Eng McQueen (2018)

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Sminky-Pinky.

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Minks.

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You mean like a...
JIV-II

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A "V"? All right.

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<i>Lots of people say,
"I discovered Alexander McQueen."</i>

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<i>But you don't discover talent.
Talent's there.</i>

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<i>You open doors for talent. You push it
through or you help it along.</i>

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<i>No one discovered Alexander McQueen.
Alexander McQueen discovered himself.</i>

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Lee had <i>this</i>
very strange CV.

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<i>I wasn't very good at school.</i>

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I was always drawing clothes
in every lesson,

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in science, in biology and...

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But I used to enjoy art most.

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<i>When he left school
he wasn't sure what he wanted to do.</i>

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He was out of work.
Looking for work, I should say.

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Because my husband's very strict
on the children going out to work.

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We was watching
a television programme one evening

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and they was saying
that they couldn't get apprentices

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to work in Savile Row.

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<i>So I just said to him,
"Why don't you go and try?</i>

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"Just knock on the door.
They can only either say yes or no."

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And that's exactly what he done.

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<i>Anderson & Sheppard
started in 1906.</i>

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<i>We like to do things
slightly different to other people.</i>

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<i>We have a house style.</i>

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<i>That's what we're going to teach
the apprentices to make.</i>

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<i>I was taught by</i> a <i>master
tailor from County Cork in Ireland.</i>

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<i>He was the best tailor
we had on the premises.</i>

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<i>You start off padding collars,
putting in pockets,</i>

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<i>but you're expected
to make a full jacket</i>

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<i>ready for fitting
by the end of the first year.</i>

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<i>As soon as you put it on,</i>

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<i>it should fit like a glove
and you know it's made for you.</i>

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<i>I knew I couldn't survive in</i> a
<i>place like that for the rest of my life,</i>

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<i>cluttered in</i> a <i>small workshop,
sitting on the bench, padding lapels.</i>

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But I did have a passion
and I was good at it.

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I was good at tailoring a jacket.
I was quick at learning trousers.

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I wanted to learn everything.
"Give me everything."

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<i>It was
the beginning of the '90s</i>

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<i>when I had a bespoke tailoring shop
in Mount Street</i>

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<i>and he just walked in one day.</i>

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He looked like a skinhead,

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but he just told me
he can cut a frock coat

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much better
than the 50-year-old tailor I had.

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So I was very curious
and I just told him,

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"OK, show me what you can do."

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<i>I never really made clothes
in a traditional way.</i>

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<i>I was experimenting myself</i>

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<i>in how to create structure
and volumes.</i>

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<i>I'd begun to just take in material,
any material.</i>

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<i>And, by putting them all together,
somehow you can start to create</i>

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<i>this three-dimensional form.</i>

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He wanted to understand

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why I'm doing it this way
or that way.

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<i>When Lee was 17, he said,
"I'll make you a couple of skirts.</i> ”

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And I've got to say,
they fitted like a glove.

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They were so fitted to my body

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I couldn't even
move my legs, hardly,

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but I used to get compliments
on this skirt.

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I did use to wonder,

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"I hope he finds the right thing
for himself in life."

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<i>He was a sweet boy
from the East End,</i>

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<i>looking to make money.</i>

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We needed technical help,

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machinists, pattern cutters.

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We needed people
who had hands-on experience

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in making clothes.

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<i>He gave me no attitude,
was never late,</i>

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<i>always knew what he was doing,
always delivered.</i>

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He listened continually
to Sinéad O'Connor, which was quite odd.

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No one else liked
Sinéad O'Connor at the time

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but he really liked her for some reason.

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I always remember him with his Walkman
on, listening to Sinéad O'Connor.

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Three, two, one, ignition.

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Lift-off.

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<i>Red or Dead was
this very young streetwear company.</i>

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<i>When I said to him
that the Space Baby collection</i>

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was based on the anniversary
of the men landing on the moon,

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he was like, "What?"

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<i>He didn't know
that you could take a subject</i>

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<i>that had no relation to clothing</i>

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<i>and actually get inspiration from that
to design clothing.</i>

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<i>So, he didn't understand</i>

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<i>this idea of visual research</i>

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<i>or historic references
or sexual references.</i>

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<i>We copy you on the ground.
The Eagle has landed.</i>

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He must have
asked me questions,

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"What can I do next?
How can I push myself forward?"

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And at the time

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all the designers in Italy
were opening diffusion lines.

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<i>He went to Italy with no language,</i>

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<i>no place to stay,
no money, no qualifications.</i>

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<i>I thought, "Within a week he'll be back
with his tail between his legs."</i>

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<i>A week later, maybe 10 days,</i>

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<i>I get</i> a <i>call from Lee from Italy.</i>

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<i>He'd landed a job
as an assistant for Romeo Gigli.</i>

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To say I was shocked
was an understatement.

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<i>I said to him,
"OK, I'm looking for</i> a <i>new jacket.</i>

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"I have in my mind this shape

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"but my tailors,
they cannot reach that shape.

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"Maybe you can help me to do it."

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And we start to do that jacket

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and within the first fitting

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I say, "No, it's wrong.
That is not what I'm looking for."

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So with the tailor,
with Lee, they did one more.

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We did the second fitting
and again I take out the lining,

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look inside the jacket
and it was wrong.

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<i>Third fitting I say,
"No, it's incorrect."</i>

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And I take out the lining
and inside the jacket

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Lee wrote with a black pen,

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"Fuck you, Romeo."

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<i>That was a time
when I was looking for new shapes,</i>

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<i>for shapes, for shapes...</i>

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<i>And he was looking
so deeply and hard.</i>

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<i>He was really deeply looking
to understand everything.</i>

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He was leaving my studio

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because he wanted to study
more and more and more.

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<i>You can't teach talent.</i>

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<i>But what you can do is make them better
at what they do, or more professional.</i>

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<i>And to me, the whole thinking
behind this MA</i>

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<i>was to make them work in teams,
working together,</i>

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<i>as you do in the fashion world.</i>

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I saw this unprepossessing,
I must say,

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very shabby,

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very unattractive...

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I hate to even say this
but it was true.

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...boy with a bundle of clothes
over his arm outside my office.

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<i>So I said to him,
"Who are you looking for?"</i>

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And he said, "I've come to see you."

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But I had no job,
which he said he was after.

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<i>The whole thing intrigued me.
He was passionate.</i>

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And to me this is the secret, really.

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You... If you tap into that.

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I found myself saying,

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"Well, I think you should come
on my course."

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And I couldn't offer him money.
That was really sad.

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And it was patently obvious
he had none.

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Aunt Renee said
she had money in the bank,

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sitting there not doing anything,
and she would rather help Lee.

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<i>She'd worked
in the rag trade.</i>

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<i>She knew
that Lee had talent.</i>

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And he came back and said,

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"My aunt is going to pay the fees

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"and I'm coming."

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<i>Saint Martins
was the place to go.</i>

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<i>But what I liked about it
was the freedom of expression</i>

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<i>and being surrounded
by like-minded people.</i>

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We got on really well because
we had the same sense of humour.

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<i>And he laughed all the time,
so he was just funny and disrespectful.</i>

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<i>And he'd do catwalk shows down
the corridor. He'd just muck around.</i>

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<i>Whenever he could muck around,
he'd muck around.</i>

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I was teaching there
at the time as well.

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<i>And he was not frightened to tell
people, "I know better than you."</i>

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<i>Even the tutors.</i>

155
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<i>He was a bit of a nightmare student
because he knew so much.</i>

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I'm sure he was a pain
and did interrupt people.

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He didn't actually dare interrupt me.

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But he used it. He used it
as I intended him to use it.

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And he'd come to a painting or a book

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and, not having had a formal education,

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it was all new to him.

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And that was it.
He reinterpreted things in his way.

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It wasn't filtered through,
as with a lot of us

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who'd had
more conventional backgrounds.

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I loved that.

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He knew where to go for everything.
London was his town.

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<i>"Where do I get my buttonholes?"</i>

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<i>He'd go,"You want to go
to Martin in Soho."</i>

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<i>"If you want fabric, then you want to go
to Berwick Street, Shepherd's Bush."</i>

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He would take me to gay bars
and he would take me to lesbian bars

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and he'd, like, sit me there
and he'd go,

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"This is what you want.
This is what you want."

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I'd go, "No, I just want to go home.
Can I just go home and do my homework?"

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<i>The course always ended
with the degree show.</i>

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No other college
had ever been invited, as Iwas,

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to show during British Fashion Week.

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<i>He called me when he
was finishing the final collection</i>

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<i>and asked me to come in to have a look
and talk to him about it.</i>

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It had all the elements.

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<i>H had the history of the East End.</i>

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<i>It had the darkness,
Jack the Ripper stalks his victims.</i>

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<i>It had the research.
It had a really great story behind it.</i>

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00:13:01,698 --> 00:13:03,996
<i>He was reading books
like Perfume,</i>

184
00:13:04,367 --> 00:13:05,835
<i>which is all about the murder of women,</i>

185
00:13:06,411 --> 00:13:09,540
<i>and he had a very dark side to him
as well,</i>

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<i>so he was drawing
from a“ of these influences</i>

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<i>and then creating something
very beautiful out of it.</i>

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<i>The pieces went past me
and they moved in</i> a <i>way I've never seen.</i>

189
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<i>And I wanted them. They were modern.
They were classical.</i>

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<i>He would do</i> a <i>black coat
and then he'd line it with human hair.</i>

191
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<i>And it was blood-red inside
so it was like a body.</i>

192
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<i>It was like flesh with blood.</i>

193
00:14:04,010 --> 00:14:05,353
<i>And I just thought,</i>

194
00:14:05,470 --> 00:14:07,768
<i>"This is the most beautiful thing
I've ever seen."</i>

195
00:14:09,015 --> 00:14:12,861
<i>it was about sabotage and tradition,
which is the perfect combination,</i>

196
00:14:13,102 --> 00:14:14,900
<i>and beauty and violence.</i>

197
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<i>All the things that t suppose
the '90s represent.</i>

198
00:14:20,651 --> 00:14:22,449
How difficult is it
to discover genius?

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Not at all difficult,
cos they have it and I spot it.

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If you're interested
in late 20th-century clothes,

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Isabella Blow is a big player.

202
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I was at American Vogue
and Anna Wintour discovered me

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and I worked for her
and then I went to British <i>Vogue.</i>

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McQueen was her knight
and she was gonna take him to the top.

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She was determined.

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I just knew. I rang up his mother
and said, "You've produced a genius."

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00:14:45,593 --> 00:14:47,891
You know, he's like
the Saint Laurent of the year 2000.

208
00:14:48,262 --> 00:14:49,764
And his mother said to him,

209
00:14:49,847 --> 00:14:53,397
"Look, there's this mad woman
who keeps trying to call us.

210
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"She wants
some of your clothes."

211
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I rang between six
and eight times a day.

212
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Finally I got a little voice
on the end of the line, "Hello?"

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I said, "Can I make an appointment
with you? My name's Isabella Blow."

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I don't know to this day
if he knew who I was.

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00:15:06,489 --> 00:15:08,787
No, I just wanted the money.
I was desperate for money.

216
00:15:09,158 --> 00:15:11,707
I wasn't interested in him either.
I just wanted the clothes.

217
00:15:12,036 --> 00:15:13,458
I didn't give her no money off.

218
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I said, "That's 350, love.
You can take it or leave it."

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And...

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And she loved that.

221
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<i>It wasn't until I went
to the Bluebird Garage collection</i>

222
00:15:26,634 --> 00:15:28,011
<i>that</i> he did <i>that I...</i>

223
00:15:28,761 --> 00:15:31,059
Well, I just thought,
"What have I unleashed?"

224
00:15:31,431 --> 00:15:34,560
<i>And he walked across
and said, "I owe it all to you,"</i>

225
00:15:34,767 --> 00:15:36,861
<i>which I thought was very, very sweet</i>

226
00:15:37,019 --> 00:15:38,737
because it was far from true.

227
00:15:38,813 --> 00:15:43,319
He'd worked every...
Every inch of the way himself.

228
00:15:55,413 --> 00:15:58,838
Every fashion designer wants
to create an illusion,

229
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:02,345
create things that disturb
and fascinate people.

230
00:16:02,503 --> 00:16:04,676
Clothes are really beautiful
to work with,

231
00:16:04,797 --> 00:16:06,674
but there's also a reality outside.

232
00:16:06,757 --> 00:16:08,134
Some people don't want to hear it.

233
00:16:08,342 --> 00:16:11,596
It's all lovey-dovey and everything's
fine in the world all the time.

234
00:16:11,846 --> 00:16:13,098
And I tell it the way it is.

235
00:16:15,433 --> 00:16:18,312
<i>In the '90s,
you used to make clothes to go out.</i>

236
00:16:18,478 --> 00:16:20,526
<i>You used to make something
just for that night.</i>

237
00:16:20,688 --> 00:16:24,363
<i>You're going to this nightclub.
This person is on, or that DJ.</i>

238
00:16:24,650 --> 00:16:26,323
<i>"Right, what are we going to do?"</i>

239
00:16:26,903 --> 00:16:30,077
<i>t think Lee took everything.
t mean, that's one of Lee's strengths.</i>

240
00:16:30,323 --> 00:16:33,247
<i>He took a lot of Bowery/s aesthetic.</i>

241
00:16:33,493 --> 00:16:36,542
<i>It's transgressive, it's in-your-face.</i>

242
00:16:36,913 --> 00:16:40,133
<i>And he thought,
"How does this translate onto</i> a <i>runway?"</i>

243
00:16:40,833 --> 00:16:43,131
<i>Lee also used that language of fetish</i>

244
00:16:43,503 --> 00:16:46,427
<i>in terms of rubber
and latex and leather</i>

245
00:16:47,215 --> 00:16:49,559
<i>and put it into his fashion design.</i>

246
00:16:51,344 --> 00:16:54,848
<i>We started going out with each other
but part of me was thinking,</i>

247
00:16:54,972 --> 00:16:57,851
<i>"But also it's quite useful
cos I can sew as well. "</i>

248
00:16:58,768 --> 00:17:00,611
<i>It was literally anyone that could sew.</i>

249
00:17:00,811 --> 00:17:03,860
<i>It didn't matter whether they were
any good at sewing or not.</i>

250
00:17:04,148 --> 00:17:06,150
<i>Were they willing to come
and sit in the studio</i>

251
00:17:06,275 --> 00:17:07,902
<i>for, like, 16 hours a day?</i>

252
00:17:08,069 --> 00:17:09,946
And were they going to be
fun to be around?

253
00:17:10,071 --> 00:17:14,451
Lee was the badly-behaved,
naughty school boy

254
00:17:14,617 --> 00:17:17,461
that was always doing pranks
on people in the pub,

255
00:17:17,787 --> 00:17:19,960
and that's the person
that I liked and loved.

256
00:17:31,092 --> 00:17:35,188
At the time I first met Lee,
Iwas living in Hoxton Square,

257
00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:37,899
and one day in pops this guy

258
00:17:38,349 --> 00:17:41,853
and I kind of figured he had rented,
you know, the downstairs.

259
00:17:41,978 --> 00:17:44,106
<i>"Come in for a cup of tea.
Come in for a cup of tea."</i>

260
00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:45,777
<i>And he asked what I did.</i>

261
00:17:45,898 --> 00:17:48,742
<i>I said, "Oh, you know, I do grooming
for men, hair and make-up. "</i>

262
00:17:49,151 --> 00:17:51,529
<i>And he goes,
"Oh. I'm having</i> a <i>show soon.</i>

263
00:17:51,612 --> 00:17:53,535
<i>"Would you do the hair and make-up
for the guys?"</i>

264
00:17:53,781 --> 00:17:54,828
And I was like,

265
00:17:54,991 --> 00:17:57,210
"Don't you need to see
some of my work first?"

266
00:17:57,493 --> 00:17:59,495
I'd never done a show before,
you know, so...

267
00:17:59,954 --> 00:18:03,128
And he's like "No, no, no, no.
I can tell. I can tell."

268
00:18:03,624 --> 00:18:06,594
<i>He said to me one day,
"I've decided to do my own collection. "</i>

269
00:18:06,836 --> 00:18:09,931
I remember thinking "How on earth
does he think he's gonna have a business

270
00:18:10,131 --> 00:18:11,303
"and make a collection?

271
00:18:11,549 --> 00:18:16,225
"He's got nothing. He's got no money,
no wherewithal, no studio,

272
00:18:16,596 --> 00:18:19,099
"nobody to support him
and nothing behind him."

273
00:18:19,432 --> 00:18:22,276
<i>And yet he was determined
this was what he was going to do.</i>

274
00:18:23,185 --> 00:18:25,734
I survived on unemployment benefit

275
00:18:26,272 --> 00:18:28,320
and I bought all my fabrics.

276
00:18:29,442 --> 00:18:31,865
I bought all my fabrics
with my dole money.

277
00:18:32,445 --> 00:18:36,291
And I went round to my parents
for baked beans

278
00:18:36,407 --> 00:18:38,956
and tins of soup and things like that.

279
00:18:45,249 --> 00:18:47,126
This is my pooch.

280
00:18:47,376 --> 00:18:49,629
<i>He said to me,
"I really need to get</i> a <i>logo."</i>

281
00:18:49,795 --> 00:18:52,844
<i>We asked my boyfriend at the time
if he would design it.</i>

282
00:18:52,965 --> 00:18:55,138
<i>It was my idea
to put the "C" inside the</i>

283
00:18:55,217 --> 00:18:57,515
<i>but then Dave designed the rest of it.</i>

284
00:18:57,803 --> 00:19:01,603
<i>He was fantastic at getting people to do
a phenomena! amount of work for him.</i>

285
00:19:02,224 --> 00:19:03,851
And we were never, ever paid.

286
00:19:04,018 --> 00:19:07,488
In fact, we were paying him
to work for him.

287
00:19:07,813 --> 00:19:08,860
How amazing is that?

288
00:19:09,065 --> 00:19:12,740
<i>Just to be pan' of it,
be part of his vision, yeah.</i>

289
00:19:13,027 --> 00:19:15,997
He had that, even from
the very beginning, that pull.

290
00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:18,453
It's so bohemian. Warhol.

291
00:19:18,699 --> 00:19:19,746
Yeah.

292
00:19:19,909 --> 00:19:21,877
Dance your way
to success. Come on!

293
00:19:24,622 --> 00:19:26,249
<i>Isabella was very keen
to call him Alexander.</i>

294
00:19:26,374 --> 00:19:28,627
She thought it sounded better
as a designer.

295
00:19:29,001 --> 00:19:31,299
It sounded grander
and more romantic.

296
00:19:31,379 --> 00:19:33,473
Issie got criticised
for trying to make him posh.

297
00:19:33,547 --> 00:19:35,345
So what? Good for Issie.

298
00:19:35,675 --> 00:19:38,098
She was just trying
to make him successful. And she did.

299
00:19:38,219 --> 00:19:39,766
Alexander McQueen is a brand.

