Fashionistas, The Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  1/7/2003

Running Time: 280 min. (that’s right, 4 hours and 40 minutes)

Production Date: 9 / 1 / 2002

Director: John Stagliano

Cast: BellaDonna, Chelsea Blue, Caroline Pierce, Friday, Gia, Kate Frost, Monique, Sharon Wild, Taylor St. Clair, Billy Glyde, Brandon Iron, Kane, Mark Ashley, Manuel Ferrara, Rocco Siffredi, Casee, Ruby Richards, Tricia Devereaux, and many, many more

Initial Expectations: John Stagliano’s Wild Goose Chase and Face Dance Part 1 and Face Dance Part 2 are two of the best adult films I’ve ever seen. From everything I’ve heard, this one is even better. How could I not have sky high hopes for it?

Initial Reaction: This is hands down the best adult movie and DVD I have ever seen. Actually, since it’s an adult movie, it’s the best hands up and down and up and down adult movie and DVD I have ever seen. I think it might take some people a month to get through the entire DVD, and some others might never make it!

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who likes a little darker porn or who wants to see just how much potential the adult genre can have

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for their first porno (since not much else out there can compare to it) and anybody who wants their porn soft and cuddly

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are every bit as good as you’d expect from a mainstream film. The audio is clear and well balanced. The only hint of a background noise is you can almost hear some of the camera whirl in a couple places. Although the feature was shot on 35 mm film, you can barely notice it. It’s every bit as clear as most features that are shot on video today. There’s a few shadows, but every one feels natural.

Music: The music is every bit as exceptional as the movie, and enhances each and every scene it’s in. It often has a slight techno feel as well as a bit of a hard rock feel similar to the little bit of Tool I’ve heard. It’s more than deserving of the soundtrack CD that’s included in the package. I’ve had a few problems playing the CD on some players, such as the CD player on my computer while I work. Yes, the music is good enough that I’m not even hesitant to play it at my office.

Menus: The menus have Evil Angel’s normal excellent care and style. The main menu is easily navigated and has a great sense of style that gives the DVD an amazing first impression. The chapter menu lest you choose between blocks of scenes, and gives you a short description for each block. There isn’t a fetish menu here on the first two DVDs, which surprised me, but I’m not sure it would be as good a fit here as it would on the standard Evil Angel DVD.

The Feature: When world famous designer Antonio (Rocco Siffredi) decides to branch into S&M styles, he finds himself working with Helena’s (Taylor St. Clair) company, Fashionistas while one of his leading dealers (Caroline Pierce) keeps telling him the line is going to bomb since stores will be afraid to sell the new clothing line. Although Helena guides Antonio’s journey into the world of S&M, he’s most intrigued by Jesse (BellaDonna), the computer geek at Fashionistas. He’s also intrigued by the girl he finds in the Easter Eggs Jesse builds into the DVDs that Fashionistas sends him with commercials for different styles. Everything starts to crash together when Antonio learns that Jesse and the girl in the videos are one and the same.

Sharon Wild, Emma, Nicole Love, and Gia start things out on the runway. They prance up and down before fetishwear-clad Taylor St. Clair beats her way to the stage with her riding crop and rips the clothes off the girls with the help of Fashionistas Paula, Chelsea Blue, and Vixen Sweet. The Fashionistas takes over the show to model their fetishwear, as well as spray painting their logo over the top of the logo of Rocco’s company and making an appeal for them to hook up to really make something special. There isn’t any lesbian action here, but there is a nice tease in several ways. You’re teased with the girls bodies, you’re teased with a plot, and you’re dang near teased with a mainstream movie feel. It’s a great opening to the feature that drew me in right away.

After Taylor St. Clair warms up fetishwear clad and magically bootie-licious bleached blonde beauty Kate Frost’s ass with a spanking, Rocco comes in to spank her a little more and finger and eat her pussy and ass from behind. He moves on to fuck Kate’s pussy from behind, as she never moves from all fours until Rocco pulls her up. Rocco wraps her rubber thong around his cock for part of the time while he fucks her, and lifts her up to admire and play with a bit more of her body in the middle of the scene. After some sixty-nining and fucking in a few common positions, Rocco goes back for a little oral action. He throat fucks Kate and has her eat his ass before going back to fucking her. He fucks her pussy from behind and then works on her ass with his tongue, fingers, and Kate’s silver vibe before giving it one last lick and plunging his cock into it. He fucks Kate’s ass doggie style before pile driving her pussy and finally coming on her face after covering her mouth with her outfit. It’s an amazingly hot scene that’s every bit as good as I hoped. Kate absorbs Rocco’s intensity amazingly well, and never seems uncomfortable for a single second.

