September 2023

PARIS — To mark the 50th anniversary of the event that WWD dubbed the “Battle of Versailles,” director Deborah Riley Draper plans a special screening during Paris Fashion Week in tandem with a design competition backed by two of the participating houses. The 1973 gala went down in history because the night that put American fashion, and African American models, on the map. It was the topic of Riley Draper’s 2012 documentary “Versailles ’73: American Runway Revolution” and he or she plans to adapt it right into a feature film once the writers’ strike is lifted. To mark the anniversary, her production company Coffee Bluff Pictures has teamed with French fashion house Ungaro and the With Love Halston Foundation to sponsor a...