300
00:19:40,096 --> 00:19:42,315
<i>Why do you love her
so much, Lee?</i>

301
00:19:42,515 --> 00:19:45,359
Cos she's the same as me.
She doesn't care what people think.

302
00:19:45,768 --> 00:19:47,145
At the end of the day we're...

303
00:19:47,561 --> 00:19:49,734
We're separate entities
to everyone else

304
00:19:49,939 --> 00:19:51,907
and we have our own
personal view about things.

305
00:19:52,274 --> 00:19:54,151
When you fall in love
with something,

306
00:19:54,276 --> 00:19:57,701
you nurture it and you look after it
like it's your... Garden.

307
00:19:58,114 --> 00:20:00,116
People garden, they cook,
they do the same thing.

308
00:20:00,366 --> 00:20:02,039
My ingredients are clothes.

309
00:20:02,660 --> 00:20:05,334
<i>She introduced him to everyone.
She championed him.</i>

310
00:20:05,579 --> 00:20:08,583
So I suppose what initially started
as a work relationship for her

311
00:20:08,666 --> 00:20:10,088
became a creative friendship.

312
00:20:10,167 --> 00:20:12,716
<i>She was someone
that was always really excited</i>

313
00:20:12,837 --> 00:20:14,805
<i>and wanted to see the next thing
and the new thing</i>

314
00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:16,382
<i>and wanted to push people.</i>

315
00:20:16,507 --> 00:20:17,759
It was never about money.

316
00:20:18,300 --> 00:20:21,429
I never saw any money going
backwards and forwards between them.

317
00:20:23,097 --> 00:20:26,692
<i>I just remember the laughter,
the exciting creativity of the mid-'90s.</i>

318
00:20:26,976 --> 00:20:29,695
<i>And the adventure they were on this
rocket they shot to the moon.</i>

319
00:20:30,020 --> 00:20:32,773
I'm sure you're a hungry little thing.

320
00:20:34,108 --> 00:20:36,156
<i>The early days
were very happy days.</i>

321
00:20:36,610 --> 00:20:39,864
<i>They were short times, but they were
beautiful and they were funny.</i>

322
00:20:40,364 --> 00:20:41,832
<i>Issie didn't have children</i>

323
00:20:42,032 --> 00:20:45,787
<i>so she threw her maternal love
to her protégé.</i>

324
00:20:46,495 --> 00:20:49,214
I looked forward to seeing him
cos he made me laugh so much.

325
00:20:49,665 --> 00:20:51,884
<i>Issie and McQueen
had a very dirty sense of humour.</i>

326
00:20:52,293 --> 00:20:54,887
<i>McQueen would describe Issie
as a cross between Lucrezia Borgia</i>

327
00:20:55,004 --> 00:20:56,722
<i>and</i> a <i>Billingsgate fish wife.</i>

328
00:20:57,465 --> 00:20:59,513
<i>Issie had</i> a <i>very vulgar humour.</i>

329
00:20:59,717 --> 00:21:02,220
I always found the cocks
and the cunts slightly...

330
00:21:03,012 --> 00:21:04,685
Always a bit... Oh!

331
00:21:05,181 --> 00:21:07,479
I wasn't really into
their earthy humour.

332
00:21:08,058 --> 00:21:10,527
However rude McQueen got,
Issie was even worse.

333
00:21:10,728 --> 00:21:13,948
<i>They loved to play off each other
like that and be outrageous.</i>

334
00:21:14,023 --> 00:21:15,400
I know Alexander loves birds

335
00:21:15,566 --> 00:21:17,534
so I've got this bird hat on
designed by Philip.

336
00:21:17,985 --> 00:21:21,330
We're going to do some falconry tomorrow
cos Alexander's got a very...

337
00:21:21,822 --> 00:21:23,290
He's passionate about birds.

338
00:21:23,532 --> 00:21:25,660
<i>We're going to fly some falcons
tomorrow afternoon.</i>

339
00:21:47,097 --> 00:21:49,395
<i>We did go and stay
at Hines a few times.</i>

340
00:21:50,267 --> 00:21:52,861
You would end up
diving into Issie's dressing-up box

341
00:21:53,062 --> 00:21:54,359
and we'd all be wearing

342
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:56,858
fantastical costumes for dinner
and things like that.

343
00:21:58,692 --> 00:22:01,161
<i>The world she inhabited
was so far removed</i>

344
00:22:01,570 --> 00:22:04,119
<i>from the world
that any of us had come from.</i>

345
00:22:05,866 --> 00:22:07,413
<i>There was a sort of unreality to it.</i>

346
00:22:07,660 --> 00:22:11,915
<i>Whenever we went to that house,
you just felt so at home.</i>

347
00:22:12,665 --> 00:22:15,509
<i>And I think Lee felt very at home there.</i>

348
00:22:16,627 --> 00:22:20,757
<i>(Detmaq They had this big sister, a fun
person to be with, who was outrageous.</i>

349
00:22:21,173 --> 00:22:23,141
With Issie,
"Be as different as you can.

350
00:22:23,509 --> 00:22:25,386
"And keep going!

351
00:22:25,594 --> 00:22:27,938
<i>"The more different,
the more I love it."</i>

352
00:22:29,139 --> 00:22:31,233
I really don't like the norm.
I don't think it's...

353
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:33,227
You don't move forwards, seriously.

354
00:22:33,352 --> 00:22:35,571
You just don't move forward
if you play safe.

355
00:22:35,896 --> 00:22:37,739
You really do piss a lot of people off.

356
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:46,123
<i>His first shows
were unbelievable.</i>

357
00:22:46,365 --> 00:22:47,742
<i>People were winded by them.</i>

358
00:22:47,825 --> 00:22:51,125
People walked out.
Quite a few acerbic reviews.

359
00:22:51,412 --> 00:22:54,666
<i>But everything else before
paled into comparison.</i>

360
00:22:54,832 --> 00:22:56,926
I don't wanna do a show
that you walk out of

361
00:22:57,001 --> 00:22:59,845
feeling like you've
just had Sunday lunch.

362
00:22:59,962 --> 00:23:05,469
I want you to come out
either feeling repulsed or exhilarated.

363
00:23:05,718 --> 00:23:07,470
As long as it's an emotion.

364
00:23:07,928 --> 00:23:11,353
If you leave without emotion,
then I'm not doing myjob properly.

365
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:12,687
So that's that.

366
00:23:12,766 --> 00:23:16,191
That's the thing about Alexander.
I think his clothes are very emotional.

367
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,023
This coat is, like, based on a tramp,

368
00:23:19,273 --> 00:23:21,321
so it's based on someone
who hasn't got any money,

369
00:23:21,817 --> 00:23:23,819
standing in the street,
nowhere to sleep.

370
00:23:24,486 --> 00:23:26,580
You wrap it round yourself,
you feel fantastic.

371
00:23:26,989 --> 00:23:29,868
Then you have
all this passion and love

372
00:23:30,451 --> 00:23:33,546
and slashing
and sex and romance.

373
00:23:34,955 --> 00:23:37,549
<i>The idea of the collection
was never to produce.</i>

374
00:23:38,459 --> 00:23:40,461
<i>The shows were all about publicity</i>

375
00:23:40,836 --> 00:23:45,342
and creating a marketing ploy
for Alexander McQueen, the designer.

376
00:23:45,799 --> 00:23:47,301
<i>They were
impossible to reproduce.</i>

377
00:23:47,468 --> 00:23:49,891
They were made of plastic bags
or masking tape.

378
00:23:50,095 --> 00:23:51,187
They were show clothes.

379
00:23:51,639 --> 00:23:53,232
<i>Lee started doing bumsters.</i>

380
00:23:53,432 --> 00:23:56,231
<i>These were cut so low that you could see
the model's pubic hair.</i>

381
00:23:56,644 --> 00:23:58,692
<i>It's nothing to do
with pubic hair.</i>

382
00:23:58,979 --> 00:24:01,528
<i>It's just a technical thing where,
as a tailor,</i>

383
00:24:01,774 --> 00:24:03,651
<i>you're breaking up the proportion
of the body</i>

384
00:24:04,151 --> 00:24:06,574
<i>by lowering the trousers,
elongating the torso.</i>

385
00:24:06,946 --> 00:24:08,368
<i>It's nothing to do with bum cleavage.</i>

386
00:24:08,489 --> 00:24:10,867
<i>It's an added bonus
if you've got a nice bum.</i>

387
00:24:11,241 --> 00:24:12,584
<i>He told that mannequin,</i>

388
00:24:12,743 --> 00:24:15,166
<i>"Put your pubic hairs
in Anna Wintoufs face."</i>

389
00:24:17,790 --> 00:24:19,633
It's just funny, naughty behaviour.

390
00:24:20,459 --> 00:24:22,461
You could give Alexander £500

391
00:24:22,711 --> 00:24:24,713
and he could produce
30 pieces of clothing.

392
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:28,259
<i>He saw some cling film and said
"I'm gonna make a dress out of that. "</i>

393
00:24:28,509 --> 00:24:30,682
<i>'Tm going to put the model in it,
wrap her up."</i>

394
00:24:30,970 --> 00:24:32,893
<i>And he just cut this dress,
put</i> a <i>zip in it</i>

395
00:24:33,013 --> 00:24:34,606
<i>and suddenly that went down the runway.</i>

396
00:24:34,974 --> 00:24:38,069
<i>Getting</i> a <i>tyre
and running it over the suit.</i>

397
00:24:39,728 --> 00:24:41,196
Things like that. Just genius.

398
00:24:41,772 --> 00:24:43,365
£4 <i>worth</i> of lace.

399
00:24:43,607 --> 00:24:45,325
Invisible zip, £1.

400
00:24:45,776 --> 00:24:47,619
Sprayed with car spray paint.

401
00:24:47,820 --> 00:24:50,664
They probably cost less than £10,
those dresses, to make.

402
00:24:50,864 --> 00:24:54,494
<i>But, through that weird alchemy
of being cut and made by Lee,</i>

403
00:24:54,702 --> 00:24:56,579
<i>suddenly they're being requested.</i>

404
00:24:57,162 --> 00:24:59,790
Avedon wanted to have
this dress for Sharon Stone.

405
00:24:59,999 --> 00:25:01,842
So it has to be in America now.

406
00:25:02,126 --> 00:25:04,879
"We need someone to fly over
with the dress on Concorde."

407
00:25:05,004 --> 00:25:08,349
That still upsets me to this day.
I didn't get to go on Concorde.

408
00:25:10,300 --> 00:25:11,643
It was me.

409
00:25:12,469 --> 00:25:14,517
<i>That's almost the period
where I think,</i>

410
00:25:14,722 --> 00:25:16,645
<i>the madness really kicked in.</i>

411
00:25:16,974 --> 00:25:19,898
<i>The show was brilliant
but I'll wake up tomorrow and think,</i>

412
00:25:20,144 --> 00:25:23,114
<i>"I've got to get</i> a <i>bottle of milk.
Where am I going to get 42p from?"</i>

413
00:25:23,439 --> 00:25:24,907
<i>We went to</i> a <i>McDonald's.</i>

414
00:25:25,232 --> 00:25:27,485
We got two cheeseburgers,
two fries, two Cokes.

415
00:25:28,110 --> 00:25:30,033
And I was that tired
that I just dropped the tray

416
00:25:30,237 --> 00:25:32,615
and then we had to pick
the food up off the floor.

417
00:25:33,198 --> 00:25:35,292
And I thought,
"This is a weird world,

418
00:25:35,409 --> 00:25:37,958
"that you've just shown the finale
of London Fashion Week

419
00:25:38,078 --> 00:25:39,705
"but we haven't got five quid to eat."

420
00:25:39,830 --> 00:25:42,049
That's how it is.
People have got to understand that.

421
00:25:42,207 --> 00:25:45,211
You're doing fucking fab shows
but you've got to start living.

422
00:25:45,377 --> 00:25:47,505
<i>The Clothes Show,
you know, BBC One.</i>

423
00:25:47,629 --> 00:25:50,508
<i>At the time 12 million viewers.
You're 22 years old.</i>

424
00:25:50,799 --> 00:25:52,472
You're not in any of the shots

425
00:25:52,885 --> 00:25:56,185
and you're dictating the terms
on how you're going to appear.

426
00:25:56,263 --> 00:25:57,890
Because I was doing the shows

427
00:25:58,015 --> 00:26:00,438
on money that I got
from unemployment benefit,

428
00:26:00,517 --> 00:26:02,861
I could not afford
to show my face on camera

429
00:26:02,978 --> 00:26:06,278
because I would be arrested
for working as well as signing on.

430
00:26:06,523 --> 00:26:08,196
- Did it piss you off?
- No.

431
00:26:08,442 --> 00:26:10,115
It should have done.
That was the idea.

432
00:26:10,319 --> 00:26:12,572
<i>I really worked
that East End yob,</i>

433
00:26:12,738 --> 00:26:17,460
<i>this juxtaposition between a hooligan
and someone that uses a needle.</i>

434
00:26:17,576 --> 00:26:19,044
<i>And people couldn't fathom it.</i>

435
00:26:19,369 --> 00:26:21,622
<i>So it was new.
It was</i> a <i>breath of fresh air.</i>

436
00:26:22,206 --> 00:26:25,085
Savile Row, Cockney geezer,
ding dong, all of that.

437
00:26:25,167 --> 00:26:27,420
<i>He was aware
how seductive that was.</i>

438
00:26:28,003 --> 00:26:29,926
I get a bit annoyed
when I read that.

439
00:26:31,340 --> 00:26:33,058
<i>He was far from a bad boy.</i>

440
00:26:33,467 --> 00:26:37,517
<i>In fact, he was</i> a <i>very loving,
happy child</i>

441
00:26:37,679 --> 00:26:39,397
<i>and very generous.</i>

442
00:26:40,015 --> 00:26:41,688
Beautiful face, huh?

443
00:26:43,185 --> 00:26:46,530
<i>I just remember this one time
when I went round his house.</i>

444
00:26:46,855 --> 00:26:49,950
<i>I think I said something was shit
or something in front of his mum.</i>

445
00:26:50,150 --> 00:26:51,902
<i>He turned round,
glared at me and said,</i>

446
00:26:51,985 --> 00:26:54,909
<i>"Don't you fucking swear
in front of my fucking mother."</i>

447
00:26:55,155 --> 00:26:57,954
<i>We were never
what people called poor.</i>

448
00:26:58,158 --> 00:27:00,581
<i>My husband was a London taxi driver.</i>

449
00:27:01,286 --> 00:27:02,754
Even though there was six children,

450
00:27:02,913 --> 00:27:05,507
they all had everything
that they should have had.

451
00:27:05,666 --> 00:27:08,135
I don't know, it just seems...

452
00:27:09,419 --> 00:27:12,673
Like, honest,
an honest place round here.

453
00:27:12,798 --> 00:27:15,802
You know where you stand,
if you know what I mean.

454
00:27:15,926 --> 00:27:18,725
If someone's going to mug you,
they tell you before they do it.

455
00:27:18,846 --> 00:27:20,348
I'm onlyjoking.

456
00:27:22,057 --> 00:27:24,401
<i>From our granddads,
he got the sense of humour,</i>

457
00:27:24,518 --> 00:27:26,361
<i>which was, at times, wicked.</i>

458
00:27:31,483 --> 00:27:34,282
<i>I think that he struggled
coming out of that background</i>

459
00:27:34,403 --> 00:27:35,905
<i>and going into the world.</i>

460
00:27:35,988 --> 00:27:37,990
I made the choice
to come out to my father.

461
00:27:38,115 --> 00:27:39,788
I'd told all my brothers
and sisters and aunts,

462
00:27:39,908 --> 00:27:42,252
but my father was a London taxi driver.

463
00:27:42,327 --> 00:27:43,920
He would come home at night and say,

464
00:27:43,996 --> 00:27:46,670
"God, I nearly run over
a bloody queer last night in Soho."

465
00:27:46,874 --> 00:27:48,046
I'd have to deal with this.

466
00:27:48,167 --> 00:27:52,092
My dad could be a bit cutting sometimes,
but he was joking.

467
00:27:52,504 --> 00:27:56,509
And if you didn't know him,
you'd probably take that the wrong way.

468
00:27:57,342 --> 00:28:00,687
<i>Lee's father was saying,
"Sell your clothes in Brick Lane,"</i>

469
00:28:01,096 --> 00:28:03,599
<i>never quite understanding
what Lee was doing.</i>

470
00:28:04,099 --> 00:28:07,103
My dad wanted me to be
some sort of mechanic or something,

471
00:28:07,311 --> 00:28:09,689
but... It never worked out that way.

472
00:28:12,149 --> 00:28:14,618
From our nan
he got that storytelling,

473
00:28:14,860 --> 00:28:17,329
that dark romance
of the Victorian times.

474
00:28:17,821 --> 00:28:21,166
I think that really lent itself
to his visions

475
00:28:21,408 --> 00:28:23,502
of the stories
that he wanted to tell.

476
00:28:24,411 --> 00:28:25,754
It's all right, Mother.

477
00:28:30,334 --> 00:28:32,336
Oh, Mother, come here.
No, I'm too ugly.

478
00:28:36,673 --> 00:28:40,052
She was very strong
and powerful

479
00:28:40,385 --> 00:28:42,604
and quite a lot was unsaid,

480
00:28:42,846 --> 00:28:46,020
but, my God, you realised there was
a really strong bond between them.

481
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:48,944
<i>She made him feel
like he could do anything.</i>

482
00:28:50,771 --> 00:28:53,399
I always encouraged them to read

483
00:28:54,066 --> 00:28:55,409
and have lots of books

484
00:28:56,068 --> 00:28:59,197
because I myself loved history
and things like that.

485
00:29:00,781 --> 00:29:03,204
That's one about a Highland clan.

486
00:29:03,408 --> 00:29:06,912
<i>She was looking into
the genealogy of the McQueen family</i>

487
00:29:07,329 --> 00:29:09,331
<i>and aimed at proving</i>

488
00:29:09,957 --> 00:29:12,710
<i>that the McQueens came
from McQueens of the Isle of Skye.</i>

489
00:29:13,210 --> 00:29:14,928
<i>It opened up his world.</i>

490
00:29:15,045 --> 00:29:18,720
He was born in Stratford, but he knew
there was this other life for him

491
00:29:19,174 --> 00:29:20,676
which came from Scotland.

492
00:29:21,009 --> 00:29:22,761
She encouraged
the sort of fantasy

493
00:29:22,970 --> 00:29:24,972
and excitement of those stories

494
00:29:25,097 --> 00:29:26,394
and Lee went with it.

