Watch the Trailer for 7 Days Out , the New Netflix Series That Goes Inside a Chanel Couture Show and Other Landmark Events

Here at Vogue, Andrew Rossi is a familiar face. The director and documentarian spent most of 2015 around One World Trade Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to make The First Monday in May, detailing the genesis of the 2015 Met Gala and corresponding exhibit, “China: Through the Looking Glass.” Suffice to say, Rossi caught the fashion bug—his newest project, the series 7 Days Out, will debut on Netflix on December 21 featuring an episode detailing the making of Chanel’s Spring 2018 Haute Couture collection and runway show.

For the hour-long episode, Karl Lagerfeld, Amanda Harlech, and Chanel’s seamstresses allowed Rossi inside 31 Rue Cambon to witness the week leading up to the couture show. Sketches are delivered, petites mains are stitching about, and Lagerfeld is watching over it all with a discerning eye, signing off on each couture creation. The formula—filming the last seven days before a major event—is replicated at the Westminster Dog Show, during NASA’s Cassini mission, at the Kentucky Derby, during the reopening of Eleven Madison Park, and a League of Legends tournament.

Rossi created the series for Netflix with producers Joe Zee and the team behind Chef’s Table, Andrew Fried and Dane Lillegard, and Sony Pictures Television. He also directed three episodes himself: Chanel, Westminster, and the Cassini mission. What do the Met Gala and a mission to Saturn have in common? Trust and timing. “Over time, people come to forget that the camera is there. It’s all about developing that trust, which is the biggest challenge in making a show like this,” Rossi tells Vogue. “Typically I have a year or so with subjects to develop trust over time. In this case, we land at the most nerve-wracking moment and embed ourselves with people as they’re in the final seven days to an event.” In the words of another fashion TV series, he made it work.

Did you find filming The First Monday in May to be helpful at all in taking on this series?

In a lot of ways this series as a whole was inspired by The First Monday in May and the idea of following visionaries in many different fields—not just fashion, but also in science, in sports, and other parts of the culture—as they prepare for seminal events that are going to test their mettle and really challenge everything that they’ve been preparing for. With the Cassini episode that’s about a NASA mission that’s been in the works for over 20 years, for the Westminster Dog Show it’s about people who have been working for their whole lives to get in to this competition. It’s interesting because in The First Monday in May you see Andrew Bolton going through this really intense intellectual process to curate the show, but in the last seven days there’s no more time to change things or think about them too much, you just have to go into action. I think that was the dramatic plot that we wanted to capture in 7 Days Out.

How did you decide on seven days instead of, say, 14 days or five days?

We went back and forth on that. Joe Zee, who is one of the executive producers that came up with the idea for this series along with Holly Jacobs, who is at Sony; from the beginning they liked the ring of seven days. I think there’s this iconic idea about the week. Everyone can relate to the challenges of going through their work week and measuring their time that way. We wanted to create something that felt really high stakes and in an elevated space, but that is also something that no matter what industry or world you come from you can relate to the idea of: You have one week to do something and everything is on the line. Plus, I guess, according to the Bible, the Earth was created in seven days. [laughs]

I think in the Bible on the seventh day, God rests. There’s not so much resting in these episodes.

Completely. [laughs] Although it’s interesting, I directed the Chanel episode, the Westminster episode, and the Cassini episode, and there is a real emotional outpouring that takes place on the last day. There is a little bit of rest, but it’s often accompanied by tears and people feeling like they have this great weight lifted off their shoulders. So it is biblical, in some sense!

Was there any concern about revealing something unexpected about cultural touchstones? As a culture we love outer space, food, fashion, and dogs, but these topics are rarely explored in a deep, meaningful way on TV.

One hundred percent. That’s something I’ve been interested in in the work that I’ve made from The New York Times documentary to The First Monday in May. There are these things that occupy a big space in our imaginations in the culture and they seem kind of impenetrable, invincible, inaccessible in a human way. What I’ve liked to do is go behind those institutions, events, or those big questions and see who the people are who can be an entry point into understanding them better. For example, in the case of NASA, who are the scientists and engineers that bring this to life? What’s it really like to be in the control room when they’re ending a mission? What is the interpersonal balance between these scientists and engineers that goes along with all the data that they’re processing?

In preparing for the Chanel episode, what kind of research did you do?

It’s interesting because I had just come off producing The Gospel According to André, a film about André Leon Talley, in which there are significant sections dealing with his relationship with Karl. In the making of the film, I worked with the director, Kate Novak, in researching the evolution of fashion in that period of the 1970s and into the ’80s where Karl was a pivotal figure. That was helpful and I brought some of that knowledge, I hope, into the episode.

How familiar were you with the various rules and processes of haute couture?

I must say I was not very well versed in the process of the métiers. That was fabulous to have Virginie [Viard] and Amanda Harlech guide us through that. Amanda Harlech is sort of the Virgil of our episode, she comes in and out to describe how the process works, both in terms of the craft—the savoir faire as they call it—but also the timing. It was an education for me, but sometimes that’s good. If I am on the ground trying to understand the world, I hope that open eye translates for the viewer too.

Has making this series affected what you want to do next?

Certainly. It reminds me or evokes Omnibus, a show from the ’50s and ’60s hosted by Alistair Cooke that gave viewers a window into different worlds. It was riveting and fun to watch, but also smart. That is an approach to unscripted television that you don’t find a lot on broadcast networks, it’s something that the streaming revolution has opened up with platforms like Netflix. I’m excited to keep working in that space, even as I do feature films. Just as when Omnibus was created in the ’50s and ’60s it was at a moment when television was at its early stages and what it would become, I think we’re at a similar moment of disruption or the [streaming] platform figuring itself out now, allowing a show like 7 Days Out to exist. That’s exciting.

It’s true, Netflix has really pioneered the deep dive documentary, which is in stark contrast to the overarching theme of most broadcast television: Hit the lowest common denominator, offer a lot of flash and little substance.

Completely. Sometimes it’s fun to watch Project Runway or a show like that, but I can’t ever imagine Karl and the petites mains and the premières in a format like that. It’s cool that there is a place for their story in television too.