Rocco and Kate are joined at the last moment by Taylor St. Clair, who puts a nice spin on the entire scene. The spin shows just how great a movie maker Stagliano is. It’s a completely obvious spin that you can see from almost before the scene begins, yet it feels perfect when it hits. I can’t help but think of a comment a friend of mine made years ago about comedies. He told me that the sign of a true comic master is one where even though you can see the punchline coming from a mile away, you still find it amazingly funny. The same thing can be said for John’s movie making skills here.

Bella dances in front of a mirror while checking herself out. As she dances, she also has a video of Star Chandler dominating her going on the plasma screen TV in the background. In the video, Bella shows off her jeweled buttplug, and is spanked quite a bit before Taylor St. Clair arrives. Taylor plays with herself a little while watching Bella before approaching her. She grabs Bella by the ponytail and has her worship her shoes before eating her pussy and ass. Taylor even smothers Bella a bit before letting Bella roughly suck Taylor’s amazing tits. After waiting so long, Bella finally gets something in return, as Taylor quickly works her up to four fingers as well as fucking her ass with a acrylic dildo. Taylor finishes things up working Bella’s ass over with a huge acrylic dildo that she can barely wrap her hand all the way around or put in Bella’s mouth. Not surprisingly, Bella and Taylor have great chemistry that makes this another extremely hot scene. It also moves along at a very nice pace and nicely blends the action on the TV with the action between Taylor and Bella.

Next up, Rocco takes on fetishwear-clad Sharon Wild and Friday. Sharon takes Rocco deep into her throat repeatedly while Friday tongues Rocco’s ass. Rocco moves on to fuck each girl’s pussy in a couple positions before they’re joined by Taylor St. Clair, who appears in a great red latex one piece outfit. Taylor slaps Rocco around a bit before smothering him between her magnificent melons and with her ass and having him eat her pussy and ass. Taylor also has Friday ride and smother Rocco’s face while Sharon rides him cowgirl style before taking him for herself. She warms him up orally, including a little sixty nine, before Rocco gets a little bit dominant on Taylor before he spanks her and fucks her from behind. They move on with a little reverse cowgirl, where Rocco rips apart Taylor’s outfit, before she lays back for Rocco to eat and fuck her more. He fucks her ass and gives her a couple ass to mouths. There are a couple cuts in some of the ass to mouth sequences, but some look to be cut after Taylor’s tongue touches Rocco’s cock and some are uncut. Finally, Taylor sucks Rocco to an impressive pop on her face. Needless to say, it’s a great scene. Taylor and Sharon both match Rocco’s intensity amazingly well, which goes a long way to making this a winner of a scene. Also, anybody who liked the face-sitting segments in Face Dance Part 1 and Face Dance Part 2 should love this scene. There’s plenty of great face sitting close-ups, and John does a great job of mixing close-ups and distance shots. This scene wraps up the first DVD, and ends it in great style.

Rocco finds that Bella put some special Easter eggs on his promo DVD in the first scene of the second DVD. Bella takes on Mark Ashley and Billy Glide while wearing a clear buttplug, with Rocco choosing which fetish to watch when. Rocco starts out watching Mark and Bella work over Bella’s feet before moving on to her pussy with their fingers and a few clothespins. The guys work over Bella’s ass with a few toys, and lets her taste her own ass as well. Rocco moves on to Bella’s tits next, which the guys break out the closepins for, before moving to Bella’s mouth. You can tell who has a little knowledge of S&M and who doesn’t here. Billy Glide nicely puts clothespins all the way on, while Mark puts just the tip of each clothespin on Bella’s lips, which increases the pain of the situation greatly. Finally, Bella sucks both cocks with no shortage of energy until they come on her mask. It’s a very good scene with a unique feel. Having Rocco decide on the screen what to watch when gives the feature a very different feel, and Bella’s playing to the camera also works extremely well. The only parts that didn’t do much for me due to some of the inexperience that the guys show, which many people won’t even notice.

As part of a fetish fashion show, black masked Kane manhandles his real life wife Casee on stage. He pulls her around a bit on the stage, spanks her incessantly, and even flogs her a little. It’s a scene that I can see disturbing some people, but it’s nicely done. Anybody who feels a little nervous about this scene should make sure to listen to the commentary, as it lets you know just how much Casee is into it.

Later in the show, BellaDonna is wheeled onto the stage by Brandon Iron, both of whom are hooded. Brandon puts clips on Bella’s nipples before taunting her with a jelly dildo and having her swallow it. He never fucks her with it, but she does have her jeweled buttplug in. It’s another nice little scene that adds a lot to the actual movie.