495
00:29:28,183 --> 00:29:32,108
<i>You have two types of Scotland
people will associate themselves with,</i>

496
00:29:32,312 --> 00:29:36,237
<i>the Vivienne Westwood romantic Scotland,
swathes of tartan silk.</i>

497
00:29:37,192 --> 00:29:40,071
<i>My ancestry
is the Jacobites of Scotland.</i>

498
00:29:40,779 --> 00:29:43,498
<i>The war of the English and the Scottish</i>

499
00:29:43,615 --> 00:29:47,461
<i>where the English raped loads of women,
killed clans completely off.</i>

500
00:29:47,911 --> 00:29:50,505
<i>It's like</i> a <i>form of genocide.
It was then.</i>

501
00:29:50,580 --> 00:29:52,207
<i>And people don't realise this.</i>

502
00:29:52,416 --> 00:29:55,215
<i>I mean, take Bosnia.
How many dead people have you seen?</i>

503
00:29:55,627 --> 00:29:57,254
<i>There's millions of dead people
in Bosnia.</i>

504
00:29:57,337 --> 00:29:58,680
<i>It's just genocide in the end.</i>

505
00:29:58,839 --> 00:30:01,809
<i>People have got to realise that
it still goes on in the world today.</i>

506
00:30:11,935 --> 00:30:13,983
<i>There was something different
about him.</i>

507
00:30:14,146 --> 00:30:19,824
<i>He had this artistic energy in him
rather than like a fashion designer.</i>

508
00:30:21,903 --> 00:30:25,032
I rang his mother and said,
"I want to work for your son."

509
00:30:26,658 --> 00:30:30,538
She gave rne the address
and I went one morning

510
00:30:30,787 --> 00:30:33,757
and ever since,
we were working every day

511
00:30:34,207 --> 00:30:36,175
on the Highland Rape collection,

512
00:30:36,418 --> 00:30:38,591
trying to get the pieces ready.

513
00:30:39,504 --> 00:30:40,630
<i>There were times</i>

514
00:30:40,714 --> 00:30:44,218
<i>when he hadn't yet started working
on the collection and it was due soon</i>

515
00:30:44,343 --> 00:30:46,471
<i>and he would do one drawing
after another,</i>

516
00:30:46,595 --> 00:30:48,814
<i>after another, after another,
after another</i>

517
00:30:49,014 --> 00:30:50,732
<i>and there was a collection
in one evening.</i>

518
00:30:50,974 --> 00:30:53,272
Very quick, very fluid.

519
00:30:53,894 --> 00:30:56,192
<i>He was also very creative
at night.</i>

520
00:30:56,438 --> 00:30:58,861
His adrenaline was much more alive

521
00:30:59,107 --> 00:31:01,485
and we usually used to put music.

522
00:31:02,402 --> 00:31:05,997
<i>He would listen to the piano
and it became very important.</i>

523
00:31:06,406 --> 00:31:09,910
<i>The composer Michael Nyman
became part of his team.</i>

524
00:31:11,203 --> 00:31:13,877
I was just enjoying myself
to watch him

525
00:31:14,081 --> 00:31:16,300
because he was sitting
like an old lady,

526
00:31:16,500 --> 00:31:19,219
his needle and his thimble.

527
00:31:19,711 --> 00:31:21,588
<i>You can feel like he's...</i>

528
00:31:21,922 --> 00:31:24,516
It's kind of a therapeutic work for him.

529
00:31:25,801 --> 00:31:27,474
<i>He went into a sort of zone.</i>

530
00:31:27,719 --> 00:31:29,596
<i>I always used to say
his eyes went black</i>

531
00:31:29,888 --> 00:31:32,141
<i>because he suddenly was focusing
on what he was doing</i>

532
00:31:32,307 --> 00:31:34,856
<i>and he almost couldn't hear
anybody else.</i>

533
00:31:36,228 --> 00:31:38,322
He could draft a jacket,
free-hand,

534
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:42,110
just with a piece of chalk,
so he wasn't using measurements.

535
00:31:42,192 --> 00:31:45,162
He could just, from his eye,
read someone's body measurements

536
00:31:45,278 --> 00:31:48,077
and then be able to draw that out
onto a bit of cloth.

537
00:31:48,782 --> 00:31:50,534
<i>At heart, Lee was a romantic,</i>

538
00:31:50,867 --> 00:31:53,916
<i>and that romantic is because
of that physical relationship</i>

539
00:31:54,121 --> 00:31:55,543
<i>to what you produce,</i>

540
00:31:55,664 --> 00:31:58,508
<i>which then comes back
to that idea of craft in a way.</i>

541
00:32:03,255 --> 00:32:05,633
<i>The family always got
invites to the shows.</i>

542
00:32:05,799 --> 00:32:07,642
It was very important
that my nan was there.

543
00:32:07,843 --> 00:32:09,971
He really wanted to make my nan proud.

544
00:32:10,303 --> 00:32:15,025
<i>Aunt</i> Renee <i>and Mum made sure
that the models had some sandwiches.</i>

545
00:32:15,225 --> 00:32:17,774
Mum would have probably done
her sausage rolls.

546
00:32:17,936 --> 00:32:22,191
We were all, as a group
of young, really cool, English models,

547
00:32:22,357 --> 00:32:26,737
so excited to see this man
that had this reputation.

548
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:30,824
<i>I was just amazed.
All these people, photographers...</i>

549
00:32:31,366 --> 00:32:35,667
<i>And I thought, "My God,
they're all here to see Lee.</i>

550
00:32:36,037 --> 00:32:37,664
<i>"I hope they're not disappointed."</i>

551
00:32:37,831 --> 00:32:39,674
Because I thought,

552
00:32:39,833 --> 00:32:41,710
"This is just Lee from Stratford."

553
00:32:55,682 --> 00:32:57,684
The darkness,

554
00:32:58,518 --> 00:33:01,818
the going to the depths
and the recesses of one's mind

555
00:33:02,105 --> 00:33:05,484
to come up with such things
like Highland Rape.

556
00:33:05,609 --> 00:33:09,830
<i>"I'm going to send down loads of girls
who look like they've just been raped."</i>

557
00:33:10,739 --> 00:33:14,915
And then we were all looking
like we'd come out of a hedge backwards

558
00:33:14,993 --> 00:33:17,121
and I was going,
"Is this the hair and make-up?"

559
00:33:21,291 --> 00:33:23,635
<i>They're not easy garments
to look at.</i>

560
00:33:23,877 --> 00:33:26,847
<i>They do look like something
from a crime scene.</i>

561
00:33:35,597 --> 00:33:39,477
<i>I honestly just thought
that he really just didn't like women,</i>

562
00:33:39,768 --> 00:33:42,362
<i>he didn't like the models,
he didn't like anything,</i>

563
00:33:42,521 --> 00:33:44,398
<i>he was just trying to torture us all.</i>

564
00:33:44,648 --> 00:33:46,446
But his vision,

565
00:33:46,691 --> 00:33:48,364
when you actually came down,

566
00:33:48,818 --> 00:33:49,990
and the silhouette

567
00:33:50,195 --> 00:33:53,290
and the way he made you look
was so extraordinary.

568
00:33:54,491 --> 00:33:57,586
<i>I don't think I really understood,
because I was 15 at the time,</i>

569
00:33:57,744 --> 00:34:01,044
<i>exactly what was going on
or the connotations of it.</i>

570
00:34:01,998 --> 00:34:05,343
<i>It wasn't until probably the next day
that I read the newspapers.</i>

571
00:34:06,294 --> 00:34:08,296
And, you know,
there was quite a backlash

572
00:34:08,380 --> 00:34:09,802
of the statement of the show.

573
00:34:10,173 --> 00:34:12,175
<i>I mean, it was pretty intense.</i>

574
00:34:12,384 --> 00:34:16,981
<i>But he made every single headline
and that's what he wanted to do.</i>

575
00:34:17,514 --> 00:34:19,357
And he sure got it.

576
00:34:19,933 --> 00:34:21,776
<i>Judith Church,
MP for Dagenham,</i>

577
00:34:21,935 --> 00:34:24,108
<i>thought there was no excuse
for such a show.</i>

578
00:34:24,437 --> 00:34:27,156
<i>The very title of the show,
Highland Rape,</i>

579
00:34:27,274 --> 00:34:30,198
<i>has been done to shock people.
It's been done to attract publicity.</i>

580
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,829
<i>It has succeeded
and that, in a way, is sad,</i>

581
00:34:32,988 --> 00:34:34,865
<i>because I think women want
to look at fashion,</i>

582
00:34:34,948 --> 00:34:36,291
<i>but they don't want to see it</i>

583
00:34:36,408 --> 00:34:38,911
<i>in some way
as portraying them as a victim.</i>

584
00:34:40,620 --> 00:34:43,624
I'm not a misogynist.
The idea was saying to the public,

585
00:34:43,999 --> 00:34:47,344
"A man takes from a woman.
The woman's not giving it."

586
00:34:47,502 --> 00:34:48,719
That's what rape is.

587
00:34:48,837 --> 00:34:51,681
My oldest sister was badly beaten up
by her husband.

588
00:34:52,007 --> 00:34:55,181
When you're eight years old and you see
your sister strangled by her husband,

589
00:34:55,468 --> 00:34:57,015
who's now dead, thank God,

590
00:34:57,554 --> 00:35:00,774
you know, all you wanna do
is make women look stronger.

591
00:35:01,683 --> 00:35:04,436
You might not like the honesty
he was presenting you with,

592
00:35:04,561 --> 00:35:07,235
you might find it distasteful,
shocking or aggressive

593
00:35:07,564 --> 00:35:11,239
or misogynistic,
but for him it was his truth.

594
00:35:11,943 --> 00:35:14,241
<i>Those garments all tell you about Lee</i>

595
00:35:14,404 --> 00:35:16,202
<i>and they're almost like confessional.</i>

596
00:35:16,573 --> 00:35:19,577
<i>They do relate to things
that happened in his childhood.</i>

597
00:35:21,494 --> 00:35:24,589
<i>We were just in our flat. It was
literally in the middle of the evening.</i>

598
00:35:24,664 --> 00:35:27,008
<i>And he said,
"Oh, by the way, I was abused</i>

599
00:35:27,375 --> 00:35:29,594
<i>"when I was</i> a <i>child
by my brother-in-law. "</i>

600
00:35:29,794 --> 00:35:33,344
<i>It just came out
and he started crying</i>

601
00:35:33,590 --> 00:35:35,763
<i>and then we started talking</i>

602
00:35:36,176 --> 00:35:38,770
<i>and then, almost as soon
as he started telling me all that,</i>

603
00:35:39,012 --> 00:35:41,515
<i>he said, "Anyway, t don't want
to talk about that any more."</i>

604
00:35:41,723 --> 00:35:44,442
<i>The stuff that he saw,
I mean, the violence against my mum,</i>

605
00:35:44,643 --> 00:35:48,864
the abuse he suffered by my dad
and the abuse my mum suffered by Dad...

606
00:35:49,147 --> 00:35:52,492
They had that affinity together.
They shared that, Lee and my mum.

607
00:35:53,068 --> 00:35:56,322
They were both affected
by the same person.

608
00:35:57,739 --> 00:36:01,164
And they had that connection
through that, you know.

609
00:36:01,368 --> 00:36:04,542
And Lee saw my mum
very much like a mother figure

610
00:36:05,205 --> 00:36:08,880
and somebody
that he wanted to protect,

611
00:36:09,167 --> 00:36:11,340
but my mum wanted to protect him
as well.

612
00:36:12,796 --> 00:36:16,801
I had quite a big burden
on my shoulders.

613
00:36:17,509 --> 00:36:18,977
Erm...

614
00:36:20,637 --> 00:36:23,561
But I'd always felt close to Lee

615
00:36:24,099 --> 00:36:25,146
<i>and...</i>

616
00:36:27,227 --> 00:36:32,984
In the early years, Lee had seen
things like domestic violence and,

617
00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:40,332
at the time, it must have also had
an effect on his mind.

618
00:36:41,574 --> 00:36:43,372
<i>And that stuff he had to get out,</i>

619
00:36:43,618 --> 00:36:45,495
<i>I think it was a way
of exercising his demons,</i>

620
00:36:45,662 --> 00:36:50,133
a <i>way of protecting women and himself
by creating these strong women</i>

621
00:36:50,417 --> 00:36:52,215
<i>who looked like they had armour on.</i>

622
00:36:52,377 --> 00:36:54,471
It was armour for his heart as well,
you know, so...

623
00:36:56,965 --> 00:36:58,717
<i>The relationship
between me and Lee,</i>

624
00:36:59,008 --> 00:37:00,726
<i>I joke that it was four seasons long,</i>

625
00:37:01,177 --> 00:37:04,397
<i>purely because I think those collections
and those shows became markers</i>

626
00:37:04,472 --> 00:37:10,104
<i>in terms of how our work life
was also tied up with our relationship.</i>

627
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:11,817
And, looking back on it now,

628
00:37:11,980 --> 00:37:13,857
I can see the reasons
why it would be...

629
00:37:13,982 --> 00:37:15,825
How could a relationship work

630
00:37:16,484 --> 00:37:19,658
with all the things
that were going on in his life,

631
00:37:19,863 --> 00:37:21,865
all the things in his past?

632
00:37:22,115 --> 00:37:25,790
<i>I can't think of any relationship
that would be able to deal with that.</i>

633
00:37:51,728 --> 00:37:55,699
When you went to St Martins,
in the first year you'd go to Paris

634
00:37:55,940 --> 00:37:59,319
and the idea is that you're meant
to go to exhibitions.

635
00:37:59,819 --> 00:38:01,537
<i>But we would just spend all of our time</i>

636
00:38:01,738 --> 00:38:04,207
<i>wangling our way
into the various shows.</i>

637
00:38:04,407 --> 00:38:06,034
<i>So we went to this show and it was...</i>

638
00:38:06,242 --> 00:38:09,746
<i>It was all very floral
and there was chiffon and Lee was going,</i>

639
00:38:09,954 --> 00:38:12,207
<i>"Well, that's rubbish.
That's rubbish. Oh, my God.</i>

640
00:38:12,457 --> 00:38:14,835
<i>"This is just the worst show ever.
Bloody hell.</i>

641
00:38:15,043 --> 00:38:16,966
"Givenchy, that's a load of crap!

642
00:38:17,170 --> 00:38:18,797
"That's for, like, old ladies.

643
00:38:19,130 --> 00:38:22,851
"I never, ever want to work
somewhere like that."

644
00:38:34,479 --> 00:38:37,278
It was a really exciting time
to be covering the industry

645
00:38:37,482 --> 00:38:39,450
because it was changing,
it was evolving.

646
00:38:39,651 --> 00:38:42,871
<i>People like Bernard Arnault
were buying up small family brands</i>

647
00:38:43,238 --> 00:38:45,491
<i>and then turning them
into global corporations.</i>

648
00:38:45,657 --> 00:38:47,785
And first he brought in John Galliano

649
00:38:47,909 --> 00:38:50,332
and, after two years,
moved John over to Dior

650
00:38:50,453 --> 00:38:52,876
and then needed another
new, young, hot flavour

651
00:38:53,122 --> 00:38:54,624
for Givenchy.

652
00:38:54,707 --> 00:38:56,755
<i>And so</i> he <i>said...
Why did</i> he <i>want you?</i>

653
00:38:56,918 --> 00:39:00,047
He said when I was hired
that I was his horse.

654
00:39:01,047 --> 00:39:03,141
I don't know if that's in looks
or what, but...

655
00:39:04,509 --> 00:39:06,728
But he said I was his horse
he betted on.

656
00:39:07,095 --> 00:39:10,440
I was living with Lee
when Givenchy called

657
00:39:10,515 --> 00:39:14,110
and he thought that they wanted him
to design a handbag.

658
00:39:14,227 --> 00:39:15,945
And I'm like "Wow. WOW!"

659
00:39:16,688 --> 00:39:18,406
"Cool man!" You know?

660
00:39:18,565 --> 00:39:21,159
Next thing I know

661
00:39:21,359 --> 00:39:24,033
he comes in
and he basically says

662
00:39:24,195 --> 00:39:27,244
they've asked him to be
creative director of Givenchy.

663
00:39:27,407 --> 00:39:30,035
<i>And I was like, "You are kidding me!"</i>

664
00:39:30,285 --> 00:39:34,131
<i>He called me at work and then he said,
"They've offered me this job.</i>

665
00:39:34,330 --> 00:39:36,458
"If I move to Paris,
will you come with me?"

666
00:39:36,541 --> 00:39:37,963
I was like, "Yeah, of course."

667
00:39:38,126 --> 00:39:42,222
It was sort of exciting
and also quite scary as well

668
00:39:42,380 --> 00:39:45,259
because it was still that honeymoon
period of our relationship.

669
00:39:45,842 --> 00:39:49,437
<i>Why did you go to Givenchy,
having already created your own name,</i>

670
00:39:49,512 --> 00:39:52,857
<i>having won British Designer of the Year
twice in a row?</i>

671
00:39:53,349 --> 00:39:55,317
<i>For one reason,
the money was good.</i>

672
00:39:55,894 --> 00:39:58,022
But what do I do
with the money from Givenchy?

673
00:39:58,313 --> 00:40:01,533
I put it straight back into McQueen.
It helps me employ people for McQueen

674
00:40:01,608 --> 00:40:03,110
to build my own company up.

675
00:40:04,235 --> 00:40:07,205
<i>Very talented people
that he brought with him to Givenchy.</i>

676
00:40:07,322 --> 00:40:08,369
<i>What a team!</i>

677
00:40:08,656 --> 00:40:11,535
<i>He told me,
"I will need</i> a <i>team to work with me</i>

678
00:40:11,784 --> 00:40:14,003
"so I was thinking of you.

679
00:40:14,329 --> 00:40:17,208
"So, think about it
and let me know."

680
00:40:17,498 --> 00:40:20,001
There's nothing to think about.
Of course, I'll take the job.

681
00:40:21,711 --> 00:40:24,715
<i>We took an aeroplane
from City Airport.</i>

682
00:40:25,423 --> 00:40:29,428
<i>We were the weirdest people
in the plane. It was all businessmen.</i>

683
00:40:29,636 --> 00:40:32,230
<i>And we were there
with our bleached jeans,</i>

684
00:40:32,931 --> 00:40:34,478
<i>with a lot of attitude.</i>

685
00:40:35,308 --> 00:40:37,310
Where did you find this?
In Japan.

686
00:40:39,354 --> 00:40:41,027
Really?
Yeah.

687
00:40:44,692 --> 00:40:46,535
Oh, oh!

688
00:40:48,988 --> 00:40:51,707
There was huge excitement.
Cos imagine being that age

689
00:40:51,950 --> 00:40:54,453
and you're being given
that amount of, one, responsibility

690
00:40:54,869 --> 00:40:56,212
and also that amount of money.

691
00:40:57,705 --> 00:40:58,797
Statue!

692
00:41:00,333 --> 00:41:01,710
<i>There's Sebastién Pons.</i>

693
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:03,553
Hello, Sebastién!

694
00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:05,763
- Sweaty armpits.
- Come on!

695
00:41:05,964 --> 00:41:07,261
God, you've got wet patches.

696
00:41:07,715 --> 00:41:10,969
I think that in the McQueen studio
I was a little bit like the bouffant

697
00:41:11,177 --> 00:41:12,554
because I was
the funny one there.

