Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s – Film Review

Matthew Miele’s extravagantly luxurious documentary is the last word on the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman, looking behind the scenes and gathering a huge number of interviews from an incredible array of fashion designers, style icons and celebrities. Everybody who is anybody in the business, and anybody who wants to be somebody in the business is interviewed here. Miele has brilliant access, not only to Bergdorf’s and its people, but also to the whole fashion business. And he’s made the most of it.

Focus is on one or two key personnel of the store and especially on the creation of the store’s 2011 Christmas windows, works of art that make every other shop window look drab. I looked around at the store windows in Covent Garden on my way home. Bergdorf’s look like they were created my Michelangelo, the ones in the UK by Andy Warhol.

The documentary’s so fascinating because something essentially so frivolous as fashion and the people who create it and sell it are treated immensely seriously as though it matters the most of anything in the whole world. This is virtually a definition of camp. No wonder the business attracts so many gay men and gay-friendly older women.

But business it is, and a massive business it is, taking a hit at the start of the economic crisis, but being one of the first major businesses to pull out of it. Miele keeps asking about money, how much an item costs, how much people get paid, how much is their commission and so on. It’s seems a bit naff, but it’s very revealing when anyone doesn’t sidestep the question.

Bergdorf’s historically foster new design talent, but require total loyalty in return. They were positively feudal in the old days, cutting off favourites for ever who had dared sell their goods elsewhere. The motto was exclusive. There’s a scary, ruthless hard edge to the business, and to some of the people who work in it. You can see it in their eyes. Their smiles only reach their lips, nor further. Maybe that’s to save having wrinkles, but actually not. But, hey it’s business, big business, and business is ruthless to survive and prosper.

Bergdorf’s seem to pay their trusted employees well and look after them well too, and keep employing them in old age. They recognise talent and loyalty and reward it. They’re not some cheapjack pile ’em high, sell ’em dear kind of film. So they might be tough, but they’re loyal. Sadly, though, we finally learn that Bergdorf’s has gone the way of all business. After 100 years or so of being a family business, it’s sold out to the chain Nieman Marcus. Sad.

Joan Rivers is interviewed looking years younger than she did in her Muppet movie appearance 30 years ago. Miele provides the clip, and keeps providing the appropriate clip or photo or whatever. The research is stunning, the result is a rare treat. It’s one of those labour of love documentaries that don’t really have any particular reason to exist, but you’re thrilled they do thanks to the enthusiasm of the makers and all who consent to appear.

In 1963, Yoko Ono rang Bergdorf’s late Christmas Eve, shortly before they were closing. She asked if they’d bring some furs round for her to look at. They pointed out it was late Christmas Eve and it wasn’t the best of times. But because it had been a slow Christmas, the management agreed and sent folk and furs around. Yoko ended up buying between 70 and 80 of them for herself, John Lennon and friends, at a then cost of around $500,000. Bergdorf’s had a good Christmas. So we suppose did John and Yoko. This one story says all you really need to know about Bergdorf’s and about celebrity. But if you’d like to know more, and more luxuriously, amusingly and informatively, Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s is the film for you.

Don’t leave too early. The film ends on the closing credits with Barbra Streisand singing Second Hand Rose as she dances round Bergdorf’s for a black and white TV special in the early 60s. There’s even a song Barbra Streisand on the film’s soundtrack. She, Elizabeth Taylor (who went to drink as well as shop at Bergdorf’s) and Audrey Hepburn had the Bergdorf’s style. So did Jackie Kennedy. The famous pink pillbox hat she was wearing when her husband was killed is a Bergdorf’s special.

A department store as a palace, Bergdorf’s is part of history and this is the history of Bergdorf’s.

(C) Derek Winnert 2013 derekwinnert.com