Rocco, Manuel Ferrara, and Caroline Pierce explore the back room of the S&M club next. They find many people being flogged, spanked, clipped (such as Tricia Devereaux), and restrained. You can see that Rocco’s immediately very interested in the action and has some experience, while Caroline comes across as being very interested, yet new to it all. Rocco holds her down so her ass can get flogged, as well as helping her get shocked with a wand and pushing her head down on Brandon Iron’s cock. Caroline’s finally taken to a back room where she’s dominated by Rocco and Manuel while Brandon Iron fucks Monique. Rocco never fucks Caroline, either with his cock or with the myriad of toys around them. He leaves Caroline to Manuel, who continues with her treatment.

Manuel locks Caroline in the cage and skull fucks her before letting her out to eat her holes. Manuel lets Caroline eat his cock and ass a little more before fucking her from behind. They continue to take breaks for oral action and other foreplay between positions, including a little anal fingering for Caroline, before she sucks and strokes Manuel to a decent facial. It’s an extremely hot scene with great chemistry. As great as it is, I can’t help but to slightly not like it because I couldn’t help but feel that Manuel was trying to be a Rocco clone. Yes, they have the same style, and maybe it’s due to the amazing presence Rocco has at the beginning of the scene, but I couldn’t shake the feeling throughout the scene. Luckily, Manuel is damn good at it which makes all the difference.

As Manuel works over Caroline, Brandon Iron takes care of black beauty Monique, who’s done up with gold and black horse fetishwear that looks great on her. They start with more than a little oral before Brandon fucks her from behind. He works her ass over with a toy and finally gives her a nice facial. You don’t get to see much of them, but it’s a pretty hot scene that’s nicely finished with Brandon kissing her on the mouth after decorating it.

Chelsea Blue and her slave Gia start out the final sequence in a cage in front of Rocco and Taylor. Rocco fucks Gia’s ass with her horsey buttplug a little before Taylor smothers him with Chelsea’s ass and takes him into a back room where he’s collared, smothered, and slapped a bit. Rocco also gets to play with Gia’s clear buttplug before Taylor starts sucking his cock. The girls suffocate him, put clothespins on his nipples, blindfold him, and tease him before abandoning him blindfolded and alone. Rocco’s ‘rescued’ by BellaDonna, who immediately shoves her ass in his face for him to eat and so he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. She accepts his pleading to stay, and energetically sucks his cock before they’re interrupted by Taylor. All Rocco’s questions are answered and then some, before Bella frees him. Rocco gives her a good skull fucking as a thank you before fucking her from behind while Bella shows off her amazing back arch. He moves on to fuck her ass from behind and missionary style. Rocco takes a break to worship Bella’s ass before she rides him reverse cowgirl and regular cowgirl style with it. They finally finish things up with a little more anal missionary and a great facial. It’s about as perfect of a scene as you could think of to end the movie with. Everything in the movie feels like it’s leading to this scene, and Rocco and Bella doesn’t give the anticipation the least bit of a let down. Rocco and Bella seem to match perfectly in every way you can think of. This is an amazing scene to end an amazing movie with.

The Fashionistas is nothing short of amazing. Both the story and the sex nicely develop over the four hours and forty minutes, while neither seem neglected. They also seem to flow together nicely, with the plot building things up for the sex and the sex feeling like a continuation of things that have happened in the plot. The first half of the movie is a little heavier on plot than the second, much like the structure in Face Dance Part 1 and Face Dance Part 2, yet it meshes much better here and helps The Fashionistas to easily become the better movie.

Much of the credit for everything working as well as it did has to go to the cast. I can’t think of a single man that’s ever been in the adult industry who could play the role of Antonio as well as Rocco does here. He has the necessary arrogance for the role, as well as a screen presence that few men have ever come close to. Given Rocco’s normal dominance in scenes, the amount he’s dominated in the movie makes his performance seem all the better. I admit to having a little bit of a problem with Rocco becoming dominant in his scene with Taylor St. Clair at the end of the first DVD, but the more I think of it, the more I think it helps out the overall movie. Throughout the movie, Taylor attempts to be in control while letting Rocco think he is. Letting him appear in control for part of the sex scene feels like it could be nothing more than a continuation of this.

Rocco’s equally matched with Taylor St. Clair and BellaDonna on the opposite end. Taylor, a dominant in real life, plays her role with a tremendous amount of charisma. You can easily see how she manipulates those around her, as well as including enough small flaws that you can see why she’s also abandoned by the end of the movie. Her dominance of Rocco seems natural and easy, which really says something with Rocco’s presence, and about all that’s missing is for Taylor to fuck Rocco up the ass with a strap-on. Bella plays the reclusive and submissive computer geek who’s shell is cracked by Rocco just as well. In the commentary John says that he created Jesse’s character with Bella in mind, and it shows. She plays the submissive amazingly well throughout the movie, yet still manages to work in tenderness when she finally matches up with Rocco in the end.