698
00:41:12,637 --> 00:41:14,935
They were taking the piss
out of my accent.

699
00:41:15,264 --> 00:41:17,733
<i>A Spanish bouffant in</i> a <i>British court.</i>

700
00:41:19,227 --> 00:41:20,479
<i>Simon Costin.</i>

701
00:41:20,687 --> 00:41:22,689
God, you're looking
fairly gross today.

702
00:41:23,690 --> 00:41:27,365
I saw myself as the person
that put things into context.

703
00:41:27,527 --> 00:41:29,905
The set was always there to reflect

704
00:41:30,196 --> 00:41:33,325
the sort of untold story
of the collection.

705
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:36,669
<i>There was Katy, of course,
Katy England.</i>

706
00:41:36,828 --> 00:41:39,456
<i>Katy's the most important part
of McQueen.</i>

707
00:41:40,373 --> 00:41:41,875
Camera up, please.

708
00:41:42,208 --> 00:41:44,210
<i>She's the Tweedledee
to my Tweedledum.</i>

709
00:41:44,460 --> 00:41:46,337
<i>She fuels my imagination.</i>

710
00:41:47,171 --> 00:41:49,299
I help research the collection.

711
00:41:49,799 --> 00:41:53,679
I, erm, bring things to his attention

712
00:41:53,970 --> 00:41:56,098
that I think might be
important in fashion.

713
00:41:56,389 --> 00:41:59,268
<i>Basically, I'm always there
at the right-hand side.</i>

714
00:41:59,642 --> 00:42:02,862
Shaun Leane was very much involved
in the business, making jewellery.

715
00:42:03,312 --> 00:42:04,438
What do you think, eh?

716
00:42:05,064 --> 00:42:06,236
Fancy a dance?

717
00:42:06,482 --> 00:42:09,076
<i>For me to do work Hke this
is very good for me.</i>

718
00:42:09,318 --> 00:42:11,366
It allows me to go
from one extreme to the other.

719
00:42:11,529 --> 00:42:14,783
And now I'm going into different areas.
I'm working with body jewellery

720
00:42:15,241 --> 00:42:18,120
and it's really going
into a form of sculpture.

721
00:42:19,078 --> 00:42:20,421
<i>Sarah Burton.</i>

722
00:42:20,621 --> 00:42:22,168
Sarah was the intern.

723
00:42:22,331 --> 00:42:23,958
He looked at us

724
00:42:24,083 --> 00:42:26,177
like the sort of pillars

725
00:42:26,544 --> 00:42:28,797
that would make him feel secure.

726
00:42:30,631 --> 00:42:32,508
<i>We had this really nice flat.</i>

727
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:40,729
I loved the area. I mean...
Place des Vosges. I mean, hello?

728
00:42:42,477 --> 00:42:44,320
Oh, God, that's pretty scary.

729
00:42:45,438 --> 00:42:47,406
<i>Thinking about it now,
it was tiny.</i>

730
00:42:47,940 --> 00:42:50,159
<i>When I would come over
to start working on the set,</i>

731
00:42:50,401 --> 00:42:51,778
<i>I'd be on the sofa.</i>

732
00:42:55,573 --> 00:42:57,200
Ooh, ooh!

733
00:42:57,867 --> 00:42:59,665
Sebastién!

734
00:43:00,078 --> 00:43:01,671
Oh, language!

735
00:43:03,498 --> 00:43:06,172
I always ended up
sleeping in Lee's room

736
00:43:06,626 --> 00:43:09,630
because Lee was always
collapsing on the sofa.

737
00:43:09,921 --> 00:43:10,968
Lee!

738
00:43:12,632 --> 00:43:15,135
- You changed the pillows.
- Yeah, fucking right.

739
00:43:18,221 --> 00:43:20,724
We had a driver
so we got driven everywhere.

740
00:43:20,848 --> 00:43:22,850
Oh, wait a minute,
he's gone blurry.

741
00:43:23,309 --> 00:43:24,481
That's better.

742
00:43:24,644 --> 00:43:26,112
Say hello to the people
of England.

743
00:43:28,773 --> 00:43:29,945
<i>Such fun.</i>

744
00:43:31,275 --> 00:43:33,448
We can do
some funny tricks.

745
00:43:34,278 --> 00:43:36,531
Hello, I'm on speed, baby.

746
00:43:40,660 --> 00:43:42,458
When we arrived at Givenchy,

747
00:43:42,787 --> 00:43:44,539
everybody was kind of like

748
00:43:44,747 --> 00:43:47,500
bending their head to him

749
00:43:47,917 --> 00:43:49,919
and calling him
Monsieur McQueen,

750
00:43:50,294 --> 00:43:53,969
which was like, "They're calling you
Monsieur McQueen? Here?"

751
00:43:57,718 --> 00:43:59,516
Cath! Woo-ooh!

752
00:44:01,222 --> 00:44:03,475
<i>When we arrived
I think they were in shock.</i>

753
00:44:03,599 --> 00:44:06,102
<i>The way we dress,
the way we work</i>

754
00:44:06,269 --> 00:44:08,613
<i>and the jokes we made.</i>

755
00:44:09,188 --> 00:44:11,532
Obviously it was very grand,
with chandeliers,

756
00:44:11,858 --> 00:44:14,577
so it was very different
from the working environment in London

757
00:44:14,819 --> 00:44:18,073
which was a very, very small room,
chaotic, with stuff everywhere.

758
00:44:18,489 --> 00:44:20,287
Here I have my own office.

759
00:44:20,449 --> 00:44:22,952
I pick up the phone
and I get what I want.

760
00:44:23,661 --> 00:44:25,834
Cos I want it,
I want it, I want it!

761
00:44:26,164 --> 00:44:27,416
So I ask for it.

762
00:44:27,707 --> 00:44:31,177
<i>We was just like</i> a <i>bunch
of young kids running about in Givenchy.</i>

763
00:44:32,336 --> 00:44:34,384
Were they surprised
you were chosen?

764
00:44:34,839 --> 00:44:38,935
Well, I think that it put most people
in a coma when I got chosen!

765
00:44:41,345 --> 00:44:43,063
All of a sudden,
we're there,

766
00:44:43,222 --> 00:44:46,066
sitting in Hubert de Givenchy's house,

767
00:44:46,309 --> 00:44:49,939
looking out the window
and you see the Balenciaga sign

768
00:44:50,062 --> 00:44:52,064
and you knew
that Yves Saint Laurent was there

769
00:44:52,231 --> 00:44:54,575
and knowing that John Galliano was there

770
00:44:54,734 --> 00:44:57,328
at Avenue Montaigne,
just a few yards from there.

771
00:44:57,653 --> 00:45:00,281
<i>And there we are
with Alexander McQueen,</i>

772
00:45:00,406 --> 00:45:02,659
<i>being the new talk of the town.</i>

773
00:45:02,992 --> 00:45:05,165
<i>And I felt special.</i>

774
00:45:06,495 --> 00:45:08,372
<i>He was trying
to find his feet there.</i>

775
00:45:08,539 --> 00:45:10,462
<i>He obviously had to make
a huge impression</i>

776
00:45:10,625 --> 00:45:12,502
<i>because it was his first collection.</i>

777
00:45:13,502 --> 00:45:15,129
<i>I remember telling Lee,</i>

778
00:45:15,213 --> 00:45:17,511
<i>"Everybodys looking at us
and we have nothing."</i>

779
00:45:17,590 --> 00:45:19,092
<i>And he always would answer,</i>

780
00:45:19,300 --> 00:45:21,018
<i>"Don't worry, Sebastién,
we'll get it done."</i>

781
00:45:37,151 --> 00:45:40,997
<i>This is Paris and Paris chic.
This is Givenchy, this is not McQueen.</i>

782
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:44,910
<i>This is where elegant suits are made
and fantastic fabrics are used.</i>

783
00:45:45,159 --> 00:45:47,878
<i>I mean, it's going to take
my own label, McQueen,</i>

784
00:45:48,037 --> 00:45:50,631
<i>another 40 years
to get the reputation this one has.</i>

785
00:45:51,207 --> 00:45:54,461
<i>I</i> remember once
we saw <i>this</i> beautiful work.

786
00:45:54,710 --> 00:45:58,681
<i>Lee asked Catherine DeLondres,
who was in charge of the atelier,</i>

787
00:45:59,090 --> 00:46:01,218
<i>"Who's done this fabulous work?"</i>

788
00:46:01,425 --> 00:46:03,302
"She's not allowed to come in."

789
00:46:03,511 --> 00:46:05,639
He's like, "What do you mean,
she's not allowed in?

790
00:46:05,763 --> 00:46:06,810
"Please let her in."

791
00:46:07,390 --> 00:46:11,691
<i>I remember from that day on
Lee wanted to see the person</i>

792
00:46:12,395 --> 00:46:14,693
<i>who has worked directly
with the garment.</i>

793
00:46:15,898 --> 00:46:17,946
And I think they loved that.

794
00:46:18,401 --> 00:46:20,244
This is the Bet Lynch dress.

795
00:46:21,821 --> 00:46:24,950
And we also treated it,
bonding plastic over the top

796
00:46:25,866 --> 00:46:29,086
for raincoats
so you get the whole ensemble.

797
00:46:29,412 --> 00:46:31,005
None of us spoke French

798
00:46:31,122 --> 00:46:34,217
and the French atelier
didn't speak English.

799
00:46:34,542 --> 00:46:37,762
<i>Lee would actually draw in the air
how it would have to be.</i>

800
00:46:38,296 --> 00:46:41,721
Yeah. Yeah, it's OK.

801
00:46:44,385 --> 00:46:47,355
Oh, it's OK.
I thought it was just pantalon.

802
00:47:09,869 --> 00:47:13,669
They're quite precise and like...
They, like, take the threads out and...

803
00:47:13,998 --> 00:47:16,092
I just get the scissors
and go, "Whack it off!"

804
00:47:16,584 --> 00:47:18,427
And they go...
Like that.

805
00:47:19,962 --> 00:47:21,714
And I go, "It's OK, it's only clothes."

806
00:47:22,006 --> 00:47:24,429
<i>I'll never forget
the expression on her face.</i>

807
00:47:24,508 --> 00:47:27,637
<i>But in the end she saw
exactly what he was doing.</i>

808
00:47:27,762 --> 00:47:28,809
<i>She was in awe.</i>

809
00:47:28,971 --> 00:47:33,021
A very mutual, you know, respect
grew between the two of them.

810
00:47:33,225 --> 00:47:36,399
<i>Haute couture is about
the atelier. I come from Savile Row.</i>

811
00:47:36,687 --> 00:47:38,655
<i>So I have great respect for the tailors.</i>

812
00:47:38,731 --> 00:47:41,154
<i>They deserve just as much praise
as I do.</i>

813
00:47:42,485 --> 00:47:45,284
<i>Lee, one day he said,
"Where can we go and eat'?</i>

814
00:47:45,488 --> 00:47:47,115
<i>"Where do the workers eat?"</i>

815
00:47:47,323 --> 00:47:49,542
<i>And then Catherine said,
"There is a canteen</i>

816
00:47:49,825 --> 00:47:51,702
<i>"in the basement for the workers."</i>

817
00:47:51,827 --> 00:47:53,704
<i>And Lee was like, "So let's go there."</i>

818
00:47:53,871 --> 00:47:57,592
When we went down there,
the people, they're flipping out.

819
00:47:57,792 --> 00:47:59,920
"Alexander is eating with us!"

820
00:48:00,836 --> 00:48:02,304
<i>They couldn't believe it.</i>

821
00:48:02,421 --> 00:48:06,676
<i>These fashion houses, they treat
the designer like he's</i> a <i>king.</i>

822
00:48:07,009 --> 00:48:09,057
And they treated Lee
like a king,

823
00:48:09,303 --> 00:48:11,226
but Lee didn't want
to behave like a king,

824
00:48:11,305 --> 00:48:13,683
Lee wanted to behave
like a regular person.

825
00:48:17,895 --> 00:48:19,363
OK.

826
00:48:19,814 --> 00:48:21,157
The ideas for the show,

827
00:48:21,482 --> 00:48:24,110
they grew out of the collection
as the collection developed.

828
00:48:24,652 --> 00:48:27,326
He would pull threads
and stories out of that.

829
00:48:28,072 --> 00:48:31,167
<i>And there was always mood boards
and things pinned all over the walls.</i>

830
00:48:31,325 --> 00:48:34,044
<i>Everyone fed in.
it was a very group practice.</i>

831
00:48:34,286 --> 00:48:36,960
<i>But Lee was the spider
in the centre of the web, as it were,</i>

832
00:48:37,206 --> 00:48:39,459
<i>pulling everything together
and distilling</i>

833
00:48:39,667 --> 00:48:41,510
<i>what it was that he had in his head.</i>

834
00:48:41,752 --> 00:48:44,301
I remember the fraughtness
about a week before the show

835
00:48:44,672 --> 00:48:48,051
with things coming down and not right
and things having to be changed.

836
00:48:48,300 --> 00:48:50,519
<i>It was really insanely crazy.</i>

837
00:48:50,636 --> 00:48:52,354
The pressure was super intense.

838
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:13,542
<i>In 25 days
to put</i> a <i>55-outfit collection together</i>

839
00:49:13,826 --> 00:49:15,328
<i>is not an easy task.</i>

840
00:49:18,330 --> 00:49:22,301
<i>The first couture show
had the theme of the Golden Fleece,</i>

841
00:49:22,501 --> 00:49:23,753
<i>Jason and the Argonauts.</i>

842
00:49:25,296 --> 00:49:27,014
<i>They wanted it to be amazing.</i>

843
00:49:28,507 --> 00:49:31,727
My first feeling
from Alex's description was,

844
00:49:32,094 --> 00:49:35,018
they had to be warriors

845
00:49:35,347 --> 00:49:37,395
mixed with goddesses.

846
00:49:37,683 --> 00:49:40,357
<i>I said, "We do horns?"
He said, "Yeah, but do big."</i>

847
00:49:40,644 --> 00:49:43,488
<i>I said, "But how big?"
He said, "You know Genghis Khan?</i>

848
00:49:43,647 --> 00:49:45,149
"He's the junior size.

849
00:49:45,357 --> 00:49:46,404
"Give me the senior."

850
00:49:46,692 --> 00:49:49,445
It's the 19th of January 1997

851
00:49:49,778 --> 00:49:53,282
and, as they say in the trade,
we're about to witness a fashion moment.

852
00:49:53,407 --> 00:49:55,375
<i>At the tender age of 27,</i>

853
00:49:55,451 --> 00:49:58,000
<i>British Designer of the Year
Alexander McQueen</i>

854
00:49:58,204 --> 00:50:01,333
<i>is about to show
his first haute couture collection.</i>

855
00:50:15,554 --> 00:50:17,898
<i>Every model had
to have</i> a <i>character,</i>

856
00:50:18,098 --> 00:50:20,442
<i>an identity, a signature.</i>

857
00:50:20,976 --> 00:50:23,946
<i>Every single girl could have been</i>
a <i>show on her own.</i>

858
00:50:25,314 --> 00:50:28,363
<i>Where did the inspiration
come from? He told me, "From the logo."</i>

859
00:50:28,859 --> 00:50:33,330
<i>The logo is the Gs,
which looks like</i> a <i>Greek motif,</i>

860
00:50:33,948 --> 00:50:36,497
and the Givenchy label
is white and gold.

861
00:50:37,952 --> 00:50:41,456
<i>Always with Lee's collections,
there were some pieces where you'd go,</i>

862
00:50:41,830 --> 00:50:44,253
<i>"God, that's rather risqué."</i>

863
00:50:45,209 --> 00:50:48,258
<i>I think a tot of the press
focused on the ones</i>

864
00:50:48,462 --> 00:50:52,433
<i>that were</i> a <i>little bit more crazy
or</i> a <i>little bit, you know, unwearable.</i>

865
00:50:53,551 --> 00:50:55,724
French designers
were complaining and saying,

866
00:50:55,970 --> 00:50:59,645
"Oh, they're not even French
and they're taking over Givenchy.

867
00:50:59,807 --> 00:51:01,559
<i>"Look what he's doing to Givenchy."</i>

868
00:51:01,850 --> 00:51:03,568
<i>I think it was them saying,</i>

869
00:51:04,144 --> 00:51:05,737
<i>"I'm still gonna be who I am,</i>

870
00:51:05,813 --> 00:51:07,861
<i>"regardless that you put me
in this posh space.</i>

871
00:51:08,190 --> 00:51:09,692
<i>"I'm still who I am."</i>

872
00:51:10,192 --> 00:51:12,695
I liked that, that they stayed true
to who they were.

873
00:51:13,028 --> 00:51:16,953
They actually brought England into Paris
in their own unique way.

874
00:51:20,077 --> 00:51:22,330
<i>People were talking,
fashion editors.</i>

875
00:51:22,538 --> 00:51:24,882
<i>"He has a big mouth.
He has a big head.</i>

876
00:51:25,207 --> 00:51:27,005
<i>"Oh, the British!
What does he think?"</i>

877
00:51:27,376 --> 00:51:31,802
<i>And then I understood that basically
the world was against him.</i>

878
00:51:32,381 --> 00:51:34,008
<i>And you do your first show.</i>

879
00:51:34,091 --> 00:51:37,265
<i>It's not</i> a <i>huge success.
No, that's true.</i>

880
00:51:37,386 --> 00:51:39,605
Well done.

881
00:51:39,805 --> 00:51:43,560
They were wishing
to see him crash and be destroyed.

882
00:51:44,101 --> 00:51:45,819
They have claws and knives

883
00:51:46,020 --> 00:51:47,613
and they're throwing everything
into your back,

884
00:51:47,688 --> 00:51:49,440
which is fine cos I'm a good fighter!

885
00:51:51,275 --> 00:51:53,198
I remember us afterwards.

886
00:51:53,402 --> 00:51:54,699
You know, Lee was...

887
00:51:56,280 --> 00:51:58,078
Oh, hellish, yeah.

888
00:51:58,324 --> 00:52:01,544
That was a really horrid night.
It was a difficult night after that.

889
00:52:02,828 --> 00:52:05,297
A few punches and arguments.

890
00:52:11,629 --> 00:52:13,631
<i>I think he's done</i> a <i>lot
with the house,</i>

891
00:52:13,756 --> 00:52:15,758
<i>because Givenchy
have had a lot of press.</i>

892
00:52:15,924 --> 00:52:19,804
<i>It's a more difficult thing to deal with
cos McQueen is McQueen in London.</i>

893
00:52:20,054 --> 00:52:23,900
<i>Givenchy is taking over
from another man in Paris.</i>

894
00:52:24,058 --> 00:52:27,232
<i>As Alexander says,"It's like taking
a dinosaur out of the sea."</i>

895
00:52:27,519 --> 00:52:30,489
And I think in one season
he's done that.

896
00:52:30,856 --> 00:52:34,702
So I think in a year
he will have done 20 times that.

897
00:52:35,944 --> 00:52:37,571
<i>Givenchy changed everything.</i>

898
00:52:37,946 --> 00:52:39,414
The fun times were over.

