeing Galliano in the newly restored footage serves as a reminder of a specific era in fashion that was defined by high-stakes creativity and personal relationships, long before the industry became a fixture of mainstream pop-culture satire and museum-grade scrutiny.
The restoration of Unzipped is currently screening in select theaters, providing a high-definition look at a period Mizrahi considers the “last real moment” before the digital age fundamentally changed how fashion is consumed and understood.
