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Eighty plus year old Bill Cunningham, riding around New York on his Schwinn bike, has chronicled street fashion and chic parties for the New York Times since the 1970s. The documentary "Bill Cunningham New York," screening at The Avon Theatre on April 13, follows him as he trains his uniquely artistic eye on the selection of his subjects. The film also demonstrates the admiration this modest, talented man engenders among the many celebrities and fashion stalwarts he's covered. Following its showing, the film's director, Richard Press and editor, Ryan Denmark, take part in a Q&A with the audience. Cunningham landed in New York from Boston in the 1950s, opening a hat design studio on a shoe string. He delivered lunches from a nearby drug store to help bankroll himself. His designs caught on with society ladies but the business was put on hold when he was drafted during the Korean War. On his return, Women's Wear Daily editor John Fairchild offered him a writing job. Several other fashion writing stints followed before he settled in at The Times. His particular niche, capturing celebrities and fabulously stylish unknowns, happened almost accidentally. As he related in a 2002 Times profile, the newspaper's managing editor was stunned when he saw Cunningham's impromptu picture of actress Greta Garbo in a nutria coat. He immediately wanted to know what other gems Cunningham had captured. Cunningham says, "I had been hanging out at the corner of 57th and Fifth, and I said, 'A picture of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, the king and queen of Spain, a Kennedy in a fox coat.' I also had a picture of a woman who turned out to be Farrah Fawcett. I didn't know. See, I never go to the movies, and I don't own a television set."
Though his columns, "On the Street" and "Evening Hours," often feature the glossiest names, unknowns with flair are equally treasured. What he seeks out is stylishness that is also dynamic. As he told The Times, "I think fashion is as vital and as interesting today as ever. I know what people with a more formal attitude mean when they say they're horrified by what they see on the street. But fashion is doing its job. It's mirroring exactly our times." Avon Theatre's screening of "Bill Cunningham New York" begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 and $10. For more information, visit the Theatre's website.
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