899
00:52:39,865 --> 00:52:41,583
<i>I had an accountant who spoke French.</i>

900
00:52:41,784 --> 00:52:43,661
<i>They were going to Paris
to sign the deal.</i>

901
00:52:43,869 --> 00:52:46,918
And I said, "Please, make sure
Issie gets something out of it."

902
00:52:47,122 --> 00:52:48,544
<i>And then I kind of did ask McQueen</i>

903
00:52:48,707 --> 00:52:50,755
<i>and he said,
"Issie and I are not about money."</i>

904
00:52:51,168 --> 00:52:54,593
<i>When the money did come
and Alexander cut her out...</i>

905
00:52:55,339 --> 00:52:56,511
That was very tough.

906
00:52:57,007 --> 00:52:59,806
<i>Their friendship changed.
She was so hurt at this rejection.</i>

907
00:53:00,135 --> 00:53:03,309
<i>She'd have created a buzz.
She'd have had a salon at Givenchy.</i>

908
00:53:03,639 --> 00:53:06,358
She'd have made it
the most happening place in Paris.

909
00:53:09,186 --> 00:53:14,864
<i>I do remember going to Hilles
straight after the takeover at Givenchy.</i>

910
00:53:16,652 --> 00:53:21,203
You cannot imagine the tension
between the two of them in this room.

911
00:53:21,699 --> 00:53:24,794
These designers think
that you made me.

912
00:53:25,703 --> 00:53:28,331
- And it's never been about that.
- No, they don't.

913
00:53:28,580 --> 00:53:30,708
- I know that that's...
- But they do!

914
00:53:30,791 --> 00:53:34,671
You see it all the time in the press!
They say, "Oh, Isabella Blow,

915
00:53:34,837 --> 00:53:37,590
"responsible for Philip Treacy
and Alexander McQueen."

916
00:53:37,881 --> 00:53:40,009
- No, they say...
- They do just say that!

917
00:53:40,676 --> 00:53:43,429
But it's never been
about that for me and you.

918
00:53:43,554 --> 00:53:45,022
Whether I was part of it?

919
00:53:45,180 --> 00:53:46,898
Does that annoy you
that they put a strap on it?

920
00:53:46,974 --> 00:53:49,568
"As discovered by Isabella Blow."
Does it piss you off?

921
00:53:49,727 --> 00:53:52,697
No, not at all, because Issie
has helped me a lot in that way,

922
00:53:52,855 --> 00:53:54,698
but not in the way that she's like...

923
00:53:55,149 --> 00:53:57,151
She does it
because she loves my clothes,

924
00:53:57,234 --> 00:53:58,531
not because she loves me.

925
00:53:58,694 --> 00:54:01,072
Exactly. That's the point.

926
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:03,032
Because I can't stand her guts!

927
00:54:04,783 --> 00:54:06,160
I'm joking.

928
00:54:06,702 --> 00:54:10,377
<i>I do remember sitting there,
thinking to myself,</i>

929
00:54:10,664 --> 00:54:14,259
"Please, lay off Issie
because she's done nothing but help you,

930
00:54:14,543 --> 00:54:17,296
"but you seem to be giving her
a really difficult time."

931
00:54:17,671 --> 00:54:19,173
<i>Issie kingmaker.</i>

932
00:54:19,423 --> 00:54:22,267
This is the man she championed
and then he resented that

933
00:54:22,384 --> 00:54:23,727
and wanted to be his own man

934
00:54:24,011 --> 00:54:26,890
so there was no position
for Isabella Blow at Givenchy.

935
00:54:27,931 --> 00:54:28,978
Punishment.

936
00:54:29,850 --> 00:54:32,399
<i>And I remember
McQueen turned to me and said,</i>

937
00:54:32,478 --> 00:54:34,321
<i>"I'm the tycoon now, Detmar."</i>

938
00:54:34,938 --> 00:54:36,611
And it wasn't meant affectionately.

939
00:54:36,940 --> 00:54:39,693
<i>We had a policy. Don't show hurt,
don't show weakness.</i>

940
00:54:39,985 --> 00:54:42,534
<i>Keep your head up,
keep proud, keep fighting.</i>

941
00:54:42,946 --> 00:54:44,914
Something will turn up. It's got to.

942
00:54:45,115 --> 00:54:48,164
His star ascended
and hers didn't as much

943
00:54:48,368 --> 00:54:50,871
and, you know,
he slightly abandoned her.

944
00:54:51,497 --> 00:54:54,341
<i>Then Issie suddenly got
this job at The Sunday Times</i>

945
00:54:54,500 --> 00:54:57,549
<i>and McQueen said,
"You've been resurrected, Issie. "</i>

946
00:54:57,711 --> 00:55:00,009
And I thought, "No thanks to you, mate."

947
00:55:02,633 --> 00:55:06,263
<i>I saw myself within the press
and in the public eye as the gazelle.</i>

948
00:55:06,970 --> 00:55:08,643
<i>And the gazelle always got eaten.</i>

949
00:55:09,473 --> 00:55:12,852
<i>And that's how I see human life.
We can all be discarded quite easily.</i>

950
00:55:13,185 --> 00:55:16,860
<i>The fragility of a designer's time
in the press.</i>

951
00:55:17,314 --> 00:55:18,907
You're there, you're gone.

952
00:55:20,734 --> 00:55:21,951
It's a jungle out there.

953
00:55:22,945 --> 00:55:25,198
<i>I went to his London studio</i>

954
00:55:25,447 --> 00:55:27,666
<i>and he was talking
about a haute couture show.</i>

955
00:55:28,033 --> 00:55:31,037
<i>"I tried to please them
and then I fucked it up.</i>

956
00:55:31,203 --> 00:55:32,750
"I'm gonna do my own thing.

957
00:55:32,996 --> 00:55:35,215
"It's gonna be very McQueen,
the next one.

958
00:55:35,457 --> 00:55:39,587
"Fuck you! Fuck you, all of you.
I'm gonna show you."

959
00:55:39,878 --> 00:55:43,303
We went from this sort of...
The hallowed halls of Givenchy

960
00:55:43,841 --> 00:55:46,344
into the sort of rough,
gritty Borough Market,

961
00:55:46,510 --> 00:55:48,933
people just sweeping
all the rotting fruit and veg up.

962
00:55:49,096 --> 00:55:51,599
<i>It's nice to show them
the rough pan' of London,</i>

963
00:55:51,765 --> 00:55:54,609
<i>make them</i> a <i>bit scared, look over
their shoulder once in</i> a <i>while.</i>

964
00:55:54,768 --> 00:55:56,315
<i>It's nothing to do
with couture.</i>

965
00:55:56,436 --> 00:55:57,813
<i>Now you've got your own studio.</i>

966
00:55:57,855 --> 00:56:01,450
We're in another chapter,
in another world, in another McQueen.

967
00:56:01,650 --> 00:56:04,324
All camera crews
go round the front gate.

968
00:56:04,444 --> 00:56:06,117
<i>The London shows were always...</i>

969
00:56:06,321 --> 00:56:08,323
<i>The audience,
the expectation, was so great.</i>

970
00:56:08,490 --> 00:56:12,336
<i>The shows in Paris
were far more formal and reserved.</i>

971
00:56:12,536 --> 00:56:14,630
People would scream
their heads off in London.

972
00:56:17,499 --> 00:56:22,471
<i>It was crazy, people literally
fighting to see the catwalk.</i>

973
00:56:23,714 --> 00:56:25,842
<i>Lee just running
from model to model</i>

974
00:56:26,008 --> 00:56:27,931
<i>and screaming and shouting at everyone.</i>

975
00:56:28,093 --> 00:56:30,846
Simon, we want to start
the show!

976
00:56:31,305 --> 00:56:34,559
<i>And just always moving,
always dressing, always stressing.</i>

977
00:56:35,017 --> 00:56:37,691
<i>Stressing and dressing,
actually, together.</i>

978
00:56:38,145 --> 00:56:40,022
Are we all standing by,
ready to go?

979
00:56:40,147 --> 00:56:41,319
OK.

980
00:56:41,481 --> 00:56:43,859
Where's Russell?
Is he out there? Is he getting ready?

981
00:56:44,151 --> 00:56:45,323
Yeah.

982
00:56:45,903 --> 00:56:47,621
<i>One of the models was late.</i>

983
00:56:47,696 --> 00:56:50,415
<i>He said, "Fuck her"
and he started the show.</i>

984
00:56:50,699 --> 00:56:53,373
<i>He'd just go,
"Right, Jodes, just go for it. "</i>

985
00:56:53,660 --> 00:56:54,832
<i>He used to psyche me up.</i>

986
00:56:54,953 --> 00:56:57,297
<i>I used to literally get out
onto the catwalk and go...</i>

987
00:57:06,089 --> 00:57:07,682
<i>It was really the first time</i>

988
00:57:07,841 --> 00:57:11,687
<i>the collection kind of seeped out
into everything,</i>

989
00:57:11,887 --> 00:57:15,983
<i>from the energy that was in that space
to the effect it had on people.</i>

990
00:57:17,225 --> 00:57:20,695
<i>A sort of angst, an anger and fear,</i>

991
00:57:20,938 --> 00:57:22,986
<i>that was woven through that show.</i>

992
00:57:24,149 --> 00:57:25,651
<i>We were mind-blown</i>

993
00:57:25,776 --> 00:57:28,950
<i>because they didn't look like models.</i>

994
00:57:29,154 --> 00:57:32,328
<i>They look like animals
with this big hair</i>

995
00:57:32,574 --> 00:57:34,451
<i>and this animal make-up.</i>

996
00:57:34,826 --> 00:57:35,873
<i>It was like...</i>

997
00:57:36,453 --> 00:57:38,080
<i>It was intense.</i>

998
00:57:40,624 --> 00:57:42,501
<i>Some students
that weren't allowed in</i>

999
00:57:42,834 --> 00:57:46,259
<i>stormed the barricades
and kicked over a“ these fire pots.</i>

1000
00:57:47,005 --> 00:57:49,007
And then
the fire started.

1001
00:57:49,633 --> 00:57:51,476
Cos there were a pile
of crashed cars

1002
00:57:51,843 --> 00:57:55,063
and I don't think
we'd emptied the cars of petrol.

1003
00:57:55,347 --> 00:57:57,065
<i>The car's actually on fire.</i>

1004
00:57:57,683 --> 00:58:00,653
There's a fricking car on fire
on the catwalk.

1005
00:58:00,936 --> 00:58:03,155
<i>And everyone thought
it was part of the show.</i>

1006
00:58:03,522 --> 00:58:06,901
"Don't you...dare go out there
with fire extinguishers.

1007
00:58:07,067 --> 00:58:09,866
<i>"Just keep sending them out.
Keep sending them out."</i>

1008
00:58:11,571 --> 00:58:15,166
Had that not been rectified,
that whole tent

1009
00:58:15,659 --> 00:58:19,835
and all the top fashion editors
and models would have been history.

1010
00:58:21,123 --> 00:58:27,096
<i>That's just back to typical,
wonderful, mad, brilliant Lee.</i>

1011
00:58:53,113 --> 00:58:55,992
Did you move out of London
and settle in Paris?

1012
00:58:56,450 --> 00:58:59,579
I stay in both. I'm here for six months
and in London six months. All over.

1013
00:59:00,245 --> 00:59:03,715
My dog is in London and I'm missing him.
I'm missing my dog.

1014
00:59:11,548 --> 00:59:15,348
<i>TraveHing between the two cities
to do Givenchy and McQueen,</i>

1015
00:59:15,469 --> 00:59:17,767
<i>of course it would take its toll.</i>

1016
00:59:18,972 --> 00:59:20,269
<i>But he did it.</i>

1017
00:59:20,515 --> 00:59:22,859
And he managed
to make the shows amazing.

1018
00:59:26,813 --> 00:59:29,692
By that time
there was so much more pressure

1019
00:59:29,900 --> 00:59:32,949
because he was also doing his own line
and then having to do

1020
00:59:33,153 --> 00:59:34,826
ready-to-wear and couture.

1021
00:59:34,946 --> 00:59:37,620
<i>You could see the beginning
of the pressure that Lee was under.</i>

1022
00:59:37,866 --> 00:59:41,291
<i>The favourite company
of LVMH was Dior.</i>

1023
00:59:41,661 --> 00:59:46,007
<i>Lee felt they were really
comparing him with Galliano.</i>

1024
00:59:46,917 --> 00:59:48,965
<i>And then he sort of found out</i>

1025
00:59:49,127 --> 00:59:53,007
<i>that John had
four times more budget than him</i>

1026
00:59:53,340 --> 00:59:55,934
<i>to create his haute couture collection.</i>

1027
00:59:56,718 --> 00:59:59,767
<i>The house we loved
was the McQueen house.</i>

1028
01:00:00,222 --> 01:00:02,941
<i>Givenchy was like a stepbrother.</i>

1029
01:00:03,475 --> 01:00:07,571
<i>We knew that our time there
had an expiry date.</i>

1030
01:00:09,231 --> 01:00:14,112
<i>When we arrived at Paris
Lee's clothes tended to be very rigid</i>

1031
01:00:14,569 --> 01:00:16,367
<i>and I think in Paris</i>

1032
01:00:16,530 --> 01:00:19,283
<i>he got to discover
the soft side of things.</i>

1033
01:00:20,450 --> 01:00:24,000
<i>We took that
and we brought it to London.</i>

1034
01:00:26,123 --> 01:00:29,548
<i>For No. 13, I remember him very happy.</i>

1035
01:00:29,668 --> 01:00:34,174
<i>Lee had it very clear in his head
what he wanted to do.</i>

1036
01:00:35,048 --> 01:00:36,891
<i>We all left the meeting thinking,</i>

1037
01:00:37,008 --> 01:00:38,976
<i>"Oh, my God,
he has it very dear this season."</i>

1038
01:00:39,136 --> 01:00:41,264
<i>"He knows what colours,
he knows the shape..."</i>

1039
01:00:41,429 --> 01:00:44,683
<i>He himself was feeling at peace.</i>

1040
01:00:47,352 --> 01:00:51,232
The first show I ever worked on
with Lee, he liked the idea of robots.

1041
01:00:51,690 --> 01:00:53,408
<i>Lee kept going on about it,</i>

1042
01:00:53,608 --> 01:00:55,531
<i>"Oh, I'm gonna have this robot,
this model. "</i>

1043
01:00:55,861 --> 01:00:59,991
And we were like "Oh, no!
The robots again. Oh, my God."

1044
01:01:02,367 --> 01:01:03,994
We were just hoping
he was gonna forget the idea.

1045
01:01:04,286 --> 01:01:07,881
<i>But then, the night before the show,
the robot did turn up</i>

1046
01:01:08,039 --> 01:01:10,792
<i>and we didn't have a dress
to go with the robot.</i>

1047
01:01:11,084 --> 01:01:12,427
I went back to the studio.

1048
01:01:12,544 --> 01:01:16,048
I was like, "Guys, we need
to make a dress for the finale."

1049
01:01:16,339 --> 01:01:19,843
<i>We went under the table
and pulled all these jewels out</i>

1050
01:01:20,093 --> 01:01:22,562
<i>and he was like,
"Hey, there's the dress."</i>

1051
01:01:30,562 --> 01:01:32,189
<i>They told him it was impossible</i>

1052
01:01:32,272 --> 01:01:34,445
<i>and he said, "No, it's not.
You can do it."</i>

1053
01:01:34,858 --> 01:01:38,328
That's what Lee did for people,
he made them do the impossible.

1054
01:01:39,237 --> 01:01:42,537
<i>We got some technician down
to operate the robots and Lee was,</i>

1055
01:01:42,699 --> 01:01:44,872
"Oh, yeah, let's make the robots
do more of this."

1056
01:01:45,035 --> 01:01:47,208
He's directing these robots
like they're actors

1057
01:01:47,579 --> 01:01:51,709
<i>and, consequently, you end up
with this incredible choreography,</i>

1058
01:01:51,917 --> 01:01:53,260
<i>her spinning.</i>

1059
01:01:54,628 --> 01:01:57,757
<i>You had Shalom Harlow there
and these two robots going round.</i>

1060
01:01:58,006 --> 01:02:01,135
<i>And the thing is, the robots looked
like they had a mind of their own.</i>

1061
01:02:20,654 --> 01:02:24,534
<i>I think that's the first time
that I was blown away by my own show.</i>

1062
01:02:25,367 --> 01:02:28,712
<i>That man and machine thing at the end
was... I'm still in shock, really.</i>

1063
01:02:28,912 --> 01:02:30,914
It's the first time I've cried
at my show, so...

1064
01:02:31,665 --> 01:02:32,712
Yeah.

1065
01:03:03,530 --> 01:03:05,203
<i>Lee was living his dream.</i>

1066
01:03:05,532 --> 01:03:08,536
He would never have given the work up,
as hard as it was,

1067
01:03:08,702 --> 01:03:11,171
because you get that one chance in life.

1068
01:03:13,290 --> 01:03:17,090
<i>The first time I knew that Lee
was actually getting very famous</i>

1069
01:03:17,252 --> 01:03:19,721
<i>was when some stranger
came up to us</i>

1070
01:03:19,879 --> 01:03:21,927
<i>in the supermarket
and asked for his autograph.</i>

1071
01:03:22,215 --> 01:03:25,640
And I remember him saying to me,
"Oh, my God, that's so scary."

1072
01:03:26,177 --> 01:03:29,181
And I realised then
that something was happening.

1073
01:03:29,347 --> 01:03:32,521
<i>He was breaking outside of fashion
and becoming famous.</i>

1074
01:03:34,144 --> 01:03:36,647
<i>That whole celebrity thing,
people chasing after him.</i>

1075
01:03:36,938 --> 01:03:38,360
You got the feeling he was saying,

1076
01:03:38,481 --> 01:03:41,109
"This is not the important thing.
This fame is nonsense.

1077
01:03:41,609 --> 01:03:43,828
"The important thing is what I do."

1078
01:03:44,863 --> 01:03:47,036
<i>I sometimes wish
he'd had a normal life</i>

1079
01:03:47,115 --> 01:03:50,244
<i>and that he could just be
a normal person</i>

1080
01:03:50,869 --> 01:03:54,669
<i>in terms of not having that pressure
of everything at such a young age.</i>

1081
01:03:55,040 --> 01:03:59,136
I knew Lee when he had nothing
but a rubbish bin full of clothes,

1082
01:03:59,294 --> 01:04:03,265
so I saw very quickly
him become a millionaire and more.

1083
01:04:03,673 --> 01:04:07,519
<i>And the more money he had,
he seemed to be more unhappy.</i>

1084
01:04:08,803 --> 01:04:10,396
<i>With the money came drugs.</i>

1085
01:04:11,014 --> 01:04:12,391
And that was the sad thing.

