Who Are You,
Polly Maggoo?
+ Introduction + Panel
Sunday 6 December 2026, 15:30
Ciné Lumière
Dir. William Klein 1966, France
102 min
French (with English subtitles)
With Dorothy McGowan, Jean Rochefort
and Donyale Luna.
Costumes by Janine Klein, with Baschet Brothers.
For its 20th anniversary, Fashion in Film Festival returns to William Klein’s Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? – the first film it screened – and to the Ciné Lumière, where it all began. Dorothy McGowan plays Polly Maggoo, the fresh-faced American model taking Paris by storm. A living embodiment of the as-yet-unnamed 1960s ‘supermodel’, Polly becomes an object of universal fascination: at once a girl, an idea, a fetish and an aloof, otherworldly creature. A former photographer for American Vogue, William Klein approaches fashion and its media apparatus from the ambivalent position of a disillusioned insider. With acerbic wit, he exposes the industry’s absurdities and pretensions while relishing its glamour, excess and visual invention – staged in avant-garde runway spectacles, grotesque fashion shoots and Polly’s vérité encounters on the city streets. The African American model Donyale Luna – the real-life phenomenon who prompted Time magazine to hail 1966 as the ‘Luna year’, and perhaps Polly’s ultimate prototype – makes a fleeting but arresting appearance in the opening scene.
With introduction by festival co-founders Marketa Uhlirova and Christel Tsilibaris.
The screening is followed by a panel including Caroline Evans, Christel Tsilibaris and Marketa Uhlirova, chaired by Alistair O’Neill.
Caroline Evans is a fashion historian and Professor Emerita at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Her books include Fashion at the Edge (2003), The Mechanical Smile (2013) and Time in Fashion (2020), co-edited with Alessandra Vaccari. She has lectured internationally and acted as a specialist consultant on fashion exhibitions at museums including the V&A, the Museum of London and the Palais Galliera in Paris.
Alistair O’Neill is a fashion historian, curator and Professor of Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins. His publications include London: After a Fashion (2007), and his exhibitions include Guy Bourdin: Image Maker (2014), Exploding Fashion (2022–23) and A Hard Man Is Good to Find! (2023). He consults on museum exhibitions, serves on the editorial board of Fashion Theory and writes regularly for Aperture.
Christel Tsilibaris is Fashion in Film Festival’s long-term contributor. She co-curated its inaugural editions in 2006 and 2008, Between Stigma and Enigma and If Looks Could Kill, and has continued to shape the festival through guest-curated programmes and research-led projects. An art historian and curator at the Centre for Fine Arts (Bozar), Brussels, she focuses on contemporary art and visual culture. Her recent exhibition projects include Picture Perfect: Beauty through a Contemporary Lens (2026).
Marketa Uhlirova is the Director of the Fashion in Film Festival. Her work explores the intersections between fashion, art, and the moving image. She has curated film programmes for arts and cinema venues internationally and published books including the award-winning Birds of Paradise: Costume as Cinematic Spectacle (2013). Her recent projects include the article ‘The Outskirts: Film at the Edges of Fashion’ and the co-curated film season GROUNDED: Fashion’s Entanglements with Nature.