It will soon be time for the 2001 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards. The event will doubtless attract a huge amount of media attention and be a lot of fun to attend. But it won’t be as memorable as last year, and that for one very simple reason: Derek Zoolander won’t be there.

For non-American readers who have never heard of Zoolander, he is a character created by Ben Stiller in conjunction with MTV Movie Awards producer/writer Drake Sather. And he’s a male model.

Zoolander never gets ruffled: perfectly dressed and immaculately coiffured, he has been Male Model of the Year for three years running. Indeed, he is at the peak of his profession, with all the fame and glory that that brings. And, in the autumn of 2000, Stiller was present at the Fashion Awards, both in his Zoolander persona and as director of a new Paramount/Village Roadshow comedy of the same name which took advantage of the red carpet affair at Madison Square Garden to shoot a few key scenes.

The whole fashion world is central to Zoolander the movie - so much so, in fact, that the film’s costume designer, David C Robinson, must have thought he was in heaven. But there was a sense of responsibility that came with the pleasure.

“It was great to do a comic spin on the fashion world,” he says. “But we didn’t want it to be just silly: we wanted it to be really reflective of fashion. There’s the goofy stuff, and then there’s another layer for the fashionistas, who can look at the movie and say, ‘Oh look, it’s the Burberry Plaid’, or ‘Oh, it’s the snakeskin suit from Cavalli!’ I knew I’d scored when not only Gabe Doppelt [the film’s fashion consultant] would laugh, but also the crew members. That’s what I was after: getting the humour in both places.”

This, in other words, is a long way from Prêt-à-porter: it’s not so much that the lid is being lifted on the world of haute couture and designer labels, but rather the world of fashion is a springboard for Stiller’s unique brand of humour, much as the age-old institution of being taken home to be shown off to the folks was used in Meet the Parents. And anyway, says Stiller, the business itself goes so far, it’s almost impossible to parody.

“You can’t outdo the fashion world,” he explains. “You look at some couture shows, and they’re really out there, so you can’t get bigger than what’s already there. It was a question of matching that, and to have a real sense of the humour in the outfits. Derek’s specific style was more of an old-school model, with suits and collar shirts, like an early nineties feel. Hansel [Zoolander’s arch rival] was much more about crunchy granola/extreme sports/grunge-model stuff. [Production designer] Robin Standefer and David Robinson worked closely together to make sure the clothes would really pop.”

Hansel (Owen Wilson)

Stiller, who has created a new breed of reluctant hero with There’s Something About Mary and Meet the Parents - both massive hits in the US and around the world - brings all his off-the-wall humour to the character of Zoolander (which he plays) and to the story of the film, which he directs, co-wrote and co-produces. He also, for good measure, brought along a few members of his family. First and foremost, his wife, Christine Taylor, plays Time Magazine reporter Matilda, whom she describes as “the straight man in this movie: it’s filled with many over-the-top characters, and Matilda brings a sense of reality.”

Also featured are Stiller’s mom, Anne Meara, who plays a protester at the Awards ceremony; his sister, Amy Stiller, who is one of Hansel’s posse; and last but not least his father, Jerry Stiller, who plays Derek’s old-fashioned, long-time agent Maury Baulstein, a man with transparently obvious dyed hair and amazingly vulgar jogging suits.