1086
01:04:36,956 --> 01:04:38,333
<i>When did it become bad?</i>

1087
01:04:38,666 --> 01:04:42,045
<i>Well, it became bad when the pressure
became too much for him</i>

1088
01:04:42,212 --> 01:04:45,261
<i>and he obviously started dealing with it</i>

1089
01:04:45,465 --> 01:04:49,220
<i>in ways he shouldn't have,
unfortunately.</i>

1090
01:04:49,677 --> 01:04:51,771
<i>With cocaine
came an aggressiveness,</i>

1091
01:04:52,180 --> 01:04:54,683
<i>that kind of anger,
that sort of paranoia.</i>

1092
01:04:55,475 --> 01:04:57,352
He still made some great clothes,

1093
01:04:57,435 --> 01:04:59,233
but the personality changed.

1094
01:04:59,354 --> 01:05:03,200
<i>All the hard work I do.
I do 10 collections a year.</i>

1095
01:05:03,358 --> 01:05:04,530
<i>And it's hard work.</i>

1096
01:05:04,692 --> 01:05:07,320
<i>I didn't go to Givenchy,
they come to me.</i>

1097
01:05:07,529 --> 01:05:09,782
I got really upset
when people started saying

1098
01:05:10,073 --> 01:05:12,792
I was gonna get fired
when it wasn't true.

1099
01:05:12,992 --> 01:05:14,835
"Sod the lot of you.
I do what I like."

1100
01:05:18,164 --> 01:05:19,757
<i>There was definitely a change</i>

1101
01:05:19,916 --> 01:05:21,884
<i>and definitely a move
in our relationship.</i>

1102
01:05:22,043 --> 01:05:24,216
He had two sides to him.

1103
01:05:24,712 --> 01:05:27,181
He could come
in a super cool mood,

1104
01:05:27,507 --> 01:05:30,977
like, full of laughter and that,

1105
01:05:31,052 --> 01:05:32,725
or it could be

1106
01:05:33,012 --> 01:05:34,685
a devil crossing the door.

1107
01:05:34,973 --> 01:05:37,442
He was obviously
a very troubled person

1108
01:05:38,226 --> 01:05:40,069
and the darkness created

1109
01:05:40,353 --> 01:05:44,358
this amazing creativity
and genius artist.

1110
01:05:48,027 --> 01:05:51,156
<i>T had a tattoo saying McQueen on my arm.</i>

1111
01:05:51,823 --> 01:05:53,700
I got it covered up
and when he found out,

1112
01:05:53,867 --> 01:05:55,790
that was kind of like the end
of everything.

1113
01:05:57,162 --> 01:05:58,505
<i>Lee was</i> a <i>romantic.</i>

1114
01:05:58,872 --> 01:06:01,796
<i>I think that he flirted always
with the idea of love.</i>

1115
01:06:01,875 --> 01:06:04,128
<i>I'm not sure
whether he ever achieved it.</i>

1116
01:06:05,503 --> 01:06:08,382
The big thing in his life
that he was in love with was his work.

1117
01:06:08,673 --> 01:06:11,722
And also he didn't trust anyone.

1118
01:06:12,218 --> 01:06:13,561
He thought,

1119
01:06:13,845 --> 01:06:16,724
"If the boyfriend is not here,
it's because he's with someone else."

1120
01:06:16,890 --> 01:06:19,234
And that made him suffer a lot.

1121
01:06:19,767 --> 01:06:23,192
<i>People forget fashion's
always been about attracting a mate.</i>

1122
01:06:23,313 --> 01:06:25,862
<i>H's about sexuality,
showing a person who you are.</i>

1123
01:06:26,024 --> 01:06:28,493
I'm sorry if you think I'm stupid.

1124
01:06:28,818 --> 01:06:31,697
Even though I'm chubby
and I would like to look smaller.

1125
01:06:32,113 --> 01:06:34,081
I mean, let's be realistic here.

1126
01:06:44,334 --> 01:06:46,177
<i>When he changed his appearance,</i>

1127
01:06:46,377 --> 01:06:48,800
<i>he said, "I changed myself.
it was the wrong thing to do.</i>

1128
01:06:49,005 --> 01:06:51,053
"I lost touch with who I was."

1129
01:06:51,591 --> 01:06:55,016
<i>What was it?
Ten years from Lee, little Lee McQueen,</i>

1130
01:06:55,094 --> 01:06:56,937
<i>satin the corner of my studio
sewing away,</i>

1131
01:06:57,180 --> 01:07:00,684
<i>to this svelte figure
dressed in Comme des Gargons,</i>

1132
01:07:01,017 --> 01:07:03,486
<i>having to become something
he didn't really want to be,</i>

1133
01:07:03,728 --> 01:07:06,698
<i>this son' of persona,
this Alexander McQueen.</i>

1134
01:07:34,551 --> 01:07:36,144
6:00 in the morning.

1135
01:07:37,011 --> 01:07:39,764
Don't! Don't do that to her.
Oh, Simon.

1136
01:07:40,098 --> 01:07:42,226
Oh, my God.

1137
01:07:42,600 --> 01:07:44,728
She's only got a few hours left.

1138
01:07:47,689 --> 01:07:49,282
It wasn't fun any more for me.

1139
01:07:49,649 --> 01:07:51,993
That was the bottom line.
It just wasn't fun any more.

1140
01:07:54,612 --> 01:07:56,706
I don't like the camera much.

1141
01:07:56,823 --> 01:07:58,666
Turn it off now.

1142
01:07:59,033 --> 01:08:01,502
<i>I've never done better work
than my time with Lee.</i>

1143
01:08:01,953 --> 01:08:05,708
There was times that were dark with him
and times that were very bright.

1144
01:08:06,165 --> 01:08:09,510
And we all chose it.
We all chose to be there.

1145
01:08:10,044 --> 01:08:12,513
We all chose to not be there
sometimes as well.

1146
01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:14,723
<i>I collapsed once in Givenchy</i>

1147
01:08:15,008 --> 01:08:18,182
<i>because of the pressure
and the workload.</i>

1148
01:08:18,344 --> 01:08:20,938
<i>We had a price to pay
and it was our health.</i>

1149
01:08:21,639 --> 01:08:24,062
I grew in the company,
of course.

1150
01:08:24,309 --> 01:08:27,108
I wasn't the little boy
that I started there.

1151
01:08:27,478 --> 01:08:30,027
<i>As I grew up, I realised that...</i>

1152
01:08:31,107 --> 01:08:35,613
<i>I was feeling like I was</i> a <i>little bit
claustrophobic of the situation.</i>

1153
01:08:36,154 --> 01:08:38,873
Sebastién!
Oh, Sebastién...

1154
01:08:39,073 --> 01:08:40,700
Come on, you ugly bitch.

1155
01:08:41,993 --> 01:08:43,495
Ooh!

1156
01:08:43,828 --> 01:08:46,832
It was like full devotion
to the McQueen house.

1157
01:08:47,373 --> 01:08:49,341
Looking after his dogs,

1158
01:08:49,876 --> 01:08:52,004
endless hours of working

1159
01:08:52,337 --> 01:08:55,216
and weekends either working

1160
01:08:55,340 --> 01:08:57,058
or socialising with Lee.

1161
01:08:57,383 --> 01:09:00,262
<i>We were going also on holiday together.</i>

1162
01:09:00,637 --> 01:09:03,607
I even know how to fake
his signature, you know.

1163
01:09:04,015 --> 01:09:05,983
I was feeling, like, trapped.

1164
01:09:06,893 --> 01:09:09,146
<i>Even if I loved what I was doing.</i>

1165
01:09:10,355 --> 01:09:13,108
I tried to... To speak with him

1166
01:09:13,441 --> 01:09:15,239
and that didn't end up that well.

1167
01:09:15,610 --> 01:09:17,988
The day I told him I was leaving,
he told me,

1168
01:09:18,237 --> 01:09:20,956
"Well, you'd better think about it
because there is no way back."

1169
01:09:23,368 --> 01:09:26,372
And I left and it was really sad,
you know.

1170
01:09:26,496 --> 01:09:29,249
My leaving, you know, it was...

1171
01:09:29,707 --> 01:09:31,175
No one...

1172
01:09:32,543 --> 01:09:35,797
No one, erm...
No one came to...

1173
01:09:37,256 --> 01:09:40,180
After all the work I've done and...

1174
01:09:48,267 --> 01:09:52,067
Unfortunately,
Lee took things quite to heart

1175
01:09:52,772 --> 01:09:54,695
without maybe thinking about

1176
01:09:54,857 --> 01:09:56,530
what the other person was going through

1177
01:09:56,609 --> 01:09:58,156
or what they needed

1178
01:09:58,361 --> 01:09:59,988
and he would take it very personally

1179
01:10:00,196 --> 01:10:02,915
when someone would leave
or he felt betrayed.

1180
01:10:28,683 --> 01:10:32,733
A lot of people around fashion
do suffer from anxiety,

1181
01:10:32,979 --> 01:10:35,277
do suffer from panic attacks,
depression.

1182
01:10:35,648 --> 01:10:38,492
The industry is feeding this ego.

1183
01:10:38,818 --> 01:10:41,162
<i>And it has a very negative effect.</i>

1184
01:10:42,029 --> 01:10:44,908
<i>For the Voss show
the original concept was</i> a <i>padded cell.</i>

1185
01:10:46,325 --> 01:10:50,705
You start losing who you are
and it becomes a darkness

1186
01:10:50,955 --> 01:10:52,582
and a place that you can't get out of.

1187
01:10:53,541 --> 01:10:55,214
<i>And, of course, Lee being Lee,</i>

1188
01:10:55,418 --> 01:10:57,512
<i>he wasn't happy
with just this one great idea.</i>

1189
01:10:57,754 --> 01:11:00,303
You then had to have another box
in the middle

1190
01:11:00,715 --> 01:11:03,969
as a kind of theatrical climax
to the show.

1191
01:11:04,343 --> 01:11:07,643
When he came and sat down
to explain what it was,

1192
01:11:08,055 --> 01:11:10,558
he wouldn't look me in the eye
and he was saying,

1193
01:11:11,017 --> 01:11:14,362
"Yes, it's about death
and beauty and rebirth."

1194
01:11:14,645 --> 01:11:16,192
"It's gonna be beautiful."

1195
01:11:16,647 --> 01:11:19,366
<i>I really wasn't expecting
to be recreating</i>

1196
01:11:19,442 --> 01:11:22,286
<i>Joel-Peter Witkin's
famous incubus image.</i>

1197
01:11:32,872 --> 01:11:34,340
It's a pretty gruesome image

1198
01:11:34,457 --> 01:11:37,210
and I'm thinking, "Oh, my goodness,
am I gonna do this?"

1199
01:11:37,376 --> 01:11:39,174
<i>And I was like, "All right,
then, I will do it,</i>

1200
01:11:39,253 --> 01:11:41,301
<i>"but I want you to know... "</i>

1201
01:11:41,672 --> 01:11:43,720
<i>Serious face.
"...that I'm doing it for an'. "</i>

1202
01:11:45,218 --> 01:11:47,721
And he looked at me like I was mad

1203
01:11:47,887 --> 01:11:49,639
and then he looked away and he went,

1204
01:11:49,847 --> 01:11:51,975
"I thought we all were, weren't we?"
And he was off.

1205
01:11:52,475 --> 01:11:55,979
<i>The actual set had
that Stanley Kubrick 2001</i>

1206
01:11:56,145 --> 01:11:58,318
<i>meets an insane asylum feel.</i>

1207
01:11:58,439 --> 01:12:01,693
<i>And there was a two-way mirror
so that when the fashion people,</i>

1208
01:12:01,901 --> 01:12:04,905
<i>when the fashion press came in
to wait for the show to start,</i>

1209
01:12:05,029 --> 01:12:07,123
<i>they were ail looking
at themselves in the mirror.</i>

1210
01:12:07,406 --> 01:12:10,080
<i>The music started,
ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum,</i>

1211
01:12:10,326 --> 01:12:13,250
<i>with this heartbeat
that went faster and faster and faster.</i>

1212
01:12:13,704 --> 01:12:16,378
<i>We didn't know what to expect,
what was gonna happen.</i>

1213
01:12:16,541 --> 01:12:18,293
<i>None of the audience knew at all.</i>

1214
01:12:19,252 --> 01:12:23,598
<i>Fashion is</i> a <i>big bubble
and sometimes I feel like popping it.</i>

1215
01:12:32,348 --> 01:12:34,692
<i>When the show starts,
boom, you can see inside.</i>

1216
01:12:34,892 --> 01:12:36,894
<i>But the models
can't see the audience at all.</i>

1217
01:12:37,812 --> 01:12:40,361
<i>it was suddenly a much more
kind of voyeuristic thing.</i>

1218
01:12:41,858 --> 01:12:43,826
<i>The bandages he put
on a“ the model's heads</i>

1219
01:12:43,943 --> 01:12:48,790
<i>so it had that slight feeling of unease
and sickness and a bed/am feel about it.</i>

1220
01:12:53,870 --> 01:12:57,249
<i>There was one time
that I'd just come out of surgery</i>

1221
01:12:57,456 --> 01:12:59,049
<i>and he came to visit me</i>

1222
01:12:59,458 --> 01:13:02,086
<i>and he saw me
and I had bandages everywhere.</i>

1223
01:13:02,253 --> 01:13:06,008
I was all bruised up and he was like,
"Fucking wicked!", as he would do that.

1224
01:13:06,841 --> 01:13:08,764
<i>He absorbed things like a sponge,</i>

1225
01:13:09,135 --> 01:13:10,887
<i>saw the beauty in the ugly,</i>

1226
01:13:11,137 --> 01:13:13,105
<i>as with the bandages on me.</i>

1227
01:13:39,665 --> 01:13:43,420
<i>Life isn't perfect.
We're not a“ perfect size-zero models.</i>

1228
01:13:43,586 --> 01:13:46,430
<i>But there is beauty
within the eye of the beholder.</i>

1229
01:14:00,770 --> 01:14:03,148
<i>For the final image
to be this one</i>

1230
01:14:03,397 --> 01:14:07,618
<i>of</i> a <i>large woman with moths everywhere,
it sounds like</i> a <i>joke, really.</i>

1231
01:14:07,860 --> 01:14:11,034
<i>But I do think there's a sense of humour
going on underneath there as well.</i>

1232
01:14:11,280 --> 01:14:12,998
It's fat birds and moths.

1233
01:14:13,240 --> 01:14:15,618
I mean, isn't thatjust
fashion's worst nightmare?

1234
01:14:20,665 --> 01:14:23,714
Every season
whose collections do I look at?</i>

1235
01:14:23,793 --> 01:14:25,761
Whose collections
am I jealous of in a sense?

1236
01:14:26,128 --> 01:14:29,348
Whose collections do I think
are absolutely amazing?

1237
01:14:31,467 --> 01:14:34,346
<i>Tom was literally God
In the industry.</i>

1238
01:14:34,679 --> 01:14:36,522
I guess, even if Lee was a rebel

1239
01:14:36,764 --> 01:14:39,313
and he was a totally different
kind of person,

1240
01:14:39,684 --> 01:14:42,528
he probably was flattered
and, you know, touched

1241
01:14:42,728 --> 01:14:46,824
by the fact that someone like Tom Ford
noticed him and wanted him.

1242
01:14:47,316 --> 01:14:49,193
Also he was smart enough to know

1243
01:14:49,443 --> 01:14:51,320
that he needed that financial help.

1244
01:15:09,255 --> 01:15:12,384
The wonderful thing
about Lee is he is poet...

1245
01:15:12,675 --> 01:15:14,393
He won't like this either,
but it's true.

1246
01:15:14,510 --> 01:15:18,140
...poet and commerce united,
because he's very practical.

1247
01:15:18,639 --> 01:15:21,392
So he understands you can express
whatever you want on the runway

1248
01:15:21,726 --> 01:15:24,900
but you need something beautiful
on the hanger to sell to a store.

1249
01:15:26,147 --> 01:15:29,276
<i>Gucci Group was smart.
They saw what the potential was.</i>

1250
01:15:29,525 --> 01:15:32,825
<i>And they offered McQueen</i> a <i>deal
he thought he couldn't refuse</i>

1251
01:15:33,195 --> 01:15:35,323
<i>which was, "Here, we'll underwrite
your company</i>

1252
01:15:35,573 --> 01:15:38,076
<i>"and give you 50% of the ownership."</i>

1253
01:15:38,534 --> 01:15:40,002
<i>They had secret meetings</i>

1254
01:15:40,119 --> 01:15:41,837
<i>so none of it would get back to Arnault</i>

1255
01:15:41,954 --> 01:15:43,297
<i>and the LVMH people.</i>

1256
01:15:43,456 --> 01:15:46,255
<i>They had no idea it was coming
until it hit them.</i>

1257
01:15:48,127 --> 01:15:50,255
I was quite adamant
when I talked to Tom

1258
01:15:50,796 --> 01:15:52,844
that this was a one-man band.

1259
01:15:53,382 --> 01:15:56,261
So they leave you alone
to design what you want?

1260
01:15:56,469 --> 01:15:57,561
Hundred percent.

1261
01:15:57,636 --> 01:15:59,604
I was looking
for major investment

1262
01:16:00,014 --> 01:16:03,234
and then Gucci got in touch and...

1263
01:16:05,019 --> 01:16:06,487
The rest is history.

1264
01:16:10,524 --> 01:16:12,197
<i>Au revoir, Givenchy.</i>

1265
01:16:31,712 --> 01:16:33,180
Got ya!

1266
01:16:48,395 --> 01:16:49,521
What are you doing?

1267
01:16:49,814 --> 01:16:53,318
I have an affinity with the sea.
I don't know, maybe cos I'm Pisces.

1268
01:16:54,193 --> 01:16:56,742
And when it rains and it snows

1269
01:16:57,113 --> 01:17:00,208
and you're near the sea
and you can hear the waves...

1270
01:17:01,325 --> 01:17:04,329
<i>H's very melancholic
but it's very romantic.</i>

1271
01:17:06,997 --> 01:17:09,876
<i>Sometimes you need to have a break</i>

1272
01:17:10,793 --> 01:17:12,261
<i>to get away from everything</i>

1273
01:17:12,378 --> 01:17:16,679
<i>and not to think about business
and fashion shows</i>

1274
01:17:17,091 --> 01:17:19,264
<i>and to take time out.</i>

1275
01:17:25,182 --> 01:17:27,059
<i>I have to be surrounded by nature.</i>

1276
01:17:27,852 --> 01:17:29,229
<i>This is older than the house.</i>

1277
01:17:29,562 --> 01:17:33,317
<i>This is over 400 years old.
It's an elm tree.</i>

1278
01:17:33,691 --> 01:17:36,194
<i>And we uplight it at night.</i>

1279
01:17:39,405 --> 01:17:41,373
<i>And, like, it's good inspiration.</i>

1280
01:17:49,081 --> 01:17:51,254
<i>All my friends come here
and, you know,</i>

1281
01:17:51,542 --> 01:17:55,263
<i>we have the fire on
and we watch DVDs and listen to music.</i>

1282
01:17:56,297 --> 01:17:58,766
It's nice and relaxing.

