Bill Cunningham: Street Smarts

Before the internet and the proliferation of street style bloggers, there was Bill Cunningham. For three decades and counting the photographer, famed for his chirpy countenance and uniform of grey hair and French workman’s jacket, has covered New York’s preeminent fashion shows, parties and curbside splendor with a sprightliness that belies his years. Since 1978, when he had the good luck to snap the wildly elusive Greta Garbo in a nutria coat, his weekly columns for The New York Times, “On the Street” and “Evening Hours,” have chronicled the micro-trends and full-on style movements of Manhattan. The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman, Tommy Ton of Jak & Jil and Facehunter’s Yvan Rodic are just three new-generation online operators to follow in the footsteps of the intrepid journalist and Harvard drop-out. Bill Cunningham New York by director Richard Press, opening tomorrow at the city's landmark Film Forum, captures both Cunningham’s influence and his endearing eccentricities—whether it be sleeping on drawers pulled out of a filing cabinet, or his refusal of almost every penny offered his way—via loving testimonials from the likes of Paper’s Kim Hastreiter and Vogue’s Anna Wintour. "I was less interested in the biographical facts of his life,” explains Press. “It was about trying to capture this really rare bird, this singular individual."