Page 39 - ADU Voice Volume 5 Issue 1

Fall 2025 | Voice 39

Zoolander- A

Timeless Critique on

the Industry

By Fatma Durrani

en Stiller’s 2001 classic, Zoolander, is widely known for its slapstick comedy and
Bbizarre plot; despite its ultimately weird nature, the film’s once esoteric critique of
the high-end fashion industry only becomes more accurate to wider audiences as time
passes.

The film follows our protagonist Derek Zoolander, a moronic but renowned male
model as he is interviewed by Matilda Jeffries, an investigative journalist and future
love interest, on his career and show-stopping look: blue steel. However, when Derek
embarrasses himself at the “Male Model of the Year” awards ceremony by going up on
stage despite the winner being Hansel McDonald, his rival, he worries that his career will
fade into obscurity. Fortunately for famed-fashion designer, Jacobim Mugatu, this is the
opportunity he has been waiting for; by hypnotizing someone as dim-witted as Derek,
Mugatu can kill the new Malaysian Prime Minister and continue to exploit the cheap
labour of Malaysian workers.

To hypnotize Derek, Maury, his manager who is in on the plan, convinces him to be the
star of Mugatu’s new “Derelicte” collection and runway show. Though hesitant, Derek
caves and is told that even the Prime Minister of Malaysia will be in attendance. When
analysing the character of Mugatu, one see’s the cliché “money-hungry and cruel fashion
designer” trope from miles away. The antagonist is the amalgamation of everything
wrong with the luxury fashion industry: high-nosed attitudes, abusive treatment of
models, immoral motivations, and hints of predatory behaviour all come together to form
a hyperbolic, but not unrealistic, encapsulation of the individuals who control the tides
and trends of fashion law.

However, the most damming assessment of luxury fashion is the “Derelicte” collection;
pronounced by Mugatu in a phony French-accent , the clothing line is meant to look
akin to literal trash on the body. The irony of luxury fashion, something meant to be
expensive and sophisticated, mirroring the state of poverty reflects not only the power of
those at the top to set the status-quo, but also showcases the fantasies of rich to roleplay
“poor” from a safe distance. This instance has become increasingly more prevalent in
high-fashion brands today; the most prominent assailant being Balenciaga, substantiated
by their release of Paris Fully Destroyed Sneakers in 2022, destressed to the nines, to
appeal to the wider Poverty Chic trend. To have all the money to wear low-quality, pilled
clothing that is only vindicated by price, not substance, and yet to never have to actually
interact with that reality or the people that live it, is what makes it feel so comfortable to
“play” the part of a “derelicte” person.