1283
01:18:06,432 --> 01:18:10,903
He would be spending time
with my mum a lot, down the cottage.

1284
01:18:11,562 --> 01:18:14,441
<i>I'm grateful
that we had that time together.</i>

1285
01:18:15,149 --> 01:18:18,653
We'd see more of each other
and we did things together.

1286
01:18:19,987 --> 01:18:22,206
<i>My family keep me grounded.</i>

1287
01:18:22,448 --> 01:18:24,667
Fashion can be
a very superficial business.

1288
01:18:27,328 --> 01:18:30,127
<i>When I started in London
there was nothing like this.</i>

1289
01:18:30,706 --> 01:18:34,381
It's as close as we can get
to haute couture in England.

1290
01:18:34,960 --> 01:18:37,634
<i>All the people here are students
and it's, like, training them up</i>

1291
01:18:38,005 --> 01:18:41,305
<i>and giving them that initial step
into the world of fashion.</i>

1292
01:18:42,968 --> 01:18:44,891
Lee knew
from when I was a little boy

1293
01:18:45,095 --> 01:18:47,723
that I loved to draw
and I was always very artistic.

1294
01:18:48,390 --> 01:18:51,189
A lot of time had passed
and I was working at a rubbish tip

1295
01:18:51,727 --> 01:18:54,981
and Lee had the position
for a textile designer on menswear

1296
01:18:55,272 --> 01:18:57,024
and that's when he took me on.

1297
01:18:57,524 --> 01:18:59,492
Lee was really happy having me there,

1298
01:19:00,027 --> 01:19:02,155
firstly on the creative level,

1299
01:19:02,363 --> 01:19:04,081
but secondly just having

1300
01:19:05,074 --> 01:19:07,372
something that reminded him of his past

1301
01:19:07,618 --> 01:19:09,495
and his childhood.

1302
01:19:11,372 --> 01:19:12,544
Let's have a look.

1303
01:19:13,540 --> 01:19:17,170
<i>There was</i> a <i>period when it
wasn't so good and I had</i> a <i>lot of angst.</i>

1304
01:19:17,378 --> 01:19:20,006
<i>It was kind of hard. There was a lot
of confliction in my head</i>

1305
01:19:20,339 --> 01:19:23,639
<i>with doing a job that I didn't wanna do,
which was Givenchy.</i>

1306
01:19:23,801 --> 01:19:25,849
<i>But I think I've come to</i> a <i>stage where</i>

1307
01:19:26,387 --> 01:19:29,516
<i>I just accept this is my fife,
this is what I was born to do.</i>

1308
01:19:34,019 --> 01:19:35,396
Oh.

1309
01:19:35,688 --> 01:19:37,907
I like you like this.

1310
01:19:39,149 --> 01:19:41,527
<i>He controlled the vibe
wherever he went.</i>

1311
01:19:41,694 --> 01:19:45,324
<i>A lot of the time he was
such a buzz to be around.</i>

1312
01:19:45,447 --> 01:19:47,620
<i>The way I put it,
it was like he was the queen bee</i>

1313
01:19:47,783 --> 01:19:51,538
<i>with the worker bees responding
to the signals from that queen bee.</i>

1314
01:19:51,704 --> 01:19:53,672
<i>And people felt that, you know.</i>

1315
01:19:53,914 --> 01:19:55,882
He had this kind of childish way

1316
01:19:56,250 --> 01:19:58,753
of mucking about
in the studio environment.

1317
01:19:59,044 --> 01:20:02,548
<i>It just made things so fight
and such a nice place to be.</i>

1318
01:20:03,799 --> 01:20:05,893
There was always
something creative happening.

1319
01:20:06,010 --> 01:20:07,762
That's what excited everybody.

1320
01:20:10,222 --> 01:20:13,647
<i>I speak so loudly
in my work itself, you know.</i>

1321
01:20:13,934 --> 01:20:15,732
<i>I think everything I do is personal.</i>

1322
01:20:15,894 --> 01:20:19,489
<i>Even turning Kate Moss into</i> a <i>hologram
is kind of personal. It's ethereal.</i>

1323
01:20:19,732 --> 01:20:23,202
<i>It's</i> a <i>time I'm feeling at one
with the world and heavenly.</i>

1324
01:20:23,485 --> 01:20:25,704
<i>If you want to know me,
just look at my work.</i>

1325
01:20:44,423 --> 01:20:46,221
What does fashion
mean to you?

1326
01:20:47,217 --> 01:20:48,469
My life.

1327
01:20:54,016 --> 01:20:55,484
<i>Issie died proud,</i>

1328
01:20:55,642 --> 01:20:58,111
<i>having achieved beyond her
wildest dreams.</i>

1329
01:20:58,687 --> 01:21:02,032
<i>The fact that Issie went
was a huge blow to so many people,</i>

1330
01:21:02,274 --> 01:21:03,400
<i>including Alexander.</i>

1331
01:21:03,859 --> 01:21:05,031
A huge blow.

1332
01:21:25,464 --> 01:21:29,514
<i>I saw him at Issie's funeral and
I've never seen anyone so devastated.</i>

1333
01:21:30,886 --> 01:21:32,263
<i>I couldn't recognise him.</i>

1334
01:21:32,346 --> 01:21:35,395
<i>He sat right behind me
and I turned round and saw this person</i>

1335
01:21:35,682 --> 01:21:40,438
<i>in</i> a <i>Highland kilt and</i> a <i>hat,
looking very sad.</i>

1336
01:21:40,562 --> 01:21:42,815
<i>I thought, "My God,
it's McQueen, Alexander."</i>

1337
01:21:43,148 --> 01:21:45,822
<i>And the look on his face was haunting.</i>

1338
01:21:46,402 --> 01:21:47,449
<i>I felt...</i>

1339
01:21:47,653 --> 01:21:49,200
I felt for him.

1340
01:21:49,405 --> 01:21:52,249
You could just feel...
You could just see the pain.

1341
01:21:53,158 --> 01:21:54,375
He suffered.

1342
01:21:54,618 --> 01:21:55,665
I could see the love.

1343
01:21:55,869 --> 01:21:57,337
<i>Never deny the love.</i>

1344
01:21:57,496 --> 01:21:59,874
<i>It was such</i> a <i>love affair
between those two.</i>

1345
01:22:03,335 --> 01:22:05,178
Issie seemed to slot in

1346
01:22:05,295 --> 01:22:07,423
between a sister and a mum.

1347
01:22:08,465 --> 01:22:13,312
<i>She was in the middle
and Lee just loved Issie.</i>

1348
01:22:14,763 --> 01:22:17,232
<i>The connection
between Issie and McQueen...</i>

1349
01:22:17,599 --> 01:22:19,317
They both carried sadnesses.

1350
01:22:20,018 --> 01:22:21,611
<i>Alexander had been abused.</i>

1351
01:22:21,728 --> 01:22:25,323
He felt that person
had destroyed his innocence.

1352
01:22:25,691 --> 01:22:28,865
<i>Issie had this very sad instance
when she was about five years old</i>

1353
01:22:29,153 --> 01:22:31,326
<i>when her brother
that she was playing with died.</i>

1354
01:22:31,530 --> 01:22:34,500
<i>Not Issie's fault,
but she always felt responsible for him</i>

1355
01:22:34,783 --> 01:22:36,376
and carried that guilt.

1356
01:22:36,493 --> 01:22:39,372
<i>There was a destructive side
and destructive issues</i>

1357
01:22:39,496 --> 01:22:42,716
<i>which she could never resolve entirely
and they would blow up.</i>

1358
01:22:43,709 --> 01:22:45,552
<i>It became more and more serious.</i>

1359
01:22:46,336 --> 01:22:48,338
<i>I don't take drugs,
but I take medication.</i>

1360
01:22:48,589 --> 01:22:52,184
I mean, sometimes I have to take a pill,
just to keep me calm.

1361
01:22:52,551 --> 01:22:56,226
The pathway
to her self-destruction was clear.

1362
01:22:57,097 --> 01:23:00,727
<i>Issie, perhaps, was thinking
she didn't want to go on forever.</i>

1363
01:23:01,185 --> 01:23:03,233
<i>She couldn't rein vent herself
as an old woman</i>

1364
01:23:03,353 --> 01:23:05,026
<i>cos fashion's all about youth.</i>

1365
01:23:05,355 --> 01:23:08,529
Discovering people is a big thing.
It's like being a mother.

1366
01:23:09,026 --> 01:23:10,994
And the milk's dried up.

1367
01:23:11,862 --> 01:23:13,705
<i>Issie was planning her death.</i>

1368
01:23:14,656 --> 01:23:16,658
<i>So she wanted
to say goodbye to McQueen.</i>

1369
01:23:18,368 --> 01:23:20,746
<i>And she organised a weekend.</i>

1370
01:23:21,163 --> 01:23:24,463
<i>She'd gone to</i> a <i>lot of trouble
with</i> a <i>very lovely menu.</i>

1371
01:23:26,293 --> 01:23:28,170
<i>And Alexander was exhausted
when he turned up</i>

1372
01:23:28,462 --> 01:23:30,089
<i>and just stayed in his room.</i>

1373
01:23:31,882 --> 01:23:34,886
<i>Whatever she needed,
he wasn't able to give it himself.</i>

1374
01:23:35,719 --> 01:23:39,599
<i>But they did see each other, yeah.
There was</i> a <i>farewell between them.</i>

1375
01:23:39,765 --> 01:23:41,642
Big hug and kiss and...

1376
01:23:42,142 --> 01:23:43,940
"See you in the next world."
I don't know.

1377
01:23:44,186 --> 01:23:47,190
The thing is, when you're ill,
you don't know...

1378
01:23:47,523 --> 01:23:48,570
You're very alone.

1379
01:23:48,815 --> 01:23:51,068
<i>Issie had ovarian cancer
at the end.</i>

1380
01:23:51,401 --> 01:23:54,575
If it was terminal, who knows.
She wasn't interested in chemotherapy.

1381
01:23:56,657 --> 01:23:58,159
<i>The last thing Issie said to me,</i>

1382
01:23:58,825 --> 01:24:02,250
<i>"Do you remember, Detmar,
when I was a ray of sunshine?"</i>

1383
01:24:02,329 --> 01:24:04,707
And I said,
"You'll always be a ray of sunshine."

1384
01:24:08,835 --> 01:24:11,338
McQueen is calling his show
"La Dame Bleue."

1385
01:24:11,672 --> 01:24:13,140
<i>He's dedicating this show</i>

1386
01:24:13,257 --> 01:24:17,558
<i>to his late great friend
and mentor, Isabella Blow.</i>

1387
01:24:17,678 --> 01:24:19,897
You could see her
in the clothes.

1388
01:24:20,055 --> 01:24:22,808
You could smell
the perfume of her around.

1389
01:24:22,891 --> 01:24:26,111
And you could see her children,
in a way, backstage,

1390
01:24:26,770 --> 01:24:29,193
Alexander and Philip
going crazy together.

1391
01:24:29,481 --> 01:24:31,529
<i>What bonded them was Issie.</i>

1392
01:24:32,359 --> 01:24:35,659
Isabella single-handedly invented
Alexander and myself

1393
01:24:35,946 --> 01:24:37,323
from nowhere

1394
01:24:37,948 --> 01:24:42,704
with such conviction that...
We will never experience again.

1395
01:24:43,245 --> 01:24:48,126
<i>Her belief in you made you be
the person you are.</i>

1396
01:25:07,728 --> 01:25:11,403
<i>Bomb Once you sat down
and you saw the set and the music,</i>

1397
01:25:12,149 --> 01:25:14,698
<i>you were there and it held you,</i>

1398
01:25:15,068 --> 01:25:18,743
<i>because I kept seeing her in the clothes
that he was putting on the catwalk</i>

1399
01:25:19,072 --> 01:25:21,916
<i>and the hats, of course,
that Philip was designing.</i>

1400
01:25:25,370 --> 01:25:30,297
<i>It was actually creating
some mythical figure</i>

1401
01:25:30,584 --> 01:25:33,758
<i>that was like Issie's presence
at the show.</i>

1402
01:25:41,887 --> 01:25:43,184
<i>So emotional.</i>

1403
01:25:43,722 --> 01:25:45,224
I just couldn't stop crying,

1404
01:25:45,682 --> 01:25:47,400
just bent over double.

1405
01:25:47,476 --> 01:25:48,944
<i>And, erm...</i>

1406
01:25:49,686 --> 01:25:51,484
Grief is grief.
You have to go through it.

1407
01:25:57,569 --> 01:26:01,039
<i>And then to see them come on
and realise how young they were</i>

1408
01:26:01,365 --> 01:26:03,413
<i>and they had lost</i> a <i>great friend</i>

1409
01:26:03,867 --> 01:26:05,869
<i>and how they had loved her.</i>

1410
01:26:12,584 --> 01:26:15,087
<i>I think it had a big effect
on Lee.</i>

1411
01:26:16,296 --> 01:26:18,970
After Issie passed away,

1412
01:26:19,716 --> 01:26:23,596
he was in a really dark place.

1413
01:26:40,529 --> 01:26:43,453
<i>We were watching TV
in the evening</i>

1414
01:26:43,699 --> 01:26:46,293
<i>and Lee McQueen
opened the news that day</i>

1415
01:26:46,451 --> 01:26:48,579
<i>with the Horn of Plenty show.</i>

1416
01:26:50,163 --> 01:26:54,464
<i>And my father was sitting there
and he's like, “Sebastian, come over.</i>

1417
01:26:54,668 --> 01:26:57,512
<i>"I think it's your crazy friend's
fashion on TV."</i>

1418
01:26:58,046 --> 01:27:01,220
<i>And when my father
saw the collection, he was like,</i>

1419
01:27:02,050 --> 01:27:04,553
"I think your friend
has gone really mad."

1420
01:27:07,472 --> 01:27:09,975
<i>And I think with Horn of Plenty</i>

1421
01:27:10,225 --> 01:27:12,694
<i>that really reflects
the fashion world today,</i>

1422
01:27:13,562 --> 01:27:14,688
a pile of crap.

1423
01:27:21,862 --> 01:27:24,365
<i>Three years of being apart,</i>

1424
01:27:24,531 --> 01:27:27,751
<i>I think</i> a <i>lot and I think
he thinks</i> a <i>lot also.</i>

1425
01:27:29,244 --> 01:27:33,090
<i>And when I called him,
it was like, "Hello, Lee?"</i>

1426
01:27:33,540 --> 01:27:35,042
"Hello?"

1427
01:27:35,292 --> 01:27:36,635
"Lee, it's Sebastién."

1428
01:27:36,752 --> 01:27:40,632
"Where the fuck have you been
all this time, you fucking bastard?"

1429
01:27:41,339 --> 01:27:46,891
<i>We just started again like...
Like the brothers we were before.</i>

1430
01:27:48,013 --> 01:27:50,391
<i>So then I took the ferry to Ibiza</i>

1431
01:27:50,807 --> 01:27:52,684
<i>and I went to his villa.</i>

1432
01:27:52,934 --> 01:27:56,609
When he opened the door,
I was in shock

1433
01:27:56,855 --> 01:28:00,155
because the person
who opened the door,

1434
01:28:00,484 --> 01:28:03,328
he was a different person,
he was really skinny

1435
01:28:03,612 --> 01:28:07,617
and looking very fragile
and very, very pale.

1436
01:28:08,200 --> 01:28:11,500
When I hugged him,
that's when I noticed

1437
01:28:11,661 --> 01:28:14,210
something has changed because...

1438
01:28:14,623 --> 01:28:17,672
His body structure was just bones.

1439
01:28:18,043 --> 01:28:21,798
There was hardly any muscle
or flesh there.

1440
01:28:24,633 --> 01:28:28,809
<i>Lee come in with the idea
of having an invitation for</i> a <i>show</i>

1441
01:28:28,929 --> 01:28:30,931
<i>that had that metamorphosis.</i>

1442
01:28:31,097 --> 01:28:34,692
<i>He wanted his face
to transform into a skull.</i>

1443
01:28:35,435 --> 01:28:40,407
<i>Everything in his life had just led
to these feelings of torment.</i>

1444
01:28:41,316 --> 01:28:43,489
Lee was HIV positive.

1445
01:28:44,361 --> 01:28:47,535
Even though it isn't
a death sentence as such,

1446
01:28:48,240 --> 01:28:51,414
I think it was always
in the back of Lee's mind.

1447
01:28:51,868 --> 01:28:54,371
<i>You'd feel the bad vibes
when Lee was down.</i>

1448
01:28:54,621 --> 01:28:58,171
<i>There was a real depression
that was brought with that as well.</i>

1449
01:29:11,054 --> 01:29:13,148
<i>I think the trouble is with Lee,</i>

1450
01:29:13,390 --> 01:29:17,236
<i>after</i> a <i>show, when you've done
that build-up and you've worked hard,</i>

1451
01:29:17,477 --> 01:29:21,323
<i>you could see
there was</i> a <i>little bit of</i> a <i>down.</i>

1452
01:29:23,692 --> 01:29:25,194
<i>And then onto the next show.</i>

1453
01:29:25,861 --> 01:29:26,908
Again.

1454
01:29:28,363 --> 01:29:32,163
<i>Yeah, it was just show after show.
I don't know how Lee did it.</i>

1455
01:29:37,372 --> 01:29:41,047
The pressures
kind of quite immense now

1456
01:29:41,293 --> 01:29:45,014
because of the Gucci contract
and, erm...

1457
01:29:46,339 --> 01:29:47,386
You know, the...

1458
01:29:47,674 --> 01:29:50,974
I do the men's now
and now I also do McQ,

1459
01:29:51,219 --> 01:29:53,722
so it's about 14 collections
a year again,

1460
01:29:53,930 --> 01:29:57,810
same as when I was at Givenchy,
so it's hard work.

1461
01:30:04,149 --> 01:30:06,322
<i>He would have liked
the idea of moving</i> away

1462
01:30:06,484 --> 01:30:08,031
<i>and just leaving everything behind,</i>

1463
01:30:08,320 --> 01:30:12,200
<i>but as it was his name above the door
and his reputation as a person</i>

1464
01:30:12,365 --> 01:30:15,710
<i>and everything he had built,
he couldn't just abandon it.</i>

1465
01:30:22,542 --> 01:30:25,921
If I ever get that old and I'm still
around and I leave my company,

1466
01:30:26,713 --> 01:30:30,092
I'll just burn the place down
so there's no one working there.

1467
01:30:30,383 --> 01:30:33,136
Really?
So you'd never let someone carry on

1468
01:30:33,762 --> 01:30:36,606
the McQueen tradition
or the McQueen brand

1469
01:30:36,723 --> 01:30:38,600
if you weren't actively involved?

1470
01:30:39,309 --> 01:30:40,401
Erm...

1471
01:30:41,311 --> 01:30:43,564
I don't think so. I mean, it doesn't...

1472
01:30:44,230 --> 01:30:47,951
It... Because that person will have
to come up with the concepts for my show

1473
01:30:48,109 --> 01:30:49,986
and my shows are so personal.

1474
01:30:50,070 --> 01:30:51,617
How can... How can that be?

1475
01:30:53,281 --> 01:30:56,330
<i>I said, "Why don't you
just step away, Lee, for</i> a <i>year?"</i>

1476
01:30:56,910 --> 01:30:58,457
<i>And he just said,
"You don't understand."</i>

1477
01:30:58,536 --> 01:31:01,756
<i>He said, "I'm responsible
for 50 people.</i>

1478
01:31:01,998 --> 01:31:05,127
"They've got to pay their mortgages.
I can't just stop."

1479
01:31:08,046 --> 01:31:09,889
I was always thinking

1480
01:31:10,048 --> 01:31:12,471
there's so much sadness in him,

1481
01:31:12,717 --> 01:31:14,560
and that was sad, you know,

1482
01:31:14,719 --> 01:31:19,190
because he was this successful,
flamboyant being

1483
01:31:19,432 --> 01:31:21,355
who actually was so lonely deep inside.

1484
01:31:21,601 --> 01:31:24,229
It can be. It can be really lonely.

1485
01:31:24,562 --> 01:31:26,155
And I think...

1486
01:31:26,564 --> 01:31:29,693
You know, I think
there's more to life than fashion

1487
01:31:30,068 --> 01:31:33,197
and I don't want to be stuck
in that bubble of, "This is what I do."

1488
01:31:33,321 --> 01:31:37,042
It's nice because you see
everyone in the office.

1489
01:31:37,283 --> 01:31:39,206
They go home
and they can shut off

1490
01:31:39,661 --> 01:31:42,505
but I'm still Alexander McQueen
after I shut the door.

1491
01:31:42,789 --> 01:31:45,463
Do you know what I mean?
I've got to go home with myself, so...

1492
01:31:46,084 --> 01:31:47,677
You know,
if you've had a bad day,

1493
01:31:47,794 --> 01:31:50,343
I've only got myself
to answer to, so...

1494
01:31:59,180 --> 01:32:03,105
I mean, with us,
he was, like, behaving...

1495
01:32:04,102 --> 01:32:05,604
All right, OK,

1496
01:32:06,438 --> 01:32:10,659
but deep inside
we knew that he wasn't...

1497
01:32:12,569 --> 01:32:14,242
He wasn't 100%.

1498
01:32:14,821 --> 01:32:16,949
<i>He could hear voices.</i>

1499
01:32:17,115 --> 01:32:20,619
<i>He was telling me
that they were chasing him.</i>

1500
01:32:21,536 --> 01:32:23,379
<i>One thing he used to say,</i>

1501
01:32:23,538 --> 01:32:25,882
"Paranoia will destroy ya."

1502
01:32:26,708 --> 01:32:28,927
<i>I remember doing</i> a <i>drawing</i>

1503
01:32:29,377 --> 01:32:32,051
<i>which, basically, has got
lots of cameras around.</i>

1504
01:32:32,213 --> 01:32:34,557
<i>We're thinking, "Maybe
the cameras could be on robots."</i>

1505
01:32:34,841 --> 01:32:37,344
It was always about
getting the camera right in your face

1506
01:32:37,552 --> 01:32:40,852
and it's surveillance,
making the audience a bit uncomfortable.

1507
01:32:41,556 --> 01:32:43,399
<i>The idea behind Plato's Atlantis</i>

1508
01:32:43,475 --> 01:32:46,445
<i>is where people come from the land
and go back into the sea.</i>

1509
01:33:00,200 --> 01:33:02,294
<i>He loved swimming, scuba diving.</i>

1510
01:33:02,494 --> 01:33:05,589
<i>He loved that feeling of just being
in</i> a <i>different world unden/vater,</i>

1511
01:33:06,206 --> 01:33:07,708
<i>just away from everything,</i>

1512
01:33:07,832 --> 01:33:10,176
<i>almost like you're back in the womb,
floating.</i>

1513
01:33:10,543 --> 01:33:14,389
You know? And that kind of serenity
you would get through that.

1514
01:33:15,340 --> 01:33:18,719
<i>Plato's Atlantis
was kind of like</i> a <i>study in his head</i>

1515
01:33:18,968 --> 01:33:20,845
<i>with all the digital printing</i>

1516
01:33:21,304 --> 01:33:24,228
<i>and all the experimenting,
pattern-cutting.</i>

1517
01:33:24,599 --> 01:33:27,899
<i>And the robots were there again.</i>

1518
01:33:28,228 --> 01:33:32,278
<i>He said to me, "I designed
my last coflection, Sebastian."</i>

1519
01:33:32,857 --> 01:33:35,781
<i>And he told me,
"I've had enough with all this.</i>

1520
01:33:36,611 --> 01:33:38,409
"I am gonna kill myself."

1521
01:33:39,197 --> 01:33:41,871
"What do you mean,
you're gonna kill yourself?"

1522
01:33:42,283 --> 01:33:44,456
He's like, "Yeah, I...

1523
01:33:44,536 --> 01:33:47,380
"I am fed up. I've had it with this.

1524
01:33:47,539 --> 01:33:49,541
"L just wanna put an end to it.

1525
01:33:49,833 --> 01:33:53,383
"And in my last show,
in the end..."

1526
01:33:53,545 --> 01:33:55,013
He said,
"Do you remember Voss?

1527
01:33:55,797 --> 01:33:57,891
<i>"So, I'm gonna do
the same sort of thing,</i>

1528
01:33:58,424 --> 01:34:02,179
<i>"but it's going to be a Perspex box
the size of a human being.</i>

1529
01:34:02,303 --> 01:34:03,555
<i>"So, when the show ends,</i>

1530
01:34:03,721 --> 01:34:07,567
<i>"this box is gonna come up
from the ground</i>

1531
01:34:08,893 --> 01:34:10,895
<i>"with me inside.</i>

1532
01:34:11,020 --> 01:34:12,693
"And then I'm just...

1533
01:34:12,814 --> 01:34:14,566
"I'm just gonna
shoot myself."

1534
01:34:15,984 --> 01:34:17,031
And...

1535
01:34:18,778 --> 01:34:20,200
And <i>I...</i>

1536
01:34:20,363 --> 01:34:23,492
I mean, I just didn't know
what to... How to react to that.

1537
01:34:23,616 --> 01:34:25,368
You know what I mean?
Because“.

1538
01:34:26,161 --> 01:34:27,708
He sounded so convinced.

1539
01:34:38,506 --> 01:34:40,554
It was like he thought

1540
01:34:40,925 --> 01:34:45,522
that the whole fashion "system"
was against him.

1541
01:34:46,222 --> 01:34:49,021
And I said, "No, no one is against you.

1542
01:34:49,851 --> 01:34:53,196
"But if you are thinking to do this,

1543
01:34:53,313 --> 01:34:55,691
"you're gonna harm so many people

1544
01:34:56,191 --> 01:34:59,070
"because people come
to your shows to see your beauty,

1545
01:34:59,485 --> 01:35:02,159
"your talent, your creativity and

1546
01:35:03,573 --> 01:35:05,541
"to see you, to see your work."

1547
01:35:22,342 --> 01:35:24,219
<i>He was like</i> a <i>movie director.</i>

1548
01:35:24,510 --> 01:35:27,309
We had to be like aliens
and he told us this.

1549
01:35:27,513 --> 01:35:29,891
<i>He said, "Listen, you have
to have this face.</i>

1550
01:35:30,308 --> 01:35:32,731
<i>"Strong, you know.
You have to be powerful."</i>

1551
01:35:32,894 --> 01:35:35,363
<i>With this show,
he kind of threw a bomb on us.</i>

1552
01:35:35,480 --> 01:35:37,858
<i>"OK, this is it. Finished.
Everything is finished.</i>

1553
01:35:38,024 --> 01:35:39,867
<i>"We are reborn. We're starting anew.</i>

1554
01:35:40,026 --> 01:35:41,573
"New chapter, new planet."

1555
01:35:54,540 --> 01:35:56,838
<i>I</i> was <i>really</i> scared.

1556
01:35:56,960 --> 01:35:59,088
<i>I tried not to picture myself falling.</i>

1557
01:35:59,712 --> 01:36:01,339
I wanted him to be proud of me

1558
01:36:01,464 --> 01:36:03,887
and I wanted him to be proud

1559
01:36:04,259 --> 01:36:07,183
that he has such an army of models.

1560
01:36:14,102 --> 01:36:15,854
<i>Endless print designs.</i>

1561
01:36:15,979 --> 01:36:19,483
It might have been a fish's fin
or scales from a snake,

1562
01:36:20,024 --> 01:36:23,574
and then manipulated and montaged

1563
01:36:23,695 --> 01:36:26,039
into a repeat pattern.

1564
01:36:26,197 --> 01:36:28,871
<i>And it became something else,
unrecognisable.</i>

1565
01:36:29,284 --> 01:36:32,663
<i>This was the turn of the digital age
coming into fashion.</i>

1566
01:36:34,205 --> 01:36:36,799
<i>It towards the end
he wasn't that happy,</i>

1567
01:36:37,083 --> 01:36:40,383
<i>why his best collection is there?</i>

1568
01:36:48,553 --> 01:36:52,183
He knew he needed
something revolutionary.

1569
01:36:52,724 --> 01:36:55,694
And I think
Plato's Atlantis is, I'm sorry.

1570
01:37:06,446 --> 01:37:09,871
<i>I didn't go to Plato,
my mum not being well.</i>

1571
01:37:10,033 --> 01:37:12,001
<i>She was on dialysis at the time.</i>

1572
01:37:12,327 --> 01:37:16,503
Lee didn't really want to face the fact
that we was gonna lose Mum.

1573
01:37:16,581 --> 01:37:19,050
Because he'd lost Issie,

1574
01:37:19,167 --> 01:37:21,215
he wasn't, erm,

1575
01:37:22,545 --> 01:37:25,298
dealing with Mum not being well.

1576
01:37:35,850 --> 01:37:38,979
After my grandmother Joyce
passed away,

1577
01:37:40,938 --> 01:37:42,940
he was in really bad shape.

1578
01:37:43,524 --> 01:37:45,401
<i>Lee was distraught.</i>

1579
01:37:45,860 --> 01:37:48,534
We was sitting
in the living room at my dad's

1580
01:37:49,864 --> 01:37:52,868
and he didn't look himself at all,
Lee.

1581
01:37:54,160 --> 01:37:58,210
<i>I mean, we was all taking
my mum's passing bad.</i>

1582
01:37:59,207 --> 01:38:04,134
I think we was all worried about Lee
because obviously Mum and Lee...

1583
01:38:06,547 --> 01:38:08,390
Lee idolised my mum.

1584
01:38:19,852 --> 01:38:21,946
The lastjob he gave me to do

1585
01:38:22,063 --> 01:38:24,486
was designing the gravestone.

1586
01:38:25,817 --> 01:38:28,696
<i>He liked the idea of the wings
wrapping round the gravestone</i>

1587
01:38:28,820 --> 01:38:31,949
<i>to kind of embrace
my grandmother Joyce.</i>

1588
01:38:33,199 --> 01:38:35,167
<i>Originally, I had hands</i>

1589
01:38:35,284 --> 01:38:37,958
<i>which were facing down
on top of the gravestone.</i>

1590
01:38:38,287 --> 01:38:43,464
But the hands for him facing down
was holding them down.

1591
01:38:43,751 --> 01:38:46,504
He wanted them uplifted,
so he turned the hands upwards.

1592
01:38:50,633 --> 01:38:52,635
I called Lee

1593
01:38:52,927 --> 01:38:54,270
and

1594
01:38:55,471 --> 01:38:57,223
we spoke about

1595
01:38:58,224 --> 01:39:00,226
Mum's funeral and...

1596
01:39:01,561 --> 01:39:03,859
And that was the last conversation.

1597
01:39:19,871 --> 01:39:21,214
<i>The night...</i>

1598
01:39:21,372 --> 01:39:24,216
Iwas in bed,
I was reading, and I felt...

1599
01:39:25,042 --> 01:39:27,010
I felt something touch my head.

1600
01:39:28,379 --> 01:39:30,473
Very softly and very gently.

1601
01:39:30,548 --> 01:39:33,051
I touched my head
and I said to myself,

1602
01:39:33,551 --> 01:39:35,474
"Who's here? Who are you?"

1603
01:39:36,053 --> 01:39:39,557
I knew someone had passed
and was saying goodbye.

1604
01:39:59,660 --> 01:40:03,881
I got a call at half past 9:00
in the morning

1605
01:40:04,040 --> 01:40:05,542
from my sister.

1606
01:40:05,666 --> 01:40:08,169
And then that phone call...

1607
01:40:10,046 --> 01:40:12,390
Just changed...

1608
01:40:13,883 --> 01:40:15,100
Everything.

1609
01:40:16,427 --> 01:40:18,600
I just really couldn't believe
what I was hearing

1610
01:40:18,763 --> 01:40:21,892
because itjust seemed so surreal
in that moment.

1611
01:40:24,393 --> 01:40:29,866
Just the vision in my mind
of Lee being sort of all alone

1612
01:40:29,982 --> 01:40:31,575
and doing that as well

1613
01:40:31,692 --> 01:40:34,366
was playing through my mind,
you know, and it's quite...

1614
01:40:35,696 --> 01:40:37,073
Er...

1615
01:40:37,198 --> 01:40:39,917
It's not the nicest way to go, you know.

1616
01:40:40,701 --> 01:40:42,749
Suicide, alone, hanging.

1617
01:40:43,454 --> 01:40:45,206
It's, erm...

1618
01:40:46,290 --> 01:40:49,169
I just don't want to think
what was going through his mind,

1619
01:40:49,418 --> 01:40:52,092
how lonely he must have been as well,
doing it.

1620
01:41:01,347 --> 01:41:03,270
<i>The fashion world
is in shock</i>

1621
01:41:03,516 --> 01:41:05,894
<i>over news that Alexander McQueen
has died...</i>

1622
01:41:06,102 --> 01:41:09,276
<i>The darling of British
fashion has been found dead after...</i>

1623
01:41:26,539 --> 01:41:28,166
<i>He used to say that</i> a <i>lot.</i>

1624
01:41:28,332 --> 01:41:29,959
"One day

1625
01:41:30,126 --> 01:41:33,676
"I'm gonna come home
inside a body bag."

1626
01:41:35,881 --> 01:41:37,883
And that day when...

1627
01:41:40,052 --> 01:41:43,226
The news opened again
that day

1628
01:41:43,389 --> 01:41:46,518
of him leaving his house
inside a body bag.

1629
01:41:52,940 --> 01:41:57,821
<i>I'd taken my kids
to Hamleys' 100th-year celebration</i>

1630
01:41:58,154 --> 01:42:00,748
<i>and my partner picked me up and said,</i>

1631
01:42:00,906 --> 01:42:01,953
"I've got..."

1632
01:42:02,199 --> 01:42:05,043
I can't do it. It'll just be really
silly. I'll just cry.

1633
01:42:05,453 --> 01:42:08,002
He said, "Lee's dead."

1634
01:42:08,372 --> 01:42:11,000
And it was just such a shock

1635
01:42:11,417 --> 01:42:14,796
and I was so angry
for a really long time.

1636
01:42:15,046 --> 01:42:17,265
Because you think just...
"How do you...

1637
01:42:17,757 --> 01:42:20,135
"How did that happen?"
You know? He's...

1638
01:42:21,802 --> 01:42:23,054
I think that

1639
01:42:25,389 --> 01:42:28,233
perhaps after my mum went

1640
01:42:28,392 --> 01:42:33,865
that he felt there was nothing
that could make him happy any more.

1641
01:42:34,774 --> 01:42:38,699
And I just think it was
in that moment that

1642
01:42:40,863 --> 01:42:43,366
he had that emptiness.

1643
01:42:45,159 --> 01:42:47,082
I miss him a lot, yeah.

1644
01:42:47,703 --> 01:42:51,082
<i>I miss that... That... You know...</i>

1645
01:42:51,791 --> 01:42:54,795
He could have had, like,
some really great happiness in his life

1646
01:42:54,877 --> 01:42:58,006
and he didn't quite have that
in his personal life.

1647
01:42:58,214 --> 01:43:02,139
And... That's what I wish...
Wished for him most.

1648
01:43:02,968 --> 01:43:04,220
Yeah.

1649
01:43:08,391 --> 01:43:11,611
I'm so happy I got to...

1650
01:43:12,812 --> 01:43:14,689
To meet him and to...

1651
01:43:16,440 --> 01:43:18,192
To share

1652
01:43:18,734 --> 01:43:22,284
part of my life with his story
and everything.

1653
01:43:23,364 --> 01:43:24,786
But I miss him.

1654
01:43:24,865 --> 01:43:26,367
I wish

1655
01:43:27,493 --> 01:43:30,713
things ended in a different way.

1656
01:43:46,387 --> 01:43:48,435
<i>He wanted to make
really beautiful things</i>

1657
01:43:48,639 --> 01:43:50,141
<i>and he sculpted in clothing.</i>

1658
01:43:50,391 --> 01:43:52,064
<i>He was</i> a <i>sculptor really, I think,</i>

1659
01:43:52,351 --> 01:43:54,149
<i>and that's where that silhouette
came from.</i>

1660
01:43:56,021 --> 01:43:59,195
<i>His clothes made me feel
that you could be feminine,</i>

1661
01:43:59,400 --> 01:44:03,200
<i>but at the same time, you know,
"Don't fuck with me, I'm a bitch."</i>

1662
01:44:07,199 --> 01:44:11,420
<i>The thing I remember best
is seeing him working.</i>

1663
01:44:12,163 --> 01:44:13,836
<i>It was magical.</i>

1664
01:44:14,123 --> 01:44:16,876
<i>For me, he was like a magician.</i>

1665
01:44:20,379 --> 01:44:22,677
<i>One outfit would just be insane</i>

1666
01:44:22,965 --> 01:44:25,639
<i>and then the next one
would just be genius.</i>

1667
01:44:27,178 --> 01:44:32,730
<i>Nobody could create emotions
in</i> a <i>show like Lee McQueen did.</i>

1668
01:44:35,478 --> 01:44:39,153
<i>Fashion for Lee was</i> a <i>way
of just communicating</i> a <i>whole world</i>

1669
01:44:39,273 --> 01:44:42,447
<i>and he wanted to take himself
out of the picture,</i>

1670
01:44:42,526 --> 01:44:46,030
<i>for people just to focus
on this art that he was creating.</i>

1671
01:44:47,490 --> 01:44:51,916
<i>Raucous, bolshie,
incredibly funny, incredibly driven.</i>

1672
01:44:52,369 --> 01:44:56,840
<i>Not only did he have a singular vision,
but he was a very singular individual.</i>

1673
01:44:57,166 --> 01:45:01,171
<i>And his strength of personality
was quite phenomenal.</i>

1674
01:45:01,796 --> 01:45:04,219
You just don't see
many people like that.

1675
01:45:04,548 --> 01:45:07,017
They don't...
They don't come up very often.