None of the performances would matter if it wasn’t for John Stagliano’s vision and direction. Everything hits right on throughout the movie. There wasn’t a single instance I felt like I wanted a different camera angle, or a single scene that felt too long or short. Everything in the entire body of The Fashionistas seems very well thought out and natural.

This all works together to make The Fashionistas the best adult movie I’ve ever seen. Just over eleven years ago John Stagliano showed me that porn didn’t have to suck with Wild Goose Chase, his first foray into film. Not many adult movies, whether video or film, have been able to come too close or surpass Wild Goose Chase since then, but the standards have been raised even higher here. The Fashionistas merges mainstream movies and porn, letting each feel take over as it needs to. I had to spread the movie over three nights, yet I was drawn in to the point that I never wanted to stop it. The Fashionistas should be mandatory viewing for any true fan of the adult genre.

Extras: The extras are spread over three DVDs, with the first two also containing the movie complete with audio commentary. The first DVD also contains a cast list by scene (including the chapter number on the DVD), filmographies, and the extended fashion show video, while the second DVD contains photo galleries and photo shoots video. Of course, there’s also weblinks on each DVD. The soundtrack for the feature is also included on a CD in the package, which nicely rounds out this four DVD set.

John Stagliano, Tricia Devereaux, Taylor St. Clair, and Belladonna team up to give an audio commentary for the feature during the non-sex portions of the movie. John, Tricia, and company talk about almost every aspect of the movie you could think of, with Chelsea Blue even joining them via speakerphone for part of her scene. You hear about some of the costs, the custom costuming, the weight of the cameras, and what people like sexually jus tto name a few of the subjects duscussed. It’s a great commentary that leaves no doubt in your head about John Stagliano’s skill as a movie maker rather than the hacks that many people seem to consider those who make adult films. Everybody also comes off as very professional and caring, which helps turn this into one hell of a commentary.

I only have two complaints about the commentary, both of which are relatively minor. First is that when they cut out for a couple of the sex scenes, the audio goes dead. It would have been much nicer to have the audio come back to its full volume when John and his group weren’t talking. Second, I would have liked the audio from the film to have been a little louder, as there are times when the group is talking about something in the movie, yet you can barely hear anything there. There are both fairly minor complaints, but were still things I think could have gone a little better.

Filmographies are included for BellaDonna, Taylor St. Clair, Kate Frost, Caroline Pierce, Sharon Wild, Friday, Monique, Chelsea Blue, Star Chandler (Ruby Richards), Gia, and Tricia Devereaux. Each filmography includes a little personal information, a list the Evil Angel credits for the star, a couple photos, and some of the star’s credits for other companies. The credits for other companies is something new hear, and Evil Angel shows their normal amount of class by even going as far as saying what the companies are.

The extended fashion show video lasts about five and a half minutes rather than the two minutes in the movie. The entire thing feels like nothing more than an extension. You get to see a couple extra outfits, and the camera seems to linger a little longer to let you absorb every curve on the girls. There’s no nudity here, just the beauty of the female form. It’s a great extra, and it does a great job of showing just how well John Stagliano can do capturing a woman’s body on camera.

The photo gallery includes roughly forty six, production stills, sixty three promo stills, seventy four behind the scenes photos, and a twenty two photo design gallery. In every case the photos look excellent, and you can choose which group of photos you want to see. This is easily the most complete photo gallery I’ve seen.

The photo shoots featurette lasts about twelve minutes. Most of the featurette acts like a photo gallery of its own. The camera slowly pan across the girls bodies as the cameras snap around them and John gives directions. Every now and then you see the crew, but the major focus here is on the girls, not the photographers. Even with this focus, however, it captures some of the feel of a behind the scenes featurette, as it keeps almost all of the background noise and puts in a little bit of the soundtrack from the feature. Not surprisingly, it’s an extremely well done featurette, but it does add a lot more to the overall DVD than I would have expected from watching other featurettes like this.

A third DVD is devoted entirely to extras, which has been given the same amazing amount of care an of their other DVDs right down to having chapter menu that’s broken down by the shooting day and what happened and a fetish menu. For the behind the scenes featurette, which is a full length movie in itself. There’s also a pre-production featurette, bloopers, a You Know Ass? featurette, a listing of the record breaking number of AVN Nominations The Fashionistas received as well as the awards John Stagliano has already won, an autobiography for John Stagliano, a trailer, website information, and a list of what can be found on the other DVDs.

