Down the rabbit hole of YouTube’s cult fashion clips

We’ve been celebrating ten years of YouTube, charting the best cult docs and music features as we look back on how what began as a three-man start up has grown into a global phenomenon. It’s a platform for the inventive, hilarious and downright bizarre, but also an encyclopedia for fashion and pop culture, charting our social history. To mark the anniversary, we list ten of our favourite fashion YouTube clips, from the obscure and compelling to golden 90s nostalgia.

JOHN GALLIANO BEHIND THE SCENES

One of the greatest things about YouTube is that fashion shows can live forever online – an easy-access library to decades of runway moments, from Diana Ross performing live at a Thierry Mugler show in 1991, to Alexander McQueen’s trailblazing Widows of Culloden collection in 2006. Here is an early clip of a union jack-clad John Galliano, dressing Kate Moss ahead of his 1994 runway show. Run Moss, run! 

NAOMI CAMPBELL ON HOUSE OF STYLE 

With its Saved By The Bell-style graphics and supermodel cast, MTV’s House of Style embodies everything that was great about fashion in the early 90s – bouffant hair, long legs, androgynous tailoring, pop colours and a devil-may-care attitude that ran free throughout the show. Cindy Crawford played lead host, but invited all of her model friends to join in, be it interviewing Amber Valletta, or in this instance, dressing up in a hotel room with Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Kristen McMenamy. Watch Campbell and co flaunt their underwear, explore Campbell’s closet and apply spot cream – they just don’t make ‘em like they used to.

EUROTRASH WITH JEAN PAUL GAULTIER

Ah Eurotrash. The kitsch, saucy, late-night, low-budget show by Jean Paul Gaultier and Antoine de Caunes. A brightly coloured mash-up of eccentric characters, interviews and plenty nudity, the show ran for ten years, and now stands as a milestone in pre-digital television. Despite or because of its ludicrous content, it managed to pin down a host of A-list stars and models, including Naomi Campbell and Carla Bruni. Here is a clip from their 100th edition, featuring a collection of our favourite games and Gaultier one-liners. 

STEVEN MEISEL IN PORTFOLIO, 1983

Portfolio was a 1983 film directed by Robert Guralnick, starring Andy Warhol, Nancy Donahue, and a young Steven Meisel, which now stands as a fantastic ode to the fashion industry during the kitsch, pop-coloured, oversized decade. Here is a rare clip of the seldom interviewed or photographed Meisel as he directs Kelly Emberg, Paulina Porizkova and Patti Owen, with enthused comments such as, “Nastier, stranger!” You tell ‘em Meisel. 

KARL LAGERFELD PROFILE, 1985

This profile on fashion magnate Karl Lagerfeld marked the first season of his eponymous clothing line, and also reveals why he carries a fan – it was originally a way of keeping his hands busy at parties and nightclubs, as he does not smoke or drink. The footage explores Lagerfeld’s work for Pierre Balmain, Jean Cocteau, Chloé, Chanel and Fendi, alongside childhood imagery and an interview with King Karl. 

KATE MOSS ON HER FIRST RUNWAY SEASON

Including runway clips from Chanel and John Galliano, alongside commentary from a young Hilary Alexander, this interview charts Kate Moss’s first runway season in Paris in 1992. “Barely 5’7”, chest like an ironing board but she seems right for this new look,” advises Alexander. And right she was – over two decades later, the power of Moss continues to reign strong. These early nuggets of Moss (who would later remain famously closed-mouthed) as a young ingénue exude innocence and charm, rife with spirited 90s nostalgia.

LEIGH BOWERY ON SOUTH OF WATFORD, 1986 

Shown in 1986 while Leigh Bowery was running nightclub Taboo, this episode of London-centric television programme South of Watford propelled the irreverent performance artist into the mainstream public eye. Celebrating all things Bowery, it follows him to a London fashion show, his Taboo night and various other activities, revealing his wit, provocative style and theatrical, larger-than-life persona. It includes interviews from dancer Michael Clark and director John Maybury, with commentary from presenter Hugh Laurie, who Bowery later admitted he had always quite liked. Bowery was destined to be famous, and this documentary was his first foot in commercial waters.

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD’S PAGAN YEARS, 1990

This documentary was filmed during Westwood’s “Pagan Years” – a time of parodied Tatler girls, plaid, tweed and raw sexuality. Filmed for cult British TV programme The South Bank Show, she discusses the importance of traditional tailoring techniques, along with fabrics, sex and gender, with additional commentary from various figures from the world of Westwood. “I play around with the idea of sexuality because I don’t like orthodoxy in any shape or form,” she comments. “Sex is entirely for people privately to decide. Their sexuality is their own.”

JEREMY SCOTT IN THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

“Is that Jeremy Scott?! The Jeremy Scott who designs for Rihanna and Katy Perry?!” Why yes Jill Abbott Fenmore, it is! Pre-Moschino, Scott starred in this gloriously tacky episode of The Young and the Restless. "It was the longest running soap opera in American history," he told Dazed last year. "It was super surreal to go on and play myself on the show, but say lines that matched the show’s plot. I had this wordy, wordy dialogue, too. It really was so weird, being myself but not being myself!" Recorded off a television with only 118 hits to its name, this forgotten nugget of J.S. gold reminds us why the internet was invented. 

CHLOË SEVIGNY IN "SURFACE" BY MICHAEL CLEARY 

YouTube has propagated the home video, and this is a personal favourite: Chloë Sevigny shot by Michael Clearly and styled by Alister Mackie in Mackie’s London apartment. Filmed using black and white 16mm film and edited in the basement of Central Saint Martins, it captures Sevigny’s irreverent free spirit, as she plays air guitar and flits in and out of dreamlike sequences. The film was released publically for the first time on Nowness in 2013 as part of a two-day Sevigny takeover.