The main extra is a 110 minute behind the scenes featurette, with most of the camera work appearing to be done by the lovely Tricia Devereaux. It’s nicely organized day by day, including what’s to be done that day. It includes some nice interviews with the stars as well as plenty of behind the scenes moments. The major focus of the feature is the actual filming of the movie and John working with the cast. As usual, John shows an amazing amount of caring towards his cast. He always appears to be willing to explain something to them or work with them on something they think would help them perform better. There’s plenty of fun in the scenes, and Rocco adds a lot of it to many of the behind the scenes sequences. He appears to have just as good of a relationship with the girls as John does, and doesn’t appear afraid to help out where he can whether by joking around or by giving tips on how to make a scene better. Finally, Tricia does a great job behind the camera throughout the feature, and does a great job of bringing things out of people as she makes her way around. It’s a great behind the scenes feature, and adds a lot to the overall DVD.

The behind the scenes feature varies slightly in video quality, with a little bit of the footage being a little dark and a little grainy. This isn’t an all bad thing as it gives the workings of the movie an unpolished feel while the movie feels fully polished. The closest I can come to a complaint about the featurette is that none of the people in the feature are identified. Although it’s fine as it is, it would have been a lot nicer to have the people in the movie identified so you know who they are in case you find yourself really liking a performer. These are both minor complaints, and would only put a little extra polish on an already great feature.

There’s also forty five minutes of extra sex footage from the movie, which looks just as good as the movie. You do hear an occasional comment from John, but mostly it sounds just as good as the movie. It starts out with about six minutes of Kate’s scene with Taylor and Rocco before going to a few more minutes of BellaDonna and Star in the cage. You get a bit more ass play in each scene before going to Bella’s scene with Taylor St. Clair. You really feel like you get more here since you get to watch Taylor ride Bella’s face while Bella wears a dildo mask. You also get a bit more toy action for Bella before things switch to Rocco taking on Friday and Sharon Wild. You get a bit more of what you saw in the scene between the three of them as well as a bit more when Taylor joins in. There isn’t much of Bella’s scene between Billy Glide and Mark Ashley or the back room at the club, but there is a fair amount of material from Rocco’s final scenes with Taylor, Chelsea Blue, and BellaDonna. As usual, it’s a nice selection of extra sex. None of it feels like a full scene or anything, but if you like what you saw in the movie you can get more of it here.

The pre-production featurette lasts about thirteen minutes. It starts out with Friday’s casting with John and Tricia. They also talk a little business before it cuts to Taylor St. Clair’s casting. She starts with John before Tricia comes in to work with Taylor on their scene together. Both sequences are very nice, as you get to see a bit of the business side of John as well as seeing how well Taylor can get down a role. There’s also a pre-production sequences with John going through some of the fashions for the feature with a designer and John talking with the cameramen before the fashion shoot to let them know what he wants. It’s a very nice little behind the scenes featurette.

The bloopers lasts almost nine and a half minutes. There’s the usual flubbed lines, as well as other things that went wrong through the movie. There’s more than a few physical bloopers, as well as a few sexual ones. It’s all mixed up nicely, which makes it very easy to watch and a bit more fun than some blooper reels. Mixing everything up also makes the featurette feel like it has a bit more variety. It’s fun and worth checking out.

You Know Ass? lasts about a minute and a half. There’s a small clip from the feature before it goes into a montage of Rocco knowing ass. It’s basically a little piece of fluff, but it’s a kind of fun little piece of fluff.

There’s even Easter Eggs spread across the three DVDs. Unlike many Easter eggs, there’s a couple really great and fun bits here, and luckily they’re pretty easy to find. Fans of Tricia Deveraux (meaning pretty much anybody who’s watched her or had any dealings with her) will be happy to see a little bit of her behind the scenes. There’s also a bit of John discovering what Bella’s doing behind the scenes, a little bit of Rocco, and Friday’s singing and dancing skills.

Themes: Straight, tease, fetishwear, spanking, smothering, rimming (male > female, female > female, and female > male), anal, toe-ing, shoe worship, lesbian, group, ass to mouth, and inter-racial

Raincoat Factor: Medium high

Overall: The Fashionistas is available online in the $40 to $50 range. As high as this is compared to other releases out there it’s a bargain for what you get here. For those who want to complain about it, check out the price you have to pay to pick up other series or all of Face Dance, and none of the others will give you all you get here. The Fashionistas should have a place of honor on every adult film fan’s shelf.

Note to Evil Angel / John Stagliano: What can I say but “Wow!”?

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight