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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:01:06,199 --> 00:01:08,434 [dramatic music playing] 2 00:02:09,629 --> 00:02:11,363 [static] 3 00:02:19,539 --> 00:02:21,673 -[TV] Hussy all right? -[dog barks] 4 00:02:23,510 --> 00:02:25,677 -[McQueen] Sminky Pinky. -[dog whines] 5 00:02:26,513 --> 00:02:27,479 Meats. 6 00:02:37,524 --> 00:02:38,490 No. 7 00:02:44,664 --> 00:02:45,897 -[woman] You mean like a-- -Maids. 8 00:02:45,932 --> 00:02:47,499 [woman] Maids? All right. 9 00:02:49,035 --> 00:02:52,204 [TV] Special cleansers remove sticky marks with less smearing... 10 00:02:53,974 --> 00:02:55,440 ...pick up more dust. 11 00:02:55,709 --> 00:02:57,576 That's it. No problem... 12 00:03:00,580 --> 00:03:02,347 [TV] ...and some polishes can smear... 13 00:03:29,442 --> 00:03:30,442 [static] 14 00:03:33,380 --> 00:03:35,447 There's lots of people in the industry who say, 15 00:03:35,482 --> 00:03:36,748 "I discovered Alexander McQueen." 16 00:03:37,284 --> 00:03:39,451 But you don't discover talent. Talent's there. 17 00:03:39,486 --> 00:03:41,453 You open doors for talent, you push it through, 18 00:03:41,488 --> 00:03:42,788 or you help it along. 19 00:03:43,323 --> 00:03:45,023 No one discovered Alexander McQueen. 20 00:03:45,058 --> 00:03:46,925 Alexander McQueen discovered himself. 21 00:03:49,496 --> 00:03:51,964 Lee had this very strange CV. 22 00:03:53,066 --> 00:03:54,966 I wasn't very good at school. 23 00:03:55,001 --> 00:03:58,870 I was always drawing clothes in every lesson... 24 00:03:58,905 --> 00:04:02,608 in science, in biology, and... 25 00:04:04,678 --> 00:04:07,613 But I used to enjoy art most. 26 00:04:09,549 --> 00:04:12,951 [woman] When he left school, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. 27 00:04:12,986 --> 00:04:16,354 He was out of work, looking for work, I should say, 28 00:04:16,389 --> 00:04:18,423 because my husband's very strict 29 00:04:18,458 --> 00:04:20,592 on the children going out to work. 30 00:04:20,627 --> 00:04:24,529 Lee was watching a television program one evening, 31 00:04:24,564 --> 00:04:27,966 and they was saying that they couldn't get apprentices 32 00:04:28,001 --> 00:04:29,534 to work in Savile Row, 33 00:04:29,903 --> 00:04:32,804 so I just said to him, "Why don't you go and try?" 34 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:34,439 Said, "You just knock on the door." 35 00:04:34,474 --> 00:04:36,975 They can only either say yes or no, you know." 36 00:04:37,444 --> 00:04:39,044 And that's exactly what he done. 37 00:04:42,349 --> 00:04:45,083 [man] Anderson and Sheppard started in 1906. 38 00:04:45,118 --> 00:04:48,386 We liked to do things slightly different to other people. 39 00:04:48,421 --> 00:04:51,657 We have our house style, and that's what we're gonna teach the apprentices to make. 40 00:04:56,062 --> 00:04:59,764 [McQueen] I was taught by a master tailor from County Cork in Ireland. 41 00:04:59,799 --> 00:05:02,667 [Hitchcock] He was the best tailor we had working on the premises. 42 00:05:02,702 --> 00:05:05,870 The first year, you start off padding collars, putting in pockets... 43 00:05:05,905 --> 00:05:08,807 but you're expected to make a full jacket ready for fitting 44 00:05:08,842 --> 00:05:10,008 by the end of the first year. 45 00:05:10,043 --> 00:05:11,343 As soon as you put it on, 46 00:05:11,378 --> 00:05:12,544 it should fit like a glove, 47 00:05:12,579 --> 00:05:13,745 and you know it's made for you. 48 00:05:14,948 --> 00:05:16,715 [McQueen] I knew I couldn't survive in a place like that 49 00:05:16,750 --> 00:05:19,784 for the rest of my life, cluttered in a small workshop, 50 00:05:19,819 --> 00:05:21,820 sitting on a bench padding lapels. 51 00:05:21,855 --> 00:05:24,055 But I did have a passion, and I was good at it. 52 00:05:24,090 --> 00:05:25,523 I was good at tailoring a jacket. 53 00:05:25,558 --> 00:05:27,125 I was quick at learning 54 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:28,727 and quick at learning trousers. 55 00:05:28,762 --> 00:05:30,595 I wanted to learn everything. 56 00:05:30,630 --> 00:05:31,697 Give me everything. 57 00:05:32,165 --> 00:05:34,933 [man] It was beginning of '90s 58 00:05:34,968 --> 00:05:37,769 when I had a bespoke tailoring shop in Mount Street, 59 00:05:37,804 --> 00:05:40,004 and he just walked in one day. 60 00:05:40,039 --> 00:05:41,873 He looked like skinheads, 61 00:05:41,908 --> 00:05:44,876 but just told me he can cut frock coat 62 00:05:44,911 --> 00:05:48,413 much better than 50-years-old tailor I had. 63 00:05:48,448 --> 00:05:51,616 So I was very curious and just told him, 64 00:05:51,651 --> 00:05:53,785 "Okay. Show me what you can do." 65 00:05:54,988 --> 00:05:58,890 I never really made clothes in a traditional way. 66 00:05:58,925 --> 00:06:01,126 I was experimenting myself 67 00:06:01,161 --> 00:06:05,130 in how to create structure and volumes. 68 00:06:05,165 --> 00:06:09,768 I began to just take in material, any material, 69 00:06:10,036 --> 00:06:12,036 and by putting them all together, 70 00:06:12,071 --> 00:06:16,107 somehow you can start to create three-dimensional form. 71 00:06:16,142 --> 00:06:18,009 Lee wanted to understand 72 00:06:18,044 --> 00:06:20,746 why I'm doing this way or that way. 73 00:06:21,714 --> 00:06:24,449 [woman] When Lee was 17, he said, 74 00:06:24,484 --> 00:06:26,985 "I'll make you a couple of skirts," 75 00:06:27,020 --> 00:06:30,622 and I've got to say, they fit like a glove. 76 00:06:30,657 --> 00:06:33,958 They were so fitted to my body. 77 00:06:33,993 --> 00:06:36,694 I couldn't even move my legs hardly, 78 00:06:36,729 --> 00:06:38,930 but I used to get compliments on this skirt. 79 00:06:38,965 --> 00:06:40,865 I did used to wonder, 80 00:06:40,900 --> 00:06:44,669 "I hope he finds the right thing for himself in life." 81 00:06:45,572 --> 00:06:49,174 [man] He was a sweet boy from the East End looking to make money. 82 00:06:49,976 --> 00:06:53,445 We needed technical help. Machinists. We needed pattern cutters. 83 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:55,680 We needed people who had hands-on experience 84 00:06:55,715 --> 00:06:56,882 in making clothes. 85 00:06:57,550 --> 00:06:59,751 Gave me no attitude. Was never late. 86 00:06:59,953 --> 00:07:02,154 Always knew what he was doing. Always delivered. 87 00:07:03,022 --> 00:07:05,857 He listened continually to Sinead O'Connor, 88 00:07:06,526 --> 00:07:10,195 which was quite odd, because no one else liked Sinead O'Connor at the time. 89 00:07:10,230 --> 00:07:11,896 He really liked her, for some reason. 90 00:07:11,931 --> 00:07:13,598 I always remember him with his Walkman on, 91 00:07:13,633 --> 00:07:15,133 listening to Sinead O'Connor. 92 00:07:15,168 --> 00:07:18,537 [NASA archive] Three, two, one. Ignition. 93 00:07:19,272 --> 00:07:20,539 Liftoff. 94 00:07:21,975 --> 00:07:25,777 [McKitterick] Red or Dead was this very young street-wear company. 95 00:07:26,145 --> 00:07:29,147 When I said to him that the Space Baby collection... 96 00:07:29,182 --> 00:07:31,216 was based on the anniversary 97 00:07:31,251 --> 00:07:34,586 of the men landing on the moon, he was like, "What?" 98 00:07:35,788 --> 00:07:38,590 He didn't know you could take a subject that 99 00:07:38,625 --> 00:07:41,192 had no relation to clothing 100 00:07:41,227 --> 00:07:44,596 and actually get inspiration from that to design clothing. 101 00:07:44,631 --> 00:07:48,099 So he didn't understand this idea of visual research 102 00:07:48,134 --> 00:07:51,202 or historic references or sexual references. 103 00:07:51,237 --> 00:07:54,706 -[NASA 1] We copy you on the ground. -[NASA 2] The eagle has landed. 104 00:07:54,741 --> 00:07:57,041 He must have asked me questions. 105 00:07:57,076 --> 00:07:59,678 "What can I do next? How can I push myself forward?" 106 00:07:59,913 --> 00:08:01,179 And at the time, 107 00:08:02,348 --> 00:08:05,517 all the designers in Italy were opening diffusion lines. 108 00:08:07,086 --> 00:08:09,053 He went to Italy with no language, 109 00:08:09,088 --> 00:08:12,524 no place to stay, no money, no qualifications. 110 00:08:12,859 --> 00:08:15,760 I thought within a week, he'll be back, you know, 111 00:08:15,795 --> 00:08:17,629 with his tail between his legs. 112 00:08:20,199 --> 00:08:24,302 A week later, maybe ten days, I get a call from Lee from Italy. 113 00:08:24,337 --> 00:08:27,305 He'd landed a job as an assistant for Romeo Gigli. 114 00:08:27,340 --> 00:08:30,575 To say I was shocked was an understatement. [laughs] 115 00:08:32,178 --> 00:08:35,079 [Gigli] I say, "Okay, I'm looking for new jacket. 116 00:08:35,114 --> 00:08:37,282 I have my mind this shape, 117 00:08:37,317 --> 00:08:40,552 but my tailor, they cannot read that shape. 118 00:08:40,587 --> 00:08:42,888 Maybe you can help me to do it." 119 00:08:43,156 --> 00:08:47,859 And we start to do that jacket, and we did the first fitting. 120 00:08:47,894 --> 00:08:49,727 I say, "No, it's wrong. 121 00:08:49,762 --> 00:08:52,063 That is not what I'm looking for." 122 00:08:52,098 --> 00:08:55,901 So with the tailor, with Lee, they did one more. 123 00:08:56,102 --> 00:08:57,969 We did the second fitting, 124 00:08:58,004 --> 00:09:00,104 and again, I take out the lining, 125 00:09:00,139 --> 00:09:02,807 looking inside the jacket, and it was wrong. 126 00:09:03,042 --> 00:09:06,611 Third fitting, I say, "No, is incorrect." 127 00:09:06,646 --> 00:09:10,982 And I take out the lining, and inside the jacket, 128 00:09:11,684 --> 00:09:15,687 they wrote with a black pen, "Fuck you, Romeo." 129 00:09:15,722 --> 00:09:16,788 [laughing] 130 00:09:18,291 --> 00:09:21,726 That was the time when I was looking for new shapes-- 131 00:09:21,761 --> 00:09:23,328 for shapes, for shapes... 132 00:09:23,363 --> 00:09:27,065 and he was looking so deeply and hard. 133 00:09:27,100 --> 00:09:31,603 He was really deeply looking to understand everything. 134 00:09:32,138 --> 00:09:34,305 He was leaving my studio 135 00:09:34,340 --> 00:09:37,075 because he want to study more and more and more. 136 00:09:40,046 --> 00:09:42,981 [woman] You can't teach talent, but what you can do 137 00:09:43,016 --> 00:09:46,250 is make them better at what they do or more professional. 138 00:09:46,285 --> 00:09:49,921 And to me, the whole thinking behind this MA 139 00:09:49,956 --> 00:09:51,756 was to make them work in teams, 140 00:09:51,791 --> 00:09:54,793 working together as you do in the fashion world. 141 00:09:55,361 --> 00:09:58,630 I saw this unprepossessing, I must say... 142 00:09:59,165 --> 00:10:02,233 very shabby, very unattractive-- 143 00:10:02,268 --> 00:10:03,902 I hate to be... say this, 144 00:10:04,404 --> 00:10:07,071 but it was true... boy 145 00:10:07,106 --> 00:10:09,273 with a bundle of clothes over his arm 146 00:10:09,308 --> 00:10:10,942 outside my office. 147 00:10:10,977 --> 00:10:13,411 I said to him, "Who are you looking for?" 148 00:10:13,446 --> 00:10:15,914 And he said, "I've come to see you." 149 00:10:16,683 --> 00:10:19,784 But I had no job, which he said he was after. 150 00:10:19,819 --> 00:10:22,754 The whole thing intrigued me. He was passionate. 151 00:10:22,789 --> 00:10:25,991 And to me, this is the secret, really, 152 00:10:26,392 --> 00:10:27,926 if you tap into that. 153 00:10:28,695 --> 00:10:30,395 I found myself saying, 154 00:10:30,430 --> 00:10:32,664 "I think you should come on my course," 155 00:10:33,066 --> 00:10:35,767 and I couldn't offer him money, that was really sad, 156 00:10:35,802 --> 00:10:38,169 and it was patently obvious he had none. 157 00:10:38,204 --> 00:10:41,139 Aunt Renee said she had money in the bank sitting there, 158 00:10:41,174 --> 00:10:43,841 not doing anything, and she would rather help Lee. 159 00:10:43,876 --> 00:10:48,146 She'd worked in the rag trade. She knew that Lee had talent. 160 00:10:48,181 --> 00:10:49,814 And he came back and said, 161 00:10:49,849 --> 00:10:52,851 "My aunt is going to pay the fees, 162 00:10:53,386 --> 00:10:54,753 and I'm coming." 163 00:10:56,789 --> 00:10:58,823 [McQueen] Saint Martins was the place to go, 164 00:10:58,858 --> 00:11:01,259 but what I liked about it was the freedom of expression 165 00:11:01,294 --> 00:11:04,095 and the being surrounded by like-minded people. 166 00:11:05,364 --> 00:11:10,034 I think we got on really well because we had the same sense of humor. 167 00:11:10,069 --> 00:11:11,703 And he laughed all the time, 168 00:11:11,738 --> 00:11:14,205 so he was just funny and disrespectful, 169 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:17,975 and he'd do catwalk shows down the corridor. 170 00:11:18,010 --> 00:11:20,011 He'd just muck around. 171 00:11:20,046 --> 00:11:22,313 Whenever he could muck around, he'd muck around. 172 00:11:23,116 --> 00:11:25,283 I was actually teaching there at the time as well, 173 00:11:25,752 --> 00:11:27,885 and he was not frightened to tell people, 174 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:30,388 "I know better than you," even the tutors. 175 00:11:30,423 --> 00:11:34,225 He was a bit of a nightmare student because he knew so much. 176 00:11:34,794 --> 00:11:37,161 I'm sure he was a pain and did interrupt people. 177 00:11:37,196 --> 00:11:39,230 He didn't actually dare interrupt me. 178 00:11:39,432 --> 00:11:43,068 But he used it. He used it as I intended him to use it, 179 00:11:43,336 --> 00:11:46,938 and he'd come to a painting or a book, 180 00:11:46,973 --> 00:11:49,741 and, you know, not having had a formal education, 181 00:11:49,776 --> 00:11:51,409 it was all new to him. 182 00:11:51,444 --> 00:11:52,877 And that was it. 183 00:11:52,912 --> 00:11:55,947 He reinterpreted things in his way. 184 00:11:55,982 --> 00:11:58,816 It wasn't filtered through, with a lot of us 185 00:11:58,851 --> 00:12:01,886 who had more conventional backgrounds. 186 00:12:01,921 --> 00:12:03,287 I loved that. 187 00:12:03,322 --> 00:12:06,257 He knew where to go for everything. 188 00:12:06,492 --> 00:12:07,959 London was his town. 189 00:12:08,261 --> 00:12:09,794 "And where do I get my button holes?" 190 00:12:09,829 --> 00:12:12,797 He'd go, "You want to go to Marten in Soho. 191 00:12:12,832 --> 00:12:16,201 If you want fabric, then you want to go to Berwick Street, Shepherd's Bush." 192 00:12:17,904 --> 00:12:20,204 He would take me to gay bars, 193 00:12:20,239 --> 00:12:23,040 and he would take me to lesbian bars, and he'd like sit me down, 194 00:12:23,075 --> 00:12:25,409 he'd go, "This is what you want." 195 00:12:25,444 --> 00:12:27,378 I go, "No, I really just want to go home. 196 00:12:27,413 --> 00:12:29,147 Can I just go home and do my homework?" 197 00:12:30,149 --> 00:12:33,251 [Hillson] The course always ended with the degree show. 198 00:12:33,286 --> 00:12:34,853 No other college 199 00:12:36,223 --> 00:12:39,924 had ever been invited, as I was, to show during British Fashion Week. 200 00:12:40,159 --> 00:12:43,828 [McKitterick] He called me when he was nearly finishing the final collection 201 00:12:43,863 --> 00:12:45,329 and asked me to come in 202 00:12:45,364 --> 00:12:47,298 to have a look at it and talk to him about it. 203 00:12:47,500 --> 00:12:48,466 It had all the elements. 204 00:12:49,669 --> 00:12:53,171 It had the history of the East End. It had the darkness. 205 00:12:53,439 --> 00:12:55,373 "Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims." 206 00:12:55,575 --> 00:12:57,175 It had the research. 207 00:12:57,210 --> 00:12:59,077 It had a really great story behind it. 208 00:13:00,012 --> 00:13:02,413 [Barton] He was reading books like Perfume, 209 00:13:02,448 --> 00:13:04,148 which is all about the murder of women, 210 00:13:04,183 --> 00:13:07,518 and he had a very dark side to him as well, 211 00:13:07,553 --> 00:13:10,521 so he was drawing from all of these influences 212 00:13:10,556 --> 00:13:14,926 and then creating something very beautiful out of it. 213 00:13:16,295 --> 00:13:18,296 [dramatic music playing] 214 00:13:34,513 --> 00:13:36,113 [woman] The pieces went past me, 215 00:13:36,148 --> 00:13:38,817 and they moved in a way I've never seen. 216 00:13:41,487 --> 00:13:44,589 I wanted them. They were modern. They were classical. 217 00:13:45,024 --> 00:13:46,925 [music continues playing] 218 00:13:50,196 --> 00:13:51,963 He would do a black coat, 219 00:13:51,998 --> 00:13:53,598 and then he'd line it with human hair, 220 00:13:53,633 --> 00:13:56,467 and it was blood-red inside, so it was like a body. 221 00:13:56,502 --> 00:13:58,903 It was like the flesh with blood. 222 00:14:01,974 --> 00:14:03,441 And I just thought, 223 00:14:03,476 --> 00:14:05,343 "This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." 224 00:14:07,146 --> 00:14:09,146 It was about sabotage and tradition, 225 00:14:09,181 --> 00:14:10,982 which is the perfect combination, 226 00:14:11,017 --> 00:14:13,417 and beauty, violence. 227 00:14:13,452 --> 00:14:16,153 All the things that I suppose the '90s represent. 228 00:14:16,188 --> 00:14:18,356 [audience applause] 229 00:14:18,925 --> 00:14:20,925 [man] How difficult is it to discover genius? 230 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:23,294 [Isabella] Not at all difficult, 'cause they have it, and I spot it. 231 00:14:23,996 --> 00:14:25,396 [man] If you're interested in the history 232 00:14:25,431 --> 00:14:26,564 of late 20-century clothes, 233 00:14:26,599 --> 00:14:28,867 Isabella Blow is a big player. 234 00:14:29,168 --> 00:14:30,568 [Isabella] I was at American Vogue, 235 00:14:30,603 --> 00:14:32,403 and Anna Wintour sort of discovered me, 236 00:14:32,438 --> 00:14:33,571 and I worked for her. 237 00:14:33,606 --> 00:14:35,039 Then I went to British Vogue. 238 00:14:35,374 --> 00:14:36,974 McQueen was her knight, 239 00:14:37,009 --> 00:14:38,276 and she was gonna take him to the top. 240 00:14:38,311 --> 00:14:39,444 She was determined. 241 00:14:40,513 --> 00:14:41,612 [Isabella] I knew. I rang up his mother and said, 242 00:14:41,647 --> 00:14:43,514 "You've produced a genius." 243 00:14:43,549 --> 00:14:45,984 I think he's like the Saint Laurent of the year 2000. 244 00:14:46,419 --> 00:14:48,319 And his mother said to him 245 00:14:48,354 --> 00:14:51,556 that there's this mad woman who keeps trying to call us. 246 00:14:51,958 --> 00:14:53,391 I don't know. She wants some of your clothes. 247 00:14:53,426 --> 00:14:55,693 I rang between six and eight times a day. 248 00:14:55,728 --> 00:14:58,296 Finally, I got a little voice on the end of the line. "Hello?" 249 00:14:59,065 --> 00:15:01,032 So I said, "Yes. Can I come make an appointment with you? 250 00:15:01,067 --> 00:15:02,466 My name's Isabella Blow." 251 00:15:02,501 --> 00:15:04,368 I don't know to this day if he knew who I was. 252 00:15:04,403 --> 00:15:07,305 No. I just wanted the money. I was desperate for money. 253 00:15:07,340 --> 00:15:10,041 I wasn't interested in him, either. I just wanted the clothes. 254 00:15:10,076 --> 00:15:11,976 I didn't give her no money off. 255 00:15:12,011 --> 00:15:14,045 I said, "That's 350, love. You can take it or leave it." 256 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,248 And, uh, she loved that. 257 00:15:19,685 --> 00:15:25,623 It wasn't until I went to the Bluebird Garage collection that he did 258 00:15:25,658 --> 00:15:29,327 that I just thought, "What have I unleashed?" 259 00:15:29,362 --> 00:15:32,596 And he walked across, said, "I owe it all to you," 260 00:15:32,631 --> 00:15:35,232 which I thought was very, very sweet, 261 00:15:35,267 --> 00:15:37,134 because it was far from true. 262 00:15:37,169 --> 00:15:41,606 He'd worked every inch of the way himself. 263 00:15:42,408 --> 00:15:44,542 [dramatic music playing] 264 00:15:52,618 --> 00:15:54,418 [music stops] 265 00:15:54,453 --> 00:15:57,054 Every fashion designer wants to create an illusion, 266 00:15:57,089 --> 00:16:00,424 create things that disturb, fascinate people. 267 00:16:00,459 --> 00:16:02,660 Clothes are really beautiful to work with, 268 00:16:02,695 --> 00:16:04,695 but there's also a reality outside. 269 00:16:04,730 --> 00:16:06,130 Some people don't want to hear it. 270 00:16:06,165 --> 00:16:07,732 It's all lovey-dovey, 271 00:16:07,767 --> 00:16:09,734 and everything's fine in the world all the time, 272 00:16:09,769 --> 00:16:11,302 and I tell it the way it is. 273 00:16:13,372 --> 00:16:16,574 [man] In the '90s, you used to make clothes to go out, 274 00:16:16,609 --> 00:16:19,010 and you used to make something just for that night. 275 00:16:19,045 --> 00:16:22,646 You're going to this nightclub, this person is on or that DJ. 276 00:16:22,681 --> 00:16:24,215 Right. What are we going to do? 277 00:16:25,084 --> 00:16:26,517 I think Lee took everything. 278 00:16:26,552 --> 00:16:28,486 That's one of Lee's strengths, 279 00:16:28,521 --> 00:16:31,389 that he took a lot of Bowery's esthetic... 280 00:16:31,624 --> 00:16:35,126 it's transgressive, it's in your face 281 00:16:35,161 --> 00:16:38,329 and thought, "How does this translate onto a runway?" 282 00:16:38,831 --> 00:16:41,499 Lee also used that language of fetish 283 00:16:41,534 --> 00:16:44,736 in terms of rubber and latex and leather... 284 00:16:45,371 --> 00:16:47,772 and put it into his fashion design. 285 00:16:49,442 --> 00:16:51,642 We started going out with each other, 286 00:16:51,677 --> 00:16:53,044 but part of me was thinking, 287 00:16:53,079 --> 00:16:54,145 "But also, it's quite useful 288 00:16:54,180 --> 00:16:55,747 'cause I can sew as well." 289 00:16:56,816 --> 00:16:59,417 It was literally anyone that could sew, 290 00:16:59,452 --> 00:17:02,286 and it didn't matter whether they were any good particularly at sewing or not. 291 00:17:02,321 --> 00:17:04,355 Were they willing to come and sit in the studio 292 00:17:04,390 --> 00:17:06,357 for 16 hours a day, 293 00:17:06,392 --> 00:17:08,359 and were they going to be good fun to be around. 294 00:17:08,394 --> 00:17:12,630 Lee that was the badly behaved, naughty school boy 295 00:17:12,665 --> 00:17:15,766 that was always doing pranks on people in the pub, 296 00:17:15,801 --> 00:17:18,603 and that's the person that I liked, loved. 297 00:17:20,239 --> 00:17:22,306 [screaming] 298 00:17:25,644 --> 00:17:27,612 [music playing in the background] 299 00:17:29,348 --> 00:17:33,584 [woman] At the time I first met Lee, I was living in Hoxton Square, 300 00:17:33,886 --> 00:17:36,420 and one day, in pops this guy, 301 00:17:36,455 --> 00:17:40,191 and I kind of figured he had rented the downstairs. 302 00:17:40,392 --> 00:17:42,593 "Come in for a cup of tea." 303 00:17:42,628 --> 00:17:44,428 And he asked what I did. 304 00:17:44,463 --> 00:17:47,298 I said, "I do grooming for men, hair and makeup." 305 00:17:47,333 --> 00:17:49,700 And he goes, "I'm having a show soon. 306 00:17:49,735 --> 00:17:52,136 Would you do the hair and makeup for the guys?" 307 00:17:52,171 --> 00:17:55,506 I was like, "Don't you need to see some of my work first?" 308 00:17:55,875 --> 00:18:01,579 I'd never done a show before, so... he's like, "No, I can tell. I can tell." 309 00:18:02,181 --> 00:18:04,882 [woman] He said to me one day, "I've decided to do my own collection." 310 00:18:04,917 --> 00:18:07,318 And I remember thinking, "How on earth does he think 311 00:18:07,353 --> 00:18:09,854 he's gonna have a business and make a collection?" 312 00:18:09,889 --> 00:18:11,422 He has got nothing. 313 00:18:11,457 --> 00:18:13,757 He's got no money, no wherewithal, 314 00:18:13,792 --> 00:18:17,495 no studio, nobody to support him, nothing behind him. 315 00:18:17,730 --> 00:18:20,665 And yet he was determined this was what he was gonna do. 316 00:18:21,467 --> 00:18:23,868 I survived on unemployment benefit, 317 00:18:24,570 --> 00:18:26,170 and I bought all my fabric... 318 00:18:26,205 --> 00:18:27,405 [laughs] 319 00:18:27,773 --> 00:18:30,441 I bought all my fabrics with my dole money. 320 00:18:30,676 --> 00:18:34,645 And I went round to my parents for baked beans 321 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:36,780 and tins of soup and things like... 322 00:18:36,815 --> 00:18:37,815 [laughs] 323 00:18:37,850 --> 00:18:40,451 [making violin sounds] 324 00:18:43,722 --> 00:18:45,689 This is my pooch. 325 00:18:45,724 --> 00:18:48,159 [Smith] He said to me, "I really need to get a logo." 326 00:18:48,194 --> 00:18:51,362 We asked my boyfriend at the time if he would design it. 327 00:18:51,397 --> 00:18:53,631 It was my idea to put the "C" inside the "Q," 328 00:18:53,666 --> 00:18:56,267 but then Dave designed the rest of it. 329 00:18:56,302 --> 00:19:00,204 He was fantastic at getting people to do a phenomenal amount of work for him, 330 00:19:00,539 --> 00:19:02,239 and we were never, ever paid. 331 00:19:02,274 --> 00:19:06,277 In fact, we were paying him to work for him. 332 00:19:06,312 --> 00:19:07,378 How amazing is that? 333 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:09,647 [Chai-Hyde] Just to be part of it, 334 00:19:09,682 --> 00:19:11,515 be part of his vision, yeah. 335 00:19:11,550 --> 00:19:14,519 He had that, even from the very beginning, that pull. 336 00:19:15,854 --> 00:19:17,288 -[McQueen] Warhol. -[woman] Woo! 337 00:19:17,323 --> 00:19:18,422 [McQueen] Yeah. 338 00:19:18,457 --> 00:19:19,490 [woman] Dance for me. 339 00:19:19,525 --> 00:19:21,292 Come on, keep it going. 340 00:19:21,327 --> 00:19:22,627 [woman laughs] 341 00:19:22,861 --> 00:19:24,862 [Smith] Isabella was very keen to call him Alexander, 342 00:19:24,897 --> 00:19:27,298 just because she thought it sounded better as a designer. 343 00:19:27,333 --> 00:19:29,800 Sounded grander and more romantic. 344 00:19:29,835 --> 00:19:31,602 Issie got criticized for trying to make him posh. 345 00:19:31,637 --> 00:19:33,804 So what? [chuckles] Good for Issie. 346 00:19:33,839 --> 00:19:35,473 She was trying to make him successful. 347 00:19:35,874 --> 00:19:38,342 And she did. Alexander McQueen is a brand. 348 00:19:38,377 --> 00:19:40,978 [woman] Why do you love her so much, Lee? 349 00:19:41,013 --> 00:19:43,914 She's the same as me. She doesn't care. She doesn't care what people think. 350 00:19:43,949 --> 00:19:45,416 At the end of the day, we're... 351 00:19:45,784 --> 00:19:48,252 we're separate entities to everyone else, 352 00:19:48,287 --> 00:19:50,487 and we have our own personal view about things. 353 00:19:50,522 --> 00:19:53,357 You fall in love with somebody, you love it and you nurture it, 354 00:19:53,392 --> 00:19:55,860 and you look after it like it's your garden. 355 00:19:56,528 --> 00:19:58,629 People garden. They cook. They do the same thing. 356 00:19:58,664 --> 00:20:00,631 My ingredients are clothes. 357 00:20:00,966 --> 00:20:03,801 [woman] She introduced him to everyone. She championed him. 358 00:20:03,836 --> 00:20:05,803 So I suppose what initially started 359 00:20:05,838 --> 00:20:08,472 as a work relationship for her became a creative friendship. 360 00:20:08,507 --> 00:20:10,975 [Groves] She was someone that was always really excited 361 00:20:11,010 --> 00:20:12,977 and wanted to see the next thing and the new thing 362 00:20:13,012 --> 00:20:14,912 and wanted to push people. 363 00:20:14,947 --> 00:20:17,848 It was never about money, as in I never saw any money 364 00:20:17,883 --> 00:20:19,817 going forwards between either of them. 365 00:20:20,853 --> 00:20:22,686 [Detmar] I just remember the laughter, 366 00:20:22,721 --> 00:20:25,756 exciting creativity of the mid-90s and the adventure. 367 00:20:25,791 --> 00:20:28,292 They were on this rocket. They shot to the moon. 368 00:20:28,327 --> 00:20:29,526 [indistinct chatter] 369 00:20:29,561 --> 00:20:30,995 You're a hungry little thing. 370 00:20:32,564 --> 00:20:34,531 [Detmar] The early days were very happy days, 371 00:20:34,566 --> 00:20:36,300 and it was short times, 372 00:20:36,335 --> 00:20:38,469 but they were beautiful, and they were funny. 373 00:20:38,804 --> 00:20:40,537 And Issie didn't have children, 374 00:20:40,572 --> 00:20:44,475 so she threw her maternal love to her protégé. 375 00:20:44,810 --> 00:20:47,712 I looked forward to seeing Alexander 'cause he made me laugh so much. 376 00:20:47,946 --> 00:20:50,314 Issie and McQueen had a dirty sense of humor. 377 00:20:50,516 --> 00:20:51,849 McQueen would describe Issie 378 00:20:51,884 --> 00:20:53,350 as a cross between Lucrezia Borgia 379 00:20:53,385 --> 00:20:55,019 and a Billingsgate fishwife. 380 00:20:55,821 --> 00:20:57,888 Issie had a very vulgar humor. 381 00:20:57,923 --> 00:21:00,658 I always found the cocks and the cunts slightly-- 382 00:21:01,460 --> 00:21:03,427 I was a bit, "Oh." [laughs] 383 00:21:03,629 --> 00:21:05,529 I wasn't really into their earthy humor, 384 00:21:05,564 --> 00:21:08,932 but however rude McQueen got, Issie was even worse. 385 00:21:08,967 --> 00:21:12,303 They loved to play off each other like that, be outrageous. 386 00:21:12,338 --> 00:21:13,771 I know Alexander loves birds, 387 00:21:13,806 --> 00:21:15,706 so I've got this bird hat on designed by Philip 388 00:21:15,741 --> 00:21:18,575 'cause we're gonna go out to do some falconry tomorrow, 389 00:21:18,610 --> 00:21:19,843 'cause Alexander's got a very-- 390 00:21:19,878 --> 00:21:21,712 You know he's passionate about birds. 391 00:21:21,747 --> 00:21:24,048 We're going to fly some falcons tomorrow afternoon. 392 00:21:24,516 --> 00:21:25,649 [bird squawks] 393 00:21:25,684 --> 00:21:27,451 [gentle music playing] 394 00:21:31,090 --> 00:21:33,858 [cries out] 395 00:21:45,637 --> 00:21:48,372 [man] We did go and stay at Hilles a few times. 396 00:21:48,807 --> 00:21:51,675 He would end up diving into Issie's dressing-up box 397 00:21:51,710 --> 00:21:53,944 and we'd all be wearing sort of fantastical costumes 398 00:21:53,979 --> 00:21:55,713 for dinner and things like that. 399 00:21:57,383 --> 00:21:58,682 The world she inhabited 400 00:21:58,717 --> 00:22:00,884 was so far removed from the world 401 00:22:00,919 --> 00:22:02,687 that any of us had come from. 402 00:22:04,123 --> 00:22:05,956 There was a sort of unreality to it. 403 00:22:05,991 --> 00:22:10,394 Whenever we went to that house, you felt so at home. 404 00:22:11,130 --> 00:22:13,831 And I think Lee felt very at home there. 405 00:22:15,134 --> 00:22:19,603 [Detmar] They had this big sister-- fun person-- to be with, who's outrageous. 406 00:22:19,638 --> 00:22:23,674 With Issie, be as different as you can... [chuckles] ...and keep going. 407 00:22:24,076 --> 00:22:26,410 The more different, the more I love it. 408 00:22:27,579 --> 00:22:29,714 I really don't like the normal. I don't think it's-- 409 00:22:29,982 --> 00:22:31,448 You don't move forward. 410 00:22:31,483 --> 00:22:32,750 Seriously, you just don't move forward 411 00:22:32,785 --> 00:22:34,385 if you play safe. 412 00:22:34,420 --> 00:22:36,587 You really do piss a lot of people off. 413 00:22:36,622 --> 00:22:37,955 [both laughing] 414 00:22:42,728 --> 00:22:44,561 [Smith] His first shows were unbelievable. 415 00:22:44,596 --> 00:22:46,130 People were winded by them. 416 00:22:46,165 --> 00:22:49,734 People walked out. Quite a few acerbic reviews. 417 00:22:49,968 --> 00:22:53,137 But everything else before paled into comparison. 418 00:22:53,172 --> 00:22:58,542 I don't want to do a show that you walk out feeling like you've just had Sunday lunch. 419 00:22:58,577 --> 00:23:04,081 I want you to come out either feeling repulsed or exhilarated, 420 00:23:04,116 --> 00:23:05,783 as long as it's an emotion. 421 00:23:06,485 --> 00:23:07,985 If you leave without emotion, 422 00:23:08,020 --> 00:23:11,488 then I'm not doing my job properly, so that's that. 423 00:23:11,523 --> 00:23:14,658 That's the thing about Alexander, I think his clothes are very emotional. 424 00:23:15,060 --> 00:23:17,694 This coat is, like, based on a tramp, 425 00:23:17,729 --> 00:23:20,197 so it's based on someone who hasn't got any money, 426 00:23:20,232 --> 00:23:22,099 standing in the street, nowhere to sleep. 427 00:23:22,968 --> 00:23:25,502 You wrap it round yourself, you feel fantastic. 428 00:23:25,537 --> 00:23:28,706 Then you have all this passion and love 429 00:23:29,041 --> 00:23:31,842 and slashing and sex and romance. 430 00:23:33,612 --> 00:23:36,781 [McQueen] The idea of the collection was never to produce. 431 00:23:37,015 --> 00:23:42,052 The shows were all about publicity and creating a marketing ploy 432 00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:43,921 for Alexander McQueen, the designer. 433 00:23:43,956 --> 00:23:45,889 The clothes were impossible to reproduce 434 00:23:45,924 --> 00:23:48,759 'cause they were made out of plastic bags or masking tape. 435 00:23:48,794 --> 00:23:49,660 They were show clothes. 436 00:23:50,262 --> 00:23:51,829 [Groves] Lee had started doing bumsters. 437 00:23:51,864 --> 00:23:53,530 These were cut so low 438 00:23:53,565 --> 00:23:55,232 that you could see the model's pubic hair. 439 00:23:55,267 --> 00:23:57,601 [McQueen] It's nothing to do with pubic hair. 440 00:23:57,636 --> 00:24:00,204 It's just a technical thing where, as a tailor knows, 441 00:24:00,239 --> 00:24:02,706 you're breaking up the proportion of the body, 442 00:24:02,741 --> 00:24:05,509 by lowering the trousers, elongating the torso. 443 00:24:05,544 --> 00:24:07,478 It's nothing to do with bum cleavage, 444 00:24:07,513 --> 00:24:09,780 but that's an added bonus if you've got a nice bum, so... 445 00:24:09,815 --> 00:24:11,215 [Detmar] He told that model Gabe, 446 00:24:11,250 --> 00:24:13,617 "Put your pubic hairs in Anna Wintour's face." 447 00:24:13,652 --> 00:24:15,553 [laughing] 448 00:24:16,588 --> 00:24:18,556 It's just funny. Naughty behavior. 449 00:24:18,957 --> 00:24:21,191 You could give Alexander £500, 450 00:24:21,226 --> 00:24:23,527 and he could produce 30 pieces of clothing. 451 00:24:23,562 --> 00:24:25,662 [Detmar] He saw some cling foil on the floor, and he said, 452 00:24:25,697 --> 00:24:27,197 "I'm just gonna make a dress out of that. 453 00:24:27,232 --> 00:24:28,932 I'm gonna put the model, wrap her up," 454 00:24:28,967 --> 00:24:31,535 and he just cut this dress, put a zip in it, 455 00:24:31,570 --> 00:24:33,170 and suddenly, that went down the runway. 456 00:24:33,772 --> 00:24:36,907 [Chai-Hyde] Getting a tire and running it over the suit. 457 00:24:36,942 --> 00:24:38,575 [laughing] 458 00:24:38,610 --> 00:24:39,944 Just things like that. Just genius. 459 00:24:40,612 --> 00:24:44,248 Four pounds worth of lace. Invisible zip-- one pound. 460 00:24:44,283 --> 00:24:46,283 Sprayed with car spray paint. 461 00:24:46,318 --> 00:24:49,286 Probably cost less than ten pounds, those dresses to make. 462 00:24:49,321 --> 00:24:53,223 But through that weird alchemy of being cut and made by Lee, 463 00:24:53,258 --> 00:24:55,726 suddenly, they're being requested. 464 00:24:55,761 --> 00:24:58,629 Avedon wanted to have this dress for Sharon Stone. 465 00:24:58,664 --> 00:25:00,731 So it has to be in America now. 466 00:25:00,766 --> 00:25:03,600 Need someone to fly over with the dress on Concorde. 467 00:25:03,635 --> 00:25:07,037 That still upsets me to this day. I didn't get to go on Concorde. 468 00:25:09,308 --> 00:25:10,274 It was me. 469 00:25:11,009 --> 00:25:12,709 [Detmar] That's almost the period 470 00:25:12,744 --> 00:25:15,646 where I think the madness really kicked in. 471 00:25:15,948 --> 00:25:18,315 [McQueen] The show was brilliant, but I'll wake up tomorrow morning, 472 00:25:18,350 --> 00:25:19,816 think, "I've got to get a bottle of milk. 473 00:25:19,851 --> 00:25:21,785 Where am I going to get 42p from?" 474 00:25:22,254 --> 00:25:23,954 [Groves] So we went to a McDonald's, 475 00:25:23,989 --> 00:25:26,624 got two cheeseburgers, two fries, two Cokes, 476 00:25:26,858 --> 00:25:28,959 and I was that tired that I just dropped the tray, 477 00:25:28,994 --> 00:25:31,929 and then we were having to pick the food up off the floor. 478 00:25:31,964 --> 00:25:33,997 And I thought, "This is a weird world 479 00:25:34,032 --> 00:25:36,700 that you've shown the finale of London Fashion Week, 480 00:25:36,735 --> 00:25:38,335 but we haven't got five quid to eat." 481 00:25:38,370 --> 00:25:39,703 [McQueen] That's how it is. 482 00:25:39,738 --> 00:25:41,204 People don't understand that. 483 00:25:41,239 --> 00:25:43,874 You do fucking fab shows, but got to start living. 484 00:25:44,209 --> 00:25:46,143 [Groves] The Clothes Show, BBC One. 485 00:25:46,178 --> 00:25:49,580 At the time, 12 million viewers. You're 22 years old. 486 00:25:49,615 --> 00:25:51,282 You're not in any of the shots being interviewed, 487 00:25:51,717 --> 00:25:55,085 and you're dictating the terms on how you're going to appear. 488 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:56,853 [McQueen] Because I was doing the shows 489 00:25:56,888 --> 00:25:59,189 on money that I got from unemployment benefit, 490 00:25:59,224 --> 00:26:01,825 I could not afford to show my face on camera, 491 00:26:01,860 --> 00:26:05,195 because I would be arrested for working as well as signing on. 492 00:26:05,230 --> 00:26:07,197 -Did it piss you off? -[reporter] No... 493 00:26:07,232 --> 00:26:08,999 It should have done. That was the idea. 494 00:26:09,201 --> 00:26:11,602 [McQueen] I really worked that East End yob, 495 00:26:11,637 --> 00:26:14,104 this juxtaposition between a hooligan 496 00:26:14,139 --> 00:26:18,108 and someone that uses a needle, and people couldn't fathom it. 497 00:26:18,143 --> 00:26:20,611 That's how it was new. It was a breath of fresh air. 498 00:26:20,912 --> 00:26:23,847 Savile Row, Cockney geezer, ding-dong, all of that. 499 00:26:23,882 --> 00:26:26,216 He was aware how seductive that was. 500 00:26:26,718 --> 00:26:28,752 I get a bit annoyed when I read that. 501 00:26:28,987 --> 00:26:30,320 [McQueen] Oi! 502 00:26:30,355 --> 00:26:32,322 [Joyce] He was far from a bad boy. 503 00:26:32,357 --> 00:26:38,262 In fact, he was a very loving, happy child and very generous. 504 00:26:38,730 --> 00:26:40,064 [woman] Beautiful face, huh? 505 00:26:41,500 --> 00:26:45,736 [Groves] I just remember this one time when I went round his house. 506 00:26:45,771 --> 00:26:48,805 I think I'd said something was shit or something in front of his mum, 507 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:50,741 and he just turned round, glared at me and said, 508 00:26:50,776 --> 00:26:53,877 "Don't you fucking swear in front of my fucking mother." 509 00:26:53,912 --> 00:26:57,114 [Joyce] We were never what people called poor. 510 00:26:57,149 --> 00:26:59,349 My husband was a London taxi driver, 511 00:26:59,384 --> 00:27:01,652 so even though there was six children, 512 00:27:01,687 --> 00:27:04,287 they all had everything that they should have had. 513 00:27:04,322 --> 00:27:06,390 I don't know. It just seems... 514 00:27:08,193 --> 00:27:09,826 like honest. 515 00:27:09,861 --> 00:27:11,695 An honest place round here. 516 00:27:11,730 --> 00:27:14,731 You know where you stand, if you know what I mean. 517 00:27:14,766 --> 00:27:17,901 If someone's gonna mug you, they tell you before they do it. 518 00:27:17,936 --> 00:27:20,204 I'm only joking. [laughing] 519 00:27:20,906 --> 00:27:23,173 [man] From our granddads, he got the sense of humor, 520 00:27:23,208 --> 00:27:25,209 which was, at times, wicked. 521 00:27:28,413 --> 00:27:30,747 [laughing] 522 00:27:30,782 --> 00:27:32,916 [woman] I think he struggled coming out of that background 523 00:27:32,951 --> 00:27:34,785 and going into the world. 524 00:27:34,820 --> 00:27:36,787 That was the choice I made to come out to my father. 525 00:27:36,822 --> 00:27:38,789 I told all my brothers and sisters and aunts, 526 00:27:38,824 --> 00:27:41,091 but my father was a London taxi driver. 527 00:27:41,126 --> 00:27:43,026 He would come home at night and say, 528 00:27:43,061 --> 00:27:45,328 "God, I nearly run over a bloody queer last night in Soho," 529 00:27:45,363 --> 00:27:46,997 and I'd have to deal with this. 530 00:27:47,032 --> 00:27:49,299 My dad could be a bit cutting sometimes, 531 00:27:49,334 --> 00:27:51,234 but he was joking, 532 00:27:51,269 --> 00:27:53,070 and if you didn't know him, 533 00:27:53,105 --> 00:27:55,239 you'd probably take that the wrong way. 534 00:27:56,208 --> 00:27:59,443 [Chai-Hyde] Lee's father is saying, "Sell your clothes in Brick Lane," 535 00:27:59,478 --> 00:28:02,813 and never quite understanding what Lee was doing. 536 00:28:03,148 --> 00:28:06,349 [McQueen] My dad wanted me to be some sort of mechanic or something, 537 00:28:06,384 --> 00:28:08,952 but it never worked out that way. 538 00:28:09,421 --> 00:28:10,754 [interviewer laughs] 539 00:28:11,056 --> 00:28:13,824 [man] From our nan, he got that storytelling, 540 00:28:14,092 --> 00:28:16,393 that dark romance of the Victorian times. 541 00:28:16,428 --> 00:28:18,295 I think that really lent itself 542 00:28:18,330 --> 00:28:22,733 to his visions of the stories that he wanted to tell. 543 00:28:23,502 --> 00:28:24,968 [indistinct chatter] 544 00:28:26,505 --> 00:28:28,005 [man] It's not that... 545 00:28:28,273 --> 00:28:29,773 It makes it smell. 546 00:28:29,975 --> 00:28:32,109 -[McQueen] Come here. -No, I'm too ugly. 547 00:28:33,011 --> 00:28:35,145 [McQueen] You broke the camera! Yeah, I know. 548 00:28:35,514 --> 00:28:39,149 [Groves] She was very strong and powerful 549 00:28:39,184 --> 00:28:42,953 and quite a lot was unsaid, but my God, you realized 550 00:28:42,988 --> 00:28:44,988 there was a really strong bond between them. 551 00:28:45,390 --> 00:28:48,092 [Smith] She made him feel like he could do anything. 552 00:28:49,828 --> 00:28:54,498 I always encouraged them to read and have lots of books, 553 00:28:55,133 --> 00:28:58,035 because I myself loved history and things like that. 554 00:28:59,871 --> 00:29:02,239 That's one about a Highland clan. 555 00:29:02,507 --> 00:29:06,143 [woman] She was looking to genealogy of the McQueen family 556 00:29:06,178 --> 00:29:09,913 and aimed at proving that the McQueens 557 00:29:09,948 --> 00:29:12,182 came from McQueens of the Isle of Skye. 558 00:29:12,217 --> 00:29:14,084 [Gary] It opened up his world. 559 00:29:14,119 --> 00:29:15,519 He was born in Stratford, 560 00:29:15,554 --> 00:29:17,988 but he knew there was this other life for him, 561 00:29:18,023 --> 00:29:19,323 which come from Scotland. 562 00:29:20,592 --> 00:29:22,793 [Smith] She encouraged the sort of fantasy and excitement 563 00:29:22,828 --> 00:29:25,362 of those stories, and Lee went with it. 564 00:29:27,265 --> 00:29:31,334 [McQueen] You have two types of Scotland people will associate themselves with, 565 00:29:31,369 --> 00:29:33,436 the Vivienne Westwood romantic Scotland, 566 00:29:33,471 --> 00:29:35,139 swathes of tartan silk. 567 00:29:36,208 --> 00:29:39,442 My ancestry is the Jacobites of Scotland, 568 00:29:39,477 --> 00:29:42,379 the war of the English and the Scottish, 569 00:29:42,414 --> 00:29:46,817 where the English raped loads of women, killed clans completely off, 570 00:29:46,852 --> 00:29:49,419 and it's like a form of genocide, it was then. 571 00:29:49,454 --> 00:29:51,421 And people don't realize this. 572 00:29:51,456 --> 00:29:54,157 I mean, take Bosnia. How many dead people have you seen? 573 00:29:54,192 --> 00:29:56,159 There's millions of dead people in Bosnia. 574 00:29:56,194 --> 00:29:59,062 It's just genocide in the end, and people have got to realize 575 00:29:59,097 --> 00:30:00,898 that it still goes on in the world today. 576 00:30:03,134 --> 00:30:05,502 [tearing sound] 577 00:30:11,042 --> 00:30:13,143 [woman] Something different about him. 578 00:30:13,178 --> 00:30:15,946 He had this artistic energy in him 579 00:30:15,981 --> 00:30:18,982 rather than like a fashion designer. 580 00:30:21,086 --> 00:30:24,221 I rang his mother and say, "I want to work for your son." 581 00:30:25,490 --> 00:30:29,860 She gave me the address, and I went one morning, 582 00:30:29,895 --> 00:30:33,096 and ever since, we were working every day 583 00:30:33,131 --> 00:30:35,265 on the Highland Rape collection, 584 00:30:35,500 --> 00:30:37,835 trying to get the pieces ready. 585 00:30:38,470 --> 00:30:42,038 [Chai-Hyde] There were times when he hadn't yet started working on the collection, 586 00:30:42,073 --> 00:30:45,876 and it was due soon, and he would do one drawing after another 587 00:30:45,911 --> 00:30:49,913 after another, after another after another, and there was a collection in one evening. 588 00:30:50,181 --> 00:30:52,549 Very quick, very fluid. 589 00:30:53,118 --> 00:30:55,485 [Danan] He was also very creative at night. 590 00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:58,088 His adrenaline was much more alive, 591 00:30:58,123 --> 00:31:00,557 and we usually used to put music. 592 00:31:01,526 --> 00:31:05,162 [Chai-Hyde] He would listen to The Piano, and it became very important. 593 00:31:05,530 --> 00:31:09,132 The composer Michael Nyman became part of his team. 594 00:31:10,201 --> 00:31:13,036 I was just enjoying myself to watch him, 595 00:31:13,071 --> 00:31:15,372 because he was sitting like an old lady, 596 00:31:15,407 --> 00:31:18,642 his needle and his thimble. 597 00:31:18,677 --> 00:31:20,510 You can feel like he's-- 598 00:31:20,545 --> 00:31:23,547 it's kind of a therapeutic work for him. 599 00:31:25,050 --> 00:31:26,950 [Smith] He went into a sort of zone, 600 00:31:26,985 --> 00:31:29,019 and I always used to say his eyes went black, 601 00:31:29,054 --> 00:31:31,254 because he suddenly was focusing on what he was doing, 602 00:31:31,289 --> 00:31:33,657 and he almost couldn't hear anybody else. 603 00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,627 [Groves] He could draft a jacket freehand 604 00:31:37,662 --> 00:31:41,298 just with a piece of chalk, so he wasn't using measurements. 605 00:31:41,333 --> 00:31:44,334 He could just, from his eye, read someone's body measurements 606 00:31:44,369 --> 00:31:47,137 and be able to draw that out onto a bit of cloth. 607 00:31:48,106 --> 00:31:50,040 At heart, Lee was a romantic, 608 00:31:50,075 --> 00:31:53,043 and that romantic is because of that physical relationship 609 00:31:53,078 --> 00:31:54,945 to what you produce, 610 00:31:54,980 --> 00:31:57,347 which then comes back to that idea of craft, in a way. 611 00:32:02,420 --> 00:32:05,121 [Gary] The family would always get invites to the shows. 612 00:32:05,156 --> 00:32:06,723 Yeah, it was very important my nan was there. 613 00:32:06,758 --> 00:32:09,492 He really wanted to make my nan proud. 614 00:32:09,527 --> 00:32:11,127 [Janet] Aunt Renee and Mum 615 00:32:11,162 --> 00:32:14,431 made sure that the models had some sandwiches. 616 00:32:14,466 --> 00:32:16,733 Mum would have probably done her sausage rolls. 617 00:32:16,768 --> 00:32:18,535 [woman] We were all really, 618 00:32:18,570 --> 00:32:21,504 as a group of young, really cool English models, 619 00:32:21,539 --> 00:32:26,243 so excited to see this man that had this reputation. 620 00:32:26,578 --> 00:32:30,347 [Janet] I was amazed at all these people, photographers, 621 00:32:30,382 --> 00:32:34,684 and I thought, "My God, they're all here to see Lee." 622 00:32:34,719 --> 00:32:36,720 I hope they're not disappointed, 623 00:32:36,755 --> 00:32:41,224 because I thought, "This is just Lee from Stratford." 624 00:32:41,259 --> 00:32:43,327 [dramatic music playing] 625 00:32:55,173 --> 00:32:56,740 The darkness, 626 00:32:57,142 --> 00:33:01,177 the going to the depths and the recesses of one's mind 627 00:33:01,212 --> 00:33:04,714 to come up with such things like Highland Rape. 628 00:33:04,749 --> 00:33:06,750 I'm going to send them down, loads of girls, 629 00:33:06,785 --> 00:33:08,752 like they've look like they've just been raped. 630 00:33:09,788 --> 00:33:12,055 But then we were all looking like 631 00:33:12,090 --> 00:33:14,324 we'd come out of a hedge backwards, 632 00:33:14,359 --> 00:33:16,293 and I was going, "Is this the hair and makeup?" 633 00:33:20,432 --> 00:33:23,299 [Groves] They're not easy garments to look at. 634 00:33:23,334 --> 00:33:26,336 They do look like something from a crime scene. 635 00:33:35,180 --> 00:33:39,049 [Kidd] I honestly just thought that he really didn't like women, 636 00:33:39,084 --> 00:33:41,684 he didn't like the models, he didn't like anything. 637 00:33:41,719 --> 00:33:43,720 He was just trying to torture us all. 638 00:33:43,755 --> 00:33:45,555 But his vision, 639 00:33:46,157 --> 00:33:48,625 when you actually came down and the silhouette 640 00:33:48,660 --> 00:33:52,195 and the way he made you look was so extraordinary. 641 00:33:53,565 --> 00:33:57,100 I don't think I really understood, because... 15 at the time, 642 00:33:57,135 --> 00:34:00,504 exactly what was going on or the connotations of it. 643 00:34:01,239 --> 00:34:04,707 It wasn't until probably the next day that I read the newspapers 644 00:34:04,742 --> 00:34:09,279 and there was quite a backlash of the statement of the show. 645 00:34:09,314 --> 00:34:11,448 I mean, it was pretty intense. 646 00:34:11,483 --> 00:34:14,284 But he made every single headline, 647 00:34:14,319 --> 00:34:18,555 and that's what he wanted to do, and he sure got it. 648 00:34:19,224 --> 00:34:21,257 [female reporter] Judith Church, MP for Dagenham, 649 00:34:21,292 --> 00:34:23,460 thought there was no excuse for such a show. 650 00:34:23,761 --> 00:34:26,529 [woman] The very title of the show, Highland Rape, 651 00:34:26,564 --> 00:34:29,432 has been done to shock people. It's been done to attract publicity. 652 00:34:29,467 --> 00:34:32,235 It has succeeded, and that, in a way, is sad, 653 00:34:32,270 --> 00:34:34,104 because I think women want to look at fashion, 654 00:34:34,139 --> 00:34:35,772 but they don't want to see it 655 00:34:35,807 --> 00:34:38,108 in some way as portraying them as a victim. 656 00:34:40,245 --> 00:34:43,246 [McQueen] I'm not misogynist, but the idea was saying to the public, 657 00:34:43,281 --> 00:34:46,249 "A man takes from a woman. The woman's not giving it." 658 00:34:46,284 --> 00:34:48,118 And that's what rape is. 659 00:34:48,153 --> 00:34:51,154 My oldest sister was badly beaten up by her husband. 660 00:34:51,189 --> 00:34:52,322 When you're eight years old 661 00:34:52,357 --> 00:34:53,423 and you're seeing your sister 662 00:34:53,458 --> 00:34:54,524 strangled by her husband, 663 00:34:54,559 --> 00:34:56,226 who's now dead, thank God, 664 00:34:56,828 --> 00:34:59,830 you know, all you wanna do is make women look stronger. 665 00:35:01,299 --> 00:35:03,867 [Groves] You might not like the honesty he was presenting you with, 666 00:35:03,902 --> 00:35:08,771 you might find it distasteful, shocking or aggressive or misogynistic, 667 00:35:08,806 --> 00:35:10,674 but for him, it was his truth. 668 00:35:11,276 --> 00:35:13,610 Those garments all tell you about Lee, 669 00:35:13,645 --> 00:35:15,712 and they're almost, like, confessional. 670 00:35:15,747 --> 00:35:18,682 They do relate to things that happened in his childhood. 671 00:35:20,552 --> 00:35:22,285 We were just in our flat. 672 00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:23,786 It was literally in the middle of the evening. 673 00:35:23,821 --> 00:35:25,688 and he said, "By the way, 674 00:35:25,723 --> 00:35:29,159 I was abused when I was a child by my brother-in-law." 675 00:35:29,194 --> 00:35:32,729 It just came out, and he started crying, 676 00:35:32,764 --> 00:35:34,697 and we started talking, 677 00:35:34,732 --> 00:35:38,401 then almost as soon as he'd started telling me all about, 678 00:35:38,436 --> 00:35:40,370 he said, "I don't want to talk about that anymore." 679 00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:43,907 [Gary] The stuff that he saw, the violence against my mum, 680 00:35:43,942 --> 00:35:45,508 the abuse he suffered by my dad 681 00:35:45,543 --> 00:35:48,478 and the abuse my mum suffered by dad, 682 00:35:48,513 --> 00:35:51,915 they had that affinity together, they shared that, Lee and my mum. 683 00:35:52,450 --> 00:35:55,585 They were both affected by the same person, 684 00:35:57,322 --> 00:35:59,556 and they had that connection through that. 685 00:36:00,758 --> 00:36:03,827 And Lee saw my mum very much like a mother figure 686 00:36:04,529 --> 00:36:08,531 and somebody that he wanted to protect, 687 00:36:08,566 --> 00:36:10,500 but my mum wanted to protect him as well. 688 00:36:12,237 --> 00:36:13,570 I had some-- 689 00:36:13,605 --> 00:36:16,573 quite a big burden on my shoulders... 690 00:36:16,874 --> 00:36:17,774 um... 691 00:36:20,378 --> 00:36:24,481 but I'd always felt close to Lee, and... 692 00:36:26,517 --> 00:36:28,318 in the early years, 693 00:36:28,353 --> 00:36:32,355 Lee had seen things like domestic violence, and... 694 00:36:34,892 --> 00:36:39,496 at the time, it must have also had an effect on his mind. 695 00:36:41,366 --> 00:36:43,333 [Gary] That stuff he had to get out. 696 00:36:43,368 --> 00:36:45,401 I think it was a way of exorcising his demons, 697 00:36:45,436 --> 00:36:47,503 a way of protecting women and himself 698 00:36:47,538 --> 00:36:49,539 by creating these strong women 699 00:36:49,941 --> 00:36:51,708 who looked like they had armor on. 700 00:36:51,743 --> 00:36:54,277 It was armor for his heart as well, so... 701 00:36:56,547 --> 00:36:58,348 [Groves] The relationship between me and Lee, 702 00:36:58,383 --> 00:37:00,583 I joked that it was four seasons long, 703 00:37:00,618 --> 00:37:02,719 purely because I think those collections 704 00:37:02,754 --> 00:37:06,990 and those shows became markers in terms of how our work life 705 00:37:07,025 --> 00:37:09,726 was also tied up with our relationship. 706 00:37:09,761 --> 00:37:13,463 And looking back on it now, I can see the reasons why it would be-- 707 00:37:13,498 --> 00:37:15,265 how could a relationship work 708 00:37:15,833 --> 00:37:19,035 with all the things that were going on in his life, 709 00:37:19,070 --> 00:37:21,238 all the things in his past? 710 00:37:21,572 --> 00:37:25,408 I can't think of any relationship that would be able to deal with that. 711 00:37:27,412 --> 00:37:28,678 [dramatic music playing] 712 00:37:48,499 --> 00:37:50,433 [camera flash fires] 713 00:37:51,369 --> 00:37:55,438 When you went to St. Martins, in the first year, you go to Paris, 714 00:37:55,473 --> 00:37:58,908 and the idea is that you're meant to go to exhibitions. 715 00:37:59,410 --> 00:38:03,780 But we just spent all of our time wangling our way into various shows. 716 00:38:03,815 --> 00:38:06,949 So we went to this show, and it was all very floral, 717 00:38:06,984 --> 00:38:09,419 and there was chiffon, and Lee was going, 718 00:38:09,454 --> 00:38:11,854 "That's rubbish. That's rubbish. Oh, my God. 719 00:38:11,889 --> 00:38:14,424 No, this is the worst show ever. Bloody hell. 720 00:38:14,459 --> 00:38:18,428 Givenchy, that's a load of crap. That's for, like, old ladies. 721 00:38:18,696 --> 00:38:22,399 I never, ever want to work somewhere like that." 722 00:38:22,633 --> 00:38:25,602 [in French] 723 00:38:33,745 --> 00:38:36,913 It was a really exciting time to be covering the industry... 724 00:38:36,948 --> 00:38:39,115 because it was changing, it was evolving. 725 00:38:39,150 --> 00:38:42,585 People like Bernard Arnault were buying up small family brands 726 00:38:42,620 --> 00:38:45,088 and then turning them into global corporations. 727 00:38:45,123 --> 00:38:47,023 At first, he brought in John Galliano, 728 00:38:47,058 --> 00:38:49,759 and after two years, moved John over to Dior 729 00:38:49,794 --> 00:38:54,097 and then needed another new, young, hot flavor for Givenchy. 730 00:38:54,132 --> 00:38:56,399 [man] And so he said... Why did he want you? 731 00:38:56,434 --> 00:38:59,435 He said when I was hired that I was his horse. 732 00:38:59,470 --> 00:39:00,903 [man] Yeah. 733 00:39:00,938 --> 00:39:02,605 I don't know if that's in looks or what, but... 734 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:04,407 [both laugh] 735 00:39:04,442 --> 00:39:06,442 But he said I was his horse he betted on. 736 00:39:06,477 --> 00:39:09,812 I was living with Lee when Givenchy called, 737 00:39:09,847 --> 00:39:13,716 and he thought they wanted him to design a handbag. 738 00:39:13,751 --> 00:39:17,787 And I'm like, "Wow. Cool, man." You know? 739 00:39:18,589 --> 00:39:20,457 Next thing I know, um... 740 00:39:20,858 --> 00:39:23,626 he comes in, and he basically says that 741 00:39:23,661 --> 00:39:26,796 they've asked him to be creative director of Givenchy. 742 00:39:26,831 --> 00:39:29,832 And I was like, "You are kidding me." 743 00:39:29,867 --> 00:39:33,903 He called me at work, and then he said, "They've offered me this job. 744 00:39:33,938 --> 00:39:36,072 Now if I move to Paris, will you come with me?" 745 00:39:36,107 --> 00:39:37,507 And I was like, "Yeah, of course." 746 00:39:37,542 --> 00:39:38,775 It was so exciting 747 00:39:38,810 --> 00:39:41,811 and also quite scary as well 748 00:39:41,846 --> 00:39:44,881 because it was still the honeymoon period of our relationship. 749 00:39:45,149 --> 00:39:49,085 [man] Why did you go to Givenchy, having already created your own name, 750 00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:52,789 having won British Designer of the Year twice in a row? 751 00:39:52,824 --> 00:39:54,791 [McQueen] For one reason, the money was good. 752 00:39:55,526 --> 00:39:57,460 But then, what I do with the money from Givenchy, 753 00:39:57,495 --> 00:39:59,729 I put it straight back into McQueen, 754 00:39:59,764 --> 00:40:02,632 and it helps me employ people for McQueen to build my own company up. 755 00:40:03,935 --> 00:40:06,569 [Chai-Hyde] Very talented people that he brought with him to Givenchy. 756 00:40:06,604 --> 00:40:08,471 What a team, man. 757 00:40:08,506 --> 00:40:11,441 [man] He told me, "I will need a team to work with me, 758 00:40:11,476 --> 00:40:13,610 so I was thinking of you... 759 00:40:14,111 --> 00:40:16,846 so think about it and let me know." 760 00:40:16,881 --> 00:40:19,749 There's nothing to think about. Of course I take the job. [scoffs] 761 00:40:21,185 --> 00:40:24,754 We took an airplane from City Airport. 762 00:40:24,789 --> 00:40:27,523 We were the weirdest people in the plane. 763 00:40:27,558 --> 00:40:29,058 It was all, like, businessmen, 764 00:40:29,093 --> 00:40:32,195 and we were there with our bleached jeans 765 00:40:32,697 --> 00:40:34,063 with a lot of attitude. 766 00:40:35,733 --> 00:40:37,099 [McQueen] Where did you buy this, in Japan? 767 00:40:37,134 --> 00:40:38,635 [indistinct chatter] 768 00:40:38,970 --> 00:40:40,036 Really? 769 00:40:41,105 --> 00:40:43,840 [indistinct chatter] 770 00:40:45,543 --> 00:40:46,543 [in French] Paris... 771 00:40:46,844 --> 00:40:48,177 -[laughing] -Woo! 772 00:40:48,212 --> 00:40:49,779 [Murray] There was huge excitement 773 00:40:49,814 --> 00:40:51,481 because imagine when you're that age 774 00:40:51,516 --> 00:40:53,216 and you're being given that amount of this, 775 00:40:53,251 --> 00:40:55,952 one, responsibility and also that amount of money. 776 00:40:57,221 --> 00:40:58,121 [McQueen] Statue. 777 00:41:00,091 --> 00:41:01,591 [Murray] There's Sebastian Pons. 778 00:41:01,626 --> 00:41:03,493 [McQueen] Hello, Sebastian. 779 00:41:03,828 --> 00:41:07,230 Sweaty armpits. God, you got wet patches. 780 00:41:07,265 --> 00:41:08,965 I think that in the McQueen studio, 781 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:10,666 I was a little bit like the buffoon 782 00:41:10,701 --> 00:41:12,268 'cause I was the funny one there. 783 00:41:12,303 --> 00:41:14,804 They were taking the piss of my accent. 784 00:41:15,039 --> 00:41:17,207 Spanish buffoon in a British coat. 785 00:41:18,743 --> 00:41:20,676 Simon Costin. 786 00:41:20,711 --> 00:41:22,846 [McQueen] God, you're looking kind of gross today, Simon. 787 00:41:23,681 --> 00:41:27,183 I saw myself as the person that put things into context. 788 00:41:27,218 --> 00:41:29,819 The set was always there to reflect 789 00:41:29,854 --> 00:41:32,789 the sort of untold story of the collection. 790 00:41:34,091 --> 00:41:36,125 There was Katy, of course, Katy England. 791 00:41:36,627 --> 00:41:39,262 [McQueen] Katy's the most important part of McQueen. 792 00:41:40,097 --> 00:41:41,831 Camera up, please. 793 00:41:41,866 --> 00:41:43,933 She's the Tweedledee to my Tweedledum. 794 00:41:43,968 --> 00:41:45,935 She fuels my imagination. 795 00:41:46,971 --> 00:41:49,072 I help research the collection. 796 00:41:49,307 --> 00:41:53,576 I bring things to his attention 797 00:41:53,778 --> 00:41:56,012 that I think might be important in fashion. 798 00:41:56,047 --> 00:41:59,148 Basically, I'm always there at the right-hand side. 799 00:41:59,183 --> 00:42:02,619 Shaun Leane was very much involved in the business making jewelry. 800 00:42:03,054 --> 00:42:05,822 What do you think? Fancy a dance? 801 00:42:06,090 --> 00:42:08,791 [Leane] For me to do work like this is very good for me. 802 00:42:08,826 --> 00:42:11,727 It allows me to go from one extreme to the other, 803 00:42:11,762 --> 00:42:14,630 and now I'm going into different areas. I'm working with body jewelry, 804 00:42:14,665 --> 00:42:17,267 and it's really going into a form of sculpture, really. 805 00:42:18,736 --> 00:42:22,038 Sarah Burton. Sarah was the intern. 806 00:42:22,073 --> 00:42:26,108 He looked at us like the sort of pillars 807 00:42:26,143 --> 00:42:28,678 that will make him feel secure. 808 00:42:30,715 --> 00:42:32,181 [Murray] We had this really nice flat. 809 00:42:37,288 --> 00:42:40,557 I loved the area. Place des Vosges. I mean, hello. 810 00:42:42,293 --> 00:42:43,993 [McQueen] God, that's pretty scary. 811 00:42:45,262 --> 00:42:47,263 [Costin] Thinking about it now, it was tiny. 812 00:42:47,798 --> 00:42:49,832 When I would come over to start working on the set, 813 00:42:49,867 --> 00:42:51,167 I'd be on the sofa. 814 00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:57,206 [McQueen shouts] 815 00:42:57,775 --> 00:42:59,142 [McQueen] Sebastian. 816 00:43:00,111 --> 00:43:01,611 [shrieks] Ooh, language! 817 00:43:01,812 --> 00:43:03,245 [laughing] 818 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,048 I always ended up sleeping in Lee's room 819 00:43:06,083 --> 00:43:09,685 because Lee was always collapsing on the sofa. 820 00:43:09,720 --> 00:43:10,820 [Sebastian] Lee. 821 00:43:12,023 --> 00:43:14,857 -You changed the pillow. -[McQueen] Yeah, fucking right. 822 00:43:14,892 --> 00:43:16,726 [laughing] 823 00:43:18,062 --> 00:43:20,330 We had a driver, so we got driven everywhere. 824 00:43:20,798 --> 00:43:22,832 [McQueen] Wait a minute. He gone blind today. 825 00:43:24,301 --> 00:43:26,168 Say hello to the people of England. 826 00:43:26,203 --> 00:43:28,104 [laughter] 827 00:43:28,372 --> 00:43:29,639 Such fun. 828 00:43:31,042 --> 00:43:33,042 Could do some funny tricks, sort of. 829 00:43:33,978 --> 00:43:36,613 Oh, I'm on speed, baby. 830 00:43:36,981 --> 00:43:38,915 [laughing] 831 00:43:40,685 --> 00:43:42,385 [Sebastian] When we arrive at Givenchy, 832 00:43:42,420 --> 00:43:47,089 everybody was kind of like bending their head to him 833 00:43:47,124 --> 00:43:50,059 and calling him Monsieur McQueen, 834 00:43:50,094 --> 00:43:53,363 which was, "They calling you Monsieur McQueen here? 835 00:43:57,468 --> 00:44:00,269 [McQueen calls and laughs] 836 00:44:00,905 --> 00:44:03,372 [Sebastian] When we arrived, I think they were in shock, 837 00:44:03,407 --> 00:44:06,142 the way we dress, the way we work, 838 00:44:06,177 --> 00:44:08,378 and the jokes we made. 839 00:44:09,046 --> 00:44:11,313 [Costin] It was very grand. There's chandeliers. 840 00:44:11,348 --> 00:44:13,849 It was different from the working environment in London, 841 00:44:13,884 --> 00:44:16,185 which was a kind of very, very small room 842 00:44:16,220 --> 00:44:18,120 with chaotic stuff everywhere. 843 00:44:18,155 --> 00:44:20,089 [McQueen] Here I have my own office. 844 00:44:20,291 --> 00:44:23,092 I pick up the phone, and I get what I want. 845 00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:27,330 [chuckles] 'Cause I want it, I want it, I want it... so I ask for it. 846 00:44:27,898 --> 00:44:31,134 [Murray] It was just like a bunch of young kids running about in the Givenchy. 847 00:44:32,336 --> 00:44:34,303 [man] Were they surprised that you were chosen? 848 00:44:34,772 --> 00:44:37,173 I think they-- would put most people in a coma. 849 00:44:37,208 --> 00:44:39,342 [laughter] 850 00:44:41,145 --> 00:44:46,048 [Pons] All of a sudden, we're there sitting in the Givenchy House 851 00:44:46,083 --> 00:44:47,783 looking out the window, 852 00:44:47,818 --> 00:44:49,985 and you see the Balenciaga sign 853 00:44:50,020 --> 00:44:52,154 and you knew that Yves Saint Laurent was there 854 00:44:52,189 --> 00:44:55,491 and knowing that John Galliano was there, Avenue Montaigne, 855 00:44:55,526 --> 00:44:57,293 just a few yards from there. 856 00:44:57,328 --> 00:45:00,196 And there we are with Alexander McQueen 857 00:45:00,231 --> 00:45:02,865 being the new talk of the town. 858 00:45:02,900 --> 00:45:05,001 And that felt special. 859 00:45:06,303 --> 00:45:08,304 [Murray] He was trying to find his feet there. 860 00:45:08,339 --> 00:45:10,406 Obviously had to make a huge impression 861 00:45:10,441 --> 00:45:12,141 because it was his first collection. 862 00:45:13,177 --> 00:45:14,977 [Pons] And I remember telling Lee, 863 00:45:15,012 --> 00:45:17,313 "Everybody's looking at us, and we have nothing." 864 00:45:17,348 --> 00:45:19,115 And he always would answer, 865 00:45:19,150 --> 00:45:21,084 "Don't worry, Sebastian. We'll get it done." 866 00:45:37,168 --> 00:45:38,768 [McQueen] This is Paris and Paris chic. 867 00:45:38,803 --> 00:45:41,036 This is Givenchy. This is not McQueen. 868 00:45:41,071 --> 00:45:45,040 This is where elegant suits are made and fantastic fabrics are used. 869 00:45:45,075 --> 00:45:47,977 It's going to take my own label, McQueen, 870 00:45:48,012 --> 00:45:50,813 another 40 years to get the reputation this one has. 871 00:45:51,182 --> 00:45:54,550 [Pons] I remember once we saw this beautiful work. 872 00:45:54,585 --> 00:45:59,054 Lee asked Catherine De Londres, was the charge of atelier, 873 00:45:59,089 --> 00:46:01,323 "Who's done this fabulous work?" 874 00:46:01,358 --> 00:46:03,459 "She's not allowed to come in." 875 00:46:03,494 --> 00:46:05,528 He's like, "What do you mean she's not allowed to come in? 876 00:46:05,563 --> 00:46:07,063 Please let her in." 877 00:46:08,266 --> 00:46:12,135 I remember from that day on, Lee wanted to see the person 878 00:46:12,336 --> 00:46:14,904 who has worked directly with the garment, 879 00:46:15,573 --> 00:46:17,940 and I think they loved that. 880 00:46:18,375 --> 00:46:20,243 [McQueen] This is the Bet Lynch dress. 881 00:46:21,545 --> 00:46:23,212 I also treated it, 882 00:46:23,247 --> 00:46:26,983 bonding plastic over the top for raincoats, 883 00:46:27,251 --> 00:46:29,185 so you get the whole ensemble. 884 00:46:29,420 --> 00:46:30,920 None of us spoke French, 885 00:46:31,155 --> 00:46:34,356 and the French atelier didn't speak English. 886 00:46:34,391 --> 00:46:36,325 Lee would actually kind of like draw in the air 887 00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:38,027 how it would have to be. 888 00:46:38,062 --> 00:46:42,164 -Mais la jupe? -Yeah. It's okay. 889 00:46:42,199 --> 00:46:44,900 -La jupe-- -Oh, jupe. It's okay. 890 00:46:44,935 --> 00:46:47,170 -I think she-- -I thought it was pantalon. 891 00:46:48,939 --> 00:46:51,407 [De Londres in French] 892 00:47:07,424 --> 00:47:08,457 [chuckles] 893 00:47:10,094 --> 00:47:13,462 They're quite precise, and, like, take the threads out, 894 00:47:13,497 --> 00:47:16,365 and I just get the scissors and go whack it off 895 00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:18,467 and they go... [silent] 896 00:47:18,502 --> 00:47:21,537 ...like that, and I go, "It's okay. It's only clothes." 897 00:47:22,106 --> 00:47:24,373 [Chai-Hyde] I'll never forget the expression on her face, 898 00:47:24,575 --> 00:47:27,376 but in the end, she saw exactly what he was doing. 899 00:47:27,411 --> 00:47:29,245 She was in awe. 900 00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:33,082 A very mutual respect grew between the two of them. 901 00:47:33,117 --> 00:47:34,950 [McQueen] Haute couture is about the atelier. 902 00:47:34,985 --> 00:47:36,919 I come from Savile Row, 903 00:47:36,954 --> 00:47:38,954 so I have great respect for the tailors. 904 00:47:38,989 --> 00:47:41,290 They deserve just as much praise as I do. 905 00:47:42,526 --> 00:47:44,360 [Pons] Lee, one day he said, 906 00:47:44,395 --> 00:47:46,662 "Where can we go and eat? Where do the workers eat?" 907 00:47:46,697 --> 00:47:48,597 And then Catherine said, 908 00:47:48,632 --> 00:47:51,667 "No, there is a canteen on the basement for the workers." 909 00:47:51,702 --> 00:47:54,003 And Lee was like, "So let's go there." 910 00:47:54,038 --> 00:47:57,907 When we went down there, the people, they're flipping out, 911 00:47:57,942 --> 00:48:00,343 like, "Alexander is eating with us." 912 00:48:01,011 --> 00:48:02,378 They couldn't believe it. 913 00:48:02,413 --> 00:48:04,079 These fashion houses, 914 00:48:04,114 --> 00:48:06,983 they treat the designer like he's a king, 915 00:48:07,217 --> 00:48:09,151 and they treated Lee like a king, 916 00:48:09,186 --> 00:48:11,253 but Lee didn't want to behave like a king. 917 00:48:11,288 --> 00:48:14,090 Lee wanted to behave like a regular person. 918 00:48:18,162 --> 00:48:19,195 Okay. 919 00:48:20,331 --> 00:48:22,598 The ideas for the show, they grew out of the collection. 920 00:48:22,633 --> 00:48:24,466 As the collection developed, 921 00:48:24,501 --> 00:48:27,503 he would pull threads and stories out of that. 922 00:48:28,072 --> 00:48:31,307 And there was always mood boards and things pinned all over the walls. 923 00:48:31,342 --> 00:48:34,310 Everyone fed in. It was a very group practice, 924 00:48:34,345 --> 00:48:37,146 but Lee was the spider in the center of the web, as it were, 925 00:48:37,181 --> 00:48:38,981 pulling everything together 926 00:48:39,016 --> 00:48:41,717 and distilling what it was that he had in his head. 927 00:48:41,752 --> 00:48:44,486 I remember the fraughtness about a week before the show 928 00:48:44,521 --> 00:48:46,388 when things were coming down and not right, 929 00:48:46,423 --> 00:48:48,457 and things having to be changed. 930 00:48:48,492 --> 00:48:52,695 It was really insanely crazy. The pressure was super-intense. 931 00:49:08,345 --> 00:49:13,983 [Pons] In 25 days, to put a 55-outfit collection together 932 00:49:14,018 --> 00:49:15,584 is not an easy task. 933 00:49:18,522 --> 00:49:22,124 [Costin] The first couture show had the theme of the Golden Fleece. 934 00:49:22,159 --> 00:49:23,659 Jason and the Argonauts. 935 00:49:25,629 --> 00:49:27,363 [Murray] They wanted it to be amazing. 936 00:49:28,465 --> 00:49:31,667 My first feeling from Alex's description 937 00:49:31,702 --> 00:49:35,371 was there had to be warriors 938 00:49:35,639 --> 00:49:37,706 mixed with goddess. 939 00:49:37,741 --> 00:49:40,609 I say, "We do horns." He say, "Yeah, but do big." 940 00:49:40,644 --> 00:49:42,311 I say, "But how big?" 941 00:49:42,346 --> 00:49:45,414 He say, "You know Genghis Khan is the junior size. 942 00:49:45,449 --> 00:49:46,615 Give me the senior." 943 00:49:46,650 --> 00:49:49,485 It's the 19th of January, 1997, 944 00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:51,153 and as they say in the trade, 945 00:49:51,188 --> 00:49:53,422 we're about to witness a fashion moment. 946 00:49:53,657 --> 00:49:55,524 At the tender age of 27, 947 00:49:55,559 --> 00:49:58,594 British Designer of the Year, Alexander McQueen, 948 00:49:58,629 --> 00:50:01,497 is about to show his first haute couture collection. 949 00:50:02,733 --> 00:50:05,034 [dramatic music playing] 950 00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:18,414 [Jurnjack] Every model had to have a character, 951 00:50:18,449 --> 00:50:20,549 an identity, a signature. 952 00:50:21,418 --> 00:50:24,253 Every single girl could have been shown on her own. 953 00:50:25,622 --> 00:50:28,624 Where's the inspiration come from? He told me, "From the logo." 954 00:50:29,393 --> 00:50:34,096 The logo is the Gs, which it looks like Greek motif, 955 00:50:34,131 --> 00:50:36,665 and the Givenchy label is white and gold. 956 00:50:38,302 --> 00:50:40,235 [woman] And always with Lee's collections, 957 00:50:40,270 --> 00:50:42,171 there were some pieces where you were... 958 00:50:42,206 --> 00:50:44,273 "Oh! That's rather risqué." 959 00:50:45,342 --> 00:50:48,610 I think a lot of the press focused on the ones 960 00:50:48,645 --> 00:50:52,715 that were a little bit crazy or a little bit unwearable. 961 00:50:53,784 --> 00:50:56,251 French designers were complaining and saying, 962 00:50:56,286 --> 00:50:58,287 "Oh, you know, they're not even French, 963 00:50:58,322 --> 00:50:59,855 and they're taking over Givenchy. 964 00:50:59,890 --> 00:51:02,124 Look what he's doing to Givenchy." 965 00:51:02,159 --> 00:51:06,095 I think it was them saying, "I'm still gonna be who I am. 966 00:51:06,130 --> 00:51:09,465 Regardless that you put me in this posh space, I'm still who I am." 967 00:51:10,667 --> 00:51:13,302 I liked that, that they stayed true to who they were. 968 00:51:13,337 --> 00:51:17,406 They actually brought England into Paris in their own unique way. 969 00:51:17,441 --> 00:51:19,341 [applause] 970 00:51:20,244 --> 00:51:22,678 [Pons] People were talking, fashion editors. 971 00:51:22,713 --> 00:51:25,314 "He has a big mouth." "He has a big head." 972 00:51:25,349 --> 00:51:27,249 "The British, what does he think?" 973 00:51:27,284 --> 00:51:28,717 And then I understood 974 00:51:28,752 --> 00:51:31,787 that basically the world was against him. 975 00:51:32,756 --> 00:51:36,758 [man] You go to do your first show, it's not a huge success. No? 976 00:51:36,793 --> 00:51:39,795 -No, that's true. Well done. -[both laugh] 977 00:51:40,230 --> 00:51:44,199 They were wishing to see him crash and be destroyed. 978 00:51:44,234 --> 00:51:46,201 They have claws, and they have knives, 979 00:51:46,236 --> 00:51:48,704 and they've thrown everything into your back, which is fine, 980 00:51:48,739 --> 00:51:51,140 -'cause I'm a good fighter... -[both laugh] 981 00:51:51,542 --> 00:51:54,643 I remember us afterwards, Lee was... 982 00:51:57,314 --> 00:51:59,915 Hellish, yeah. That was a really hard night. 983 00:51:59,950 --> 00:52:01,784 It was a difficult night after that. 984 00:52:02,886 --> 00:52:05,454 A few punches and arguments. 985 00:52:12,229 --> 00:52:14,163 [Isabella] I think he's already done a lot for the house, 986 00:52:14,198 --> 00:52:16,598 because Givenchy have had a lot of press. 987 00:52:16,633 --> 00:52:20,402 It's a more difficult thing to deal with 'cause McQueen is McQueen in London. 988 00:52:20,437 --> 00:52:23,939 Givenchy is taking over from another man in Paris. 989 00:52:23,974 --> 00:52:25,707 As Alexander says himself, 990 00:52:25,742 --> 00:52:27,543 "It's like taking a dinosaur out of the sea," 991 00:52:27,578 --> 00:52:31,213 and I think in one season, he's done that. 992 00:52:31,248 --> 00:52:35,251 So I think in a year, he will have done 20 times that. 993 00:52:36,420 --> 00:52:37,887 [Detmar] Givenchy changed everything. 994 00:52:38,388 --> 00:52:39,855 The fun times were over. 995 00:52:40,390 --> 00:52:42,191 I had an accountant who spoke French, 996 00:52:42,226 --> 00:52:43,926 and I'm going to Paris to sign the deal. 997 00:52:43,961 --> 00:52:47,363 And I said, "Please make sure Issie gets something out of it." 998 00:52:47,598 --> 00:52:49,464 I kind of did ask McQueen, and McQueen said, 999 00:52:49,499 --> 00:52:50,766 "Issie and I are not about money." 1000 00:52:51,602 --> 00:52:54,803 When the money did come and Alexander cut her out, 1001 00:52:55,439 --> 00:52:57,206 that was very tough. 1002 00:52:57,241 --> 00:53:00,309 The friendship changed. She was so hurt, this rejection. 1003 00:53:00,344 --> 00:53:01,677 She'd have created a buzz. 1004 00:53:01,712 --> 00:53:03,812 She'd have had a salon at Givenchy. 1005 00:53:03,847 --> 00:53:06,715 She'd have made it the most happening place in Paris. 1006 00:53:09,686 --> 00:53:14,990 [Murray] I do remember going to Hilles straight after the takeover at Givenchy. 1007 00:53:15,025 --> 00:53:16,892 [no audible dialog] 1008 00:53:16,927 --> 00:53:20,295 You can't imagine the tension between the two of them 1009 00:53:20,330 --> 00:53:21,229 in this room. 1010 00:53:22,366 --> 00:53:25,367 These designers think that you made me... 1011 00:53:26,303 --> 00:53:27,903 -[Isabella] No, they don't. -It's never been about-- 1012 00:53:27,938 --> 00:53:29,805 No, they don't. They know that that-- 1013 00:53:29,840 --> 00:53:31,640 They do! 1014 00:53:31,675 --> 00:53:34,309 'Cause don't you see it all the time in the press? 1015 00:53:34,344 --> 00:53:38,280 "Isabella Blow responsible for Philip Treacy and Alexander McQueen?" 1016 00:53:38,315 --> 00:53:40,516 -[Isabella] No. They say... -They do just say that. 1017 00:53:41,285 --> 00:53:43,619 The thing is, it's never been about that for me and you. 1018 00:53:43,887 --> 00:53:45,754 -Whether I was part of it-- -Does that annoy you 1019 00:53:45,789 --> 00:53:48,557 that they always put "as discovered by Isabella Blow?" 1020 00:53:48,592 --> 00:53:50,359 Does it really piss you off? 1021 00:53:50,394 --> 00:53:53,028 Not at all because Issie has helped me a lot in that way, 1022 00:53:53,063 --> 00:53:55,264 but not in a way that she's all like, 1023 00:53:55,599 --> 00:53:57,599 she does it because she loves my clothes, 1024 00:53:57,634 --> 00:53:59,001 not because she loves me. 1025 00:53:59,036 --> 00:54:01,570 -Exactly. That's the point. -Ah! 1026 00:54:01,772 --> 00:54:03,472 I can't stand her guts. 1027 00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:06,709 -[laughter] -I'm joking. [laughs] 1028 00:54:07,611 --> 00:54:10,912 [Murray] I do remember sitting there, thinking to myself, 1029 00:54:10,947 --> 00:54:12,914 "Please lay off Issie, 1030 00:54:12,949 --> 00:54:14,850 because she's done nothing but help you, 1031 00:54:14,885 --> 00:54:17,319 but you seem to be giving her a really difficult time." 1032 00:54:18,322 --> 00:54:21,456 [Detmar] Issie, kingmaker, and this is a man she championed, 1033 00:54:21,491 --> 00:54:24,026 and then he resented that and wanted to be his own man, 1034 00:54:24,061 --> 00:54:27,363 so there was no position for Isabella Blow at Givenchy. 1035 00:54:28,365 --> 00:54:29,298 Punishment. 1036 00:54:30,067 --> 00:54:32,834 And I remember McQueen turned to me and said, 1037 00:54:32,869 --> 00:54:34,803 "I'm the tycoon now, Detmar," 1038 00:54:35,105 --> 00:54:36,972 and it wasn't meant affectionately. 1039 00:54:37,541 --> 00:54:39,074 We had a policy, don't show hurt, 1040 00:54:39,109 --> 00:54:41,610 don't show weakness, keep your head up, 1041 00:54:41,645 --> 00:54:43,445 keep proud, keep fighting. 1042 00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:45,514 Something will turn up. It's got to. 1043 00:54:45,549 --> 00:54:48,850 His star ascended, and hers didn't as much, 1044 00:54:48,885 --> 00:54:51,287 and, you know, he slightly abandoned her. 1045 00:54:51,988 --> 00:54:54,823 [Detmar] Then Issie suddenly got this job at the Sunday Times, 1046 00:54:54,858 --> 00:54:57,893 and McQueen said, "You've been resurrected, Issie," 1047 00:54:57,928 --> 00:55:00,696 and, yeah, I thought, "No thanks to you, mate." [laughs] 1048 00:55:02,866 --> 00:55:05,967 [McQueen] I saw myself within the press and in the public eye 1049 00:55:06,002 --> 00:55:09,405 as the gazelle, and a gazelle always got eaten. 1050 00:55:09,740 --> 00:55:11,340 And that's how I see human life. 1051 00:55:11,375 --> 00:55:13,642 We can all be discarded quite easily. 1052 00:55:13,677 --> 00:55:17,413 The fragility of a designer's time in the press. 1053 00:55:18,115 --> 00:55:19,615 You're there, you're gone. 1054 00:55:19,883 --> 00:55:20,949 [laughs] 1055 00:55:21,151 --> 00:55:22,651 It's a jungle out there. 1056 00:55:23,620 --> 00:55:25,687 [Pons] I went to his London studio, 1057 00:55:25,722 --> 00:55:28,590 and he was talking about the haute couture show. 1058 00:55:28,625 --> 00:55:31,827 "I tried to please them, and then I fucked it up, 1059 00:55:31,862 --> 00:55:33,528 so I'm gonna do my own thing. 1060 00:55:33,563 --> 00:55:35,964 It's gonna be very McQueen, the next one." 1061 00:55:35,999 --> 00:55:37,532 "Fuck you. 1062 00:55:37,567 --> 00:55:40,035 Fuck you, all of you. I'm gonna show you." 1063 00:55:40,537 --> 00:55:43,905 [Costin] We went from this sort of, the hallowed halls of Givenchy, 1064 00:55:43,940 --> 00:55:46,842 into a sort of rough, gritty Borough Market. 1065 00:55:47,110 --> 00:55:49,711 People sweeping all the rotting fruit and veg up. 1066 00:55:49,746 --> 00:55:52,514 [McQueen] It's nice to show them the rough part of London, 1067 00:55:52,549 --> 00:55:55,517 make them scared, look over their shoulder once in a while. 1068 00:55:55,552 --> 00:55:58,387 [Jurnjack] It's nothing to do with couture. Now you forgot Givenchy. 1069 00:55:58,422 --> 00:56:01,957 We're in another chapter, in another world, in another McQueen. 1070 00:56:01,992 --> 00:56:04,960 All camera crews go round the front gate. 1071 00:56:04,995 --> 00:56:06,695 [Costin] The London shows were always-- 1072 00:56:06,730 --> 00:56:08,964 the audience, the expectation was so great. 1073 00:56:08,999 --> 00:56:13,001 The shows in Paris were far more formal and reserved. 1074 00:56:13,036 --> 00:56:15,504 People would scream their heads off in London. 1075 00:56:15,539 --> 00:56:17,906 [audience clamoring] 1076 00:56:17,941 --> 00:56:19,941 [woman] It was crazy. 1077 00:56:19,976 --> 00:56:23,112 People literally fighting to see the catwalk. 1078 00:56:24,614 --> 00:56:26,448 [Murray] Lee running from model to model 1079 00:56:26,483 --> 00:56:28,550 and screaming and shouting at everyone. 1080 00:56:28,585 --> 00:56:31,787 No. We want to start the show. Get back out there. 1081 00:56:31,822 --> 00:56:35,457 [Chai-Hyde] Always moving, always dressing, always stressing. 1082 00:56:35,492 --> 00:56:37,793 Stressing and dressing, actually, together. 1083 00:56:38,728 --> 00:56:40,896 [woman backstage] They're all standing by, ready to go. 1084 00:56:41,898 --> 00:56:44,499 Where's Russell? Is he out there? Is he getting ready? 1085 00:56:44,534 --> 00:56:45,768 Yeah. Yep. 1086 00:56:46,570 --> 00:56:48,170 [Chai-Hyde] One of the models was late. 1087 00:56:48,205 --> 00:56:51,106 He said, "Fuck her," and he started the show. 1088 00:56:51,541 --> 00:56:54,075 [Kidd] He used to go, "Right, Jods. Just go for it." 1089 00:56:54,110 --> 00:56:59,114 He used to psych me up, and I used to get out onto the catwalk and go... [growl] 1090 00:56:59,149 --> 00:57:01,083 [dramatic music playing] 1091 00:57:06,556 --> 00:57:08,757 [Costin] It was really the first time that the collection 1092 00:57:08,792 --> 00:57:12,561 kind of seeped out into everything, 1093 00:57:12,596 --> 00:57:14,729 from the energy that was in that space 1094 00:57:14,764 --> 00:57:16,765 to the effect it had on people. 1095 00:57:17,801 --> 00:57:21,536 A sort of angst, an anger and fear 1096 00:57:21,571 --> 00:57:23,572 that was woven through that show. 1097 00:57:24,641 --> 00:57:26,107 [Pons] We were mind-blown, 1098 00:57:26,142 --> 00:57:29,678 because they didn't look like models. 1099 00:57:29,713 --> 00:57:31,813 They look like animals. 1100 00:57:31,848 --> 00:57:35,183 Just big hair and this animal makeup-- 1101 00:57:35,218 --> 00:57:38,153 it was, like... it was intense. 1102 00:57:41,024 --> 00:57:43,158 [Costin] There were some students that weren't allowed in 1103 00:57:43,193 --> 00:57:44,926 that stormed the barricades 1104 00:57:44,961 --> 00:57:47,029 and kicked over all these fire pots. 1105 00:57:47,898 --> 00:57:49,698 And then the fire started. 1106 00:57:50,100 --> 00:57:52,167 [Costin] 'Cause there were a pile of crashed cars, 1107 00:57:52,202 --> 00:57:55,838 and I don't think we'd emptied the cars of petrol. 1108 00:57:56,106 --> 00:57:57,806 [Kidd] The car's actually on fire. 1109 00:57:58,074 --> 00:58:01,243 There's a fricking car on fire on the catwalk. 1110 00:58:01,278 --> 00:58:03,645 [Costin] Everyone thought it was part of the show. 1111 00:58:03,680 --> 00:58:05,914 [Kidd] He's going, "Don't you -- dare 1112 00:58:05,949 --> 00:58:07,782 go out there with fire extinguishers." 1113 00:58:07,817 --> 00:58:10,752 To just keep sending them out, keep sending them out. 1114 00:58:12,222 --> 00:58:16,057 [Shaw] Had that not been rectified, that whole tent 1115 00:58:16,092 --> 00:58:20,562 and all the top fashion editors and models would have been history. 1116 00:58:21,932 --> 00:58:25,300 [Smith] That's back to typical, wonderful, 1117 00:58:25,335 --> 00:58:28,003 mad, brilliant Lee. 1118 00:58:33,743 --> 00:58:35,777 [dramatic music playing] 1119 00:58:41,051 --> 00:58:42,251 [music stops] 1120 00:58:53,763 --> 00:58:54,996 [reporter] Did you move out of London? 1121 00:58:55,031 --> 00:58:56,765 Did you settle in Paris now? 1122 00:58:56,800 --> 00:58:58,633 I stay both. 1123 00:58:58,668 --> 00:59:00,936 I'm here for six months and London six months. All over. 1124 00:59:00,971 --> 00:59:03,605 My dog is in London, and I'm missing him. 1125 00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:04,740 I'm missing my dog. 1126 00:59:12,215 --> 00:59:16,117 [Chai-Hyde] Traveling between the two cities to do Givenchy and McQueen, 1127 00:59:16,152 --> 00:59:18,554 of course... it would take its toll. 1128 00:59:19,823 --> 00:59:23,725 But he did it, and he managed to make the shows amazing. 1129 00:59:27,731 --> 00:59:30,732 By that time, there was so much more pressure, 1130 00:59:30,767 --> 00:59:32,767 because he was also doing his own line 1131 00:59:32,802 --> 00:59:35,337 and then having to do ready-to-wear haute couture. 1132 00:59:35,839 --> 00:59:38,740 You could see the beginning of the pressure that Lee was under. 1133 00:59:38,775 --> 00:59:42,243 [Pons] The favorite company of LVMH was Dior. 1134 00:59:42,278 --> 00:59:46,815 Lee felt they were really comparing him with Galliano. 1135 00:59:47,651 --> 00:59:49,884 And then he sort of found out 1136 00:59:49,919 --> 00:59:53,922 that John had four times more budget than him 1137 00:59:53,957 --> 00:59:56,358 to create his haute couture collection. 1138 00:59:57,694 --> 01:00:01,062 The house we loved was the McQueen house. 1139 01:00:01,097 --> 01:00:03,932 Givenchy was like a stepbrother. 1140 01:00:04,267 --> 01:00:08,236 We knew that our time there had an expiry date. 1141 01:00:10,073 --> 01:00:15,343 When we arrived for Paris, Lee's clothes tend to be very rigid, 1142 01:00:15,378 --> 01:00:17,178 and I think in Paris, 1143 01:00:17,213 --> 01:00:20,916 he got to discover the soft side of things. 1144 01:00:21,217 --> 01:00:24,019 We took that and we brought it to London. 1145 01:00:27,123 --> 01:00:30,759 For the number 13, I remember him very happy. 1146 01:00:30,794 --> 01:00:33,862 Lee had it very clear on his head 1147 01:00:33,897 --> 01:00:35,230 what he wanted to do. 1148 01:00:36,099 --> 01:00:37,966 We all left the meeting thinking, 1149 01:00:38,001 --> 01:00:40,001 "Oh, my God, he has it very clear this season. 1150 01:00:40,036 --> 01:00:42,170 He knows what colors, he knows the shape." 1151 01:00:42,205 --> 01:00:46,008 Him himself was feeling at peace, you know? 1152 01:00:48,178 --> 01:00:50,779 The first show I ever worked on with Lee, 1153 01:00:50,814 --> 01:00:53,114 he liked the idea of robots. 1154 01:00:53,149 --> 01:00:56,718 [Pons] Lee keep going on about, "I'm gonna have this robot, this model," 1155 01:00:56,753 --> 01:01:01,056 and we were like, "No, the robots again. Oh, my God." 1156 01:01:01,825 --> 01:01:04,993 We were just hoping he was gonna forget the idea, 1157 01:01:05,028 --> 01:01:08,963 but then, the night before the show, the robot did turn up, 1158 01:01:08,998 --> 01:01:12,000 and we didn't have a dress to go with the robot. 1159 01:01:12,035 --> 01:01:14,002 I went back to the studio. I was like, 1160 01:01:14,037 --> 01:01:16,938 "Guys, we need to make a dress for the finale." 1161 01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:20,942 Who went under the table and pulled all this tulle out. 1162 01:01:20,977 --> 01:01:23,978 And he was like, "Hey, there's the dress." 1163 01:01:24,013 --> 01:01:26,048 [piano music playing] 1164 01:01:31,488 --> 01:01:33,188 [Chai-Hyde] They told him it was impossible, 1165 01:01:33,223 --> 01:01:35,223 and he said, "No, it's not. You can do it." 1166 01:01:35,959 --> 01:01:37,325 And that's what Lee did for people-- 1167 01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:38,994 he made them do the impossible. 1168 01:01:40,196 --> 01:01:42,430 [Bennett] He got some technician down to operate the robots, 1169 01:01:42,465 --> 01:01:45,967 and Lee was straight, "Yeah, let's make the robots do more of this." 1170 01:01:46,002 --> 01:01:48,203 So Lee's directing these robots like they're actors, 1171 01:01:48,238 --> 01:01:52,474 and consequently, you end up with this incredible choreography 1172 01:01:52,509 --> 01:01:54,042 and her spinning. 1173 01:01:55,411 --> 01:01:57,245 [McQueen] You had Shalom Harlow there 1174 01:01:57,280 --> 01:01:59,447 and these two robots going round, and the thing is, 1175 01:01:59,482 --> 01:02:01,817 the robots looked like they were a mind of their own. 1176 01:02:04,521 --> 01:02:06,755 [music continues playing] 1177 01:02:21,571 --> 01:02:25,841 [McQueen] Think that's the first time that I was blown away by my own show. 1178 01:02:26,276 --> 01:02:29,878 That man-and-machine thing at the end is-- I'm still in shock, really. 1179 01:02:29,913 --> 01:02:31,813 That's the first time I've cried at my show, so... 1180 01:02:32,816 --> 01:02:33,815 Yeah. 1181 01:02:33,850 --> 01:02:35,917 [music continues playing] 1182 01:03:04,581 --> 01:03:06,514 [Janet] Lee was living his dream. 1183 01:03:06,549 --> 01:03:09,517 He would never have given the work up, as hard as it was, 1184 01:03:09,552 --> 01:03:12,320 because you get that one chance in life. 1185 01:03:14,357 --> 01:03:18,159 [Chai-Hyde] First time I knew that Lee was actually getting very famous 1186 01:03:18,194 --> 01:03:21,529 is when some stranger came up to us in the supermarket 1187 01:03:21,564 --> 01:03:23,364 and asked for his autograph. 1188 01:03:23,399 --> 01:03:26,868 And I remember him saying to me, "My God, that's so scary." 1189 01:03:27,270 --> 01:03:30,071 And I realized then that something was happening. 1190 01:03:30,106 --> 01:03:33,074 He was breaking outside of fashion and becoming famous. 1191 01:03:35,211 --> 01:03:37,846 [Smith] That whole celebrity thing, people chasing after him-- 1192 01:03:37,881 --> 01:03:39,581 'cause you got the feeling he was saying, 1193 01:03:39,616 --> 01:03:42,450 "This isn't the important thing. This fame is nonsense. 1194 01:03:42,485 --> 01:03:44,553 The important thing is what I do." 1195 01:03:45,989 --> 01:03:48,156 [Murray] Sometimes wish he just had a normal life 1196 01:03:48,191 --> 01:03:52,026 and that he could just be a normal person, 1197 01:03:52,061 --> 01:03:54,395 in terms of not having that pressure of everything 1198 01:03:54,430 --> 01:03:56,164 at such a young age. 1199 01:03:56,199 --> 01:03:57,632 [Chai-Hyde] I knew Lee when he had nothing 1200 01:03:57,667 --> 01:04:00,268 but a rubbish bin full of clothes, 1201 01:04:00,303 --> 01:04:04,105 so I saw very quickly him become a millionaire and more. 1202 01:04:04,641 --> 01:04:08,143 And the more money he had, he seemed to be more unhappy. 1203 01:04:09,913 --> 01:04:13,582 'Cause with the money came drugs, and that was a sad thing. 1204 01:04:38,141 --> 01:04:40,108 [Chai-Hyde] When did it become bad? Well... 1205 01:04:40,310 --> 01:04:43,378 It became bad when the pressure became too much for him, 1206 01:04:43,413 --> 01:04:47,282 and he obviously started dealing with it in ways 1207 01:04:47,317 --> 01:04:50,418 he shouldn't have, unfortunately. 1208 01:04:50,720 --> 01:04:53,254 [Detmar] And with it came an aggressiveness, 1209 01:04:53,289 --> 01:04:55,924 like kind of anger and a sort of paranoia. 1210 01:04:56,426 --> 01:04:58,359 But he's still producing great clothes, 1211 01:04:58,394 --> 01:05:00,395 but the personality changed, huh? 1212 01:05:00,430 --> 01:05:02,463 [McQueen] You know what I mean? And all the hard work I do. 1213 01:05:02,498 --> 01:05:05,600 I do ten collections a year, and it's hard work. 1214 01:05:05,635 --> 01:05:08,503 I didn't go to Givenchy. They come to me. 1215 01:05:08,538 --> 01:05:10,972 So I got really upset when people started saying 1216 01:05:11,007 --> 01:05:13,274 I was gonna get fired when it wasn't true. 1217 01:05:13,309 --> 01:05:16,177 So, sod the lot of you. I do what I like. 1218 01:05:19,415 --> 01:05:23,184 [Murray] There was definitely a change and definitely a move in our relationship, 1219 01:05:23,219 --> 01:05:25,086 who had two sides to them. 1220 01:05:25,755 --> 01:05:28,556 He could come in a super-cool mood, 1221 01:05:28,591 --> 01:05:32,226 like, full of laughter and that, 1222 01:05:32,261 --> 01:05:36,064 or it could be a devil crossing the door. 1223 01:05:36,099 --> 01:05:38,967 [Murray] He was obviously a very troubled person... 1224 01:05:39,369 --> 01:05:43,371 and the darkness created this amazing creativity 1225 01:05:43,406 --> 01:05:46,041 and genius artist. 1226 01:05:49,245 --> 01:05:52,314 I had a tattoo saying "McQueen" on my arm. 1227 01:05:53,216 --> 01:05:55,049 I got it covered up, and I think when he found out, 1228 01:05:55,084 --> 01:05:57,152 that was kind of like the end of everything. 1229 01:05:58,354 --> 01:06:00,188 [Smith] Lee was a romantic, 1230 01:06:00,223 --> 01:06:03,024 and I think he flirted always with the idea of love. 1231 01:06:03,059 --> 01:06:05,160 I'm not sure whether he ever achieved it. 1232 01:06:06,629 --> 01:06:09,731 The big thing in his life that he was in love with was his work. 1233 01:06:09,766 --> 01:06:13,468 And also, he didn't trust anyone. 1234 01:06:13,503 --> 01:06:18,106 He thought if the boyfriend is not here, it's because he's with someone else, 1235 01:06:18,141 --> 01:06:20,542 and that made him suffer a lot. 1236 01:06:21,210 --> 01:06:23,211 [McQueen] People forget what fashion's always been about. 1237 01:06:23,246 --> 01:06:25,279 It's about attracting a mate. It's about sexuality. 1238 01:06:25,314 --> 01:06:27,248 It's about showing a person who you are. 1239 01:06:27,283 --> 01:06:30,084 Uh... I'm sorry if you think I'm stupid. 1240 01:06:30,119 --> 01:06:33,321 Even I'm chubby, and I would like to look smaller. 1241 01:06:33,356 --> 01:06:35,423 I mean, let's be realistic here. 1242 01:06:45,501 --> 01:06:48,036 [Smith] And even when he changed his appearance, and he said, 1243 01:06:48,071 --> 01:06:50,204 "I changed myself. It was the wrong thing to do. 1244 01:06:50,239 --> 01:06:52,407 Because I completely lost touch with who I was." 1245 01:06:52,708 --> 01:06:56,210 [McKitterick] What was it? Ten years from Lee, little Lee McQueen, 1246 01:06:56,245 --> 01:06:58,179 sat in the corner of my studio sewing away, 1247 01:06:58,214 --> 01:07:02,250 to this svelte figure dressed in Comme des Garçons, 1248 01:07:02,285 --> 01:07:04,585 having to become something he didn't really want to be-- 1249 01:07:04,620 --> 01:07:07,522 this sort of persona, this Alexander McQueen. 1250 01:07:35,651 --> 01:07:37,218 [McKitterick] Six in the morning. 1251 01:07:38,421 --> 01:07:40,555 [woman] No, don't do that to her. 1252 01:07:43,659 --> 01:07:45,560 [McQueen] She's only got a few hours left. 1253 01:07:48,898 --> 01:07:50,665 It wasn't fun anymore for me. 1254 01:07:50,867 --> 01:07:53,468 I think that was the bottom line. It wasn't fun anymore. 1255 01:07:55,838 --> 01:07:57,238 [woman] I don't like how they... 1256 01:07:58,307 --> 01:07:59,574 Take them off now. 1257 01:08:00,944 --> 01:08:02,744 [Chai-Hyde] I've never done better work than my time with Lee. 1258 01:08:03,312 --> 01:08:05,379 It was times that were dark with him 1259 01:08:05,414 --> 01:08:09,084 and times that were very bright, and we all chose it. 1260 01:08:09,552 --> 01:08:10,785 We all chose to be there, 1261 01:08:11,921 --> 01:08:13,788 and we all chose to not be there sometimes as well. 1262 01:08:14,223 --> 01:08:16,257 [Pons] I collapsed once in Givenchy 1263 01:08:16,292 --> 01:08:19,627 because of the pressure and the workload. 1264 01:08:19,662 --> 01:08:22,363 We had a price to pay, and it was our health. 1265 01:08:23,332 --> 01:08:25,199 I grew in the company. 1266 01:08:25,234 --> 01:08:28,636 Of course, I wasn't the little boy that I started there. 1267 01:08:28,671 --> 01:08:33,674 As I grew up, I realized that I was feeling like 1268 01:08:33,709 --> 01:08:37,145 I was a little bit claustrophobic of the situation. 1269 01:08:37,680 --> 01:08:38,880 [McQueen] Sebastian. 1270 01:08:40,483 --> 01:08:41,850 Come on, you ugly bitch. 1271 01:08:43,486 --> 01:08:45,186 [McQueen laughs sarcastically] 1272 01:08:45,221 --> 01:08:48,923 It was like full devotion to the McQueen house, 1273 01:08:48,958 --> 01:08:51,325 looking after his dogs, 1274 01:08:51,360 --> 01:08:53,628 endless hours of working, 1275 01:08:53,663 --> 01:08:58,733 and weekends either working or socializing with Lee. 1276 01:08:58,768 --> 01:09:01,869 We were going also on holiday together. 1277 01:09:01,904 --> 01:09:05,373 I even know how to fake his signature. [laughs] You know! 1278 01:09:05,408 --> 01:09:07,509 I was feeling, like, trapped. 1279 01:09:08,277 --> 01:09:10,311 Even if I loved what I was doing. 1280 01:09:11,714 --> 01:09:14,482 I tried to speak with him, 1281 01:09:14,784 --> 01:09:16,618 and that didn't end up that well. 1282 01:09:16,919 --> 01:09:19,420 The day I told him I was leaving, he told me, 1283 01:09:19,455 --> 01:09:22,457 "You better think about it, because there is no way back." 1284 01:09:24,794 --> 01:09:29,764 And I left, and it was really sad, you know, my leaving. 1285 01:09:29,799 --> 01:09:31,866 It was no one... 1286 01:09:33,803 --> 01:09:36,704 no one, um, came to... 1287 01:09:38,674 --> 01:09:44,245 After all the work I've done and... [exhales] Oh... 1288 01:09:49,685 --> 01:09:53,688 Unfortunately, Lee took things quite to heart 1289 01:09:54,390 --> 01:09:56,224 without maybe thinking about 1290 01:09:56,259 --> 01:09:59,594 what the other person was going through or what they needed. 1291 01:09:59,629 --> 01:10:01,629 And he would take it very personally 1292 01:10:01,664 --> 01:10:04,365 when someone would leave or he felt betrayed. 1293 01:10:30,059 --> 01:10:34,395 [Kidd] A lot of people around fashion do suffer from anxiety, 1294 01:10:34,430 --> 01:10:36,764 do suffer from panic attacks, depression. 1295 01:10:36,799 --> 01:10:40,401 The industry is feeding this ego, 1296 01:10:40,436 --> 01:10:42,370 and it has a very negative effect. 1297 01:10:43,506 --> 01:10:46,274 [Bennett] For the Voss show, the original concept was the padded cell. 1298 01:10:47,777 --> 01:10:52,380 [Kidd] And you start losing who you are, and it becomes a darkness 1299 01:10:52,415 --> 01:10:54,015 and a place that you can't get out of. 1300 01:10:54,950 --> 01:10:56,651 [Bennett] And, of course, Lee being Lee, 1301 01:10:56,686 --> 01:10:59,387 he wasn't happy with just this one really great idea. 1302 01:10:59,422 --> 01:11:02,056 You had to have another box in the middle. 1303 01:11:02,091 --> 01:11:05,559 He has a kind of theatrical climax to the show. 1304 01:11:05,594 --> 01:11:09,697 When he came and sat down to explain what it was, 1305 01:11:09,732 --> 01:11:12,033 he wouldn't look me in the eye, and he was saying, 1306 01:11:12,068 --> 01:11:15,936 "Yes, it's about death and beauty and rebirth, 1307 01:11:15,971 --> 01:11:18,306 and it's gonna be beautiful." 1308 01:11:18,341 --> 01:11:21,008 I really wasn't expecting Lee to recreate 1309 01:11:21,043 --> 01:11:24,345 Joel-Peter Witkin's famous Incubus image. 1310 01:11:34,357 --> 01:11:35,723 It's a pretty gruesome image. 1311 01:11:36,025 --> 01:11:38,793 I'm thinking, "Oh, my goodness, am I gonna do this?" 1312 01:11:38,828 --> 01:11:40,494 And I was like, "All right, and I will do it, 1313 01:11:40,529 --> 01:11:43,898 but I want you to know, serious face, 1314 01:11:43,933 --> 01:11:46,301 I'm doing it for art." [laughs] 1315 01:11:46,769 --> 01:11:49,470 And he looked at me like I was mad, 1316 01:11:49,505 --> 01:11:51,405 and then he looked away, and he went, 1317 01:11:51,440 --> 01:11:53,808 "I thought we all were, weren't we?" And he was off. 1318 01:11:53,843 --> 01:11:57,611 The actual set had that Stanley Kubrick 2001 1319 01:11:57,646 --> 01:11:59,880 meets an insane asylum feel, 1320 01:11:59,915 --> 01:12:01,582 and the fact that there was the two-way mirror 1321 01:12:01,617 --> 01:12:03,584 so that when the fashion people, 1322 01:12:03,619 --> 01:12:06,787 when the fashion press came in to wait for the show to start, 1323 01:12:06,822 --> 01:12:08,723 they were all looking at themselves in the mirror. 1324 01:12:09,058 --> 01:12:11,759 The music started-- ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum-- 1325 01:12:11,794 --> 01:12:14,796 with his heartbeat that went faster and faster and faster. 1326 01:12:15,398 --> 01:12:17,365 [Bennett] We didn't know quite what was gonna expect, 1327 01:12:17,400 --> 01:12:20,101 what was gonna happen, and none of the audience knew at all. 1328 01:12:20,903 --> 01:12:24,939 [McQueen] Fashion is a big bubble, and sometimes I feel like popping it. 1329 01:12:25,841 --> 01:12:28,509 [eerie noises] 1330 01:12:33,883 --> 01:12:36,450 [Bennett] Then when the show starts, boom, you can see inside. 1331 01:12:36,485 --> 01:12:38,386 The models can't see the audience at all. 1332 01:12:39,121 --> 01:12:41,823 [Olley] Was suddenly a much more kind of voyeuristic thing. 1333 01:12:43,526 --> 01:12:45,459 The bandages that he put on all the models' heads, 1334 01:12:45,494 --> 01:12:48,162 so it had that slight feeling of unease and sickness 1335 01:12:48,197 --> 01:12:50,531 and bedlam feel about it. 1336 01:12:50,900 --> 01:12:53,067 [wailing voices] 1337 01:12:55,638 --> 01:12:59,540 [Chai-Hyde] There was one time that I'd just come out of surgery, 1338 01:12:59,575 --> 01:13:02,109 and he came to visit me, and he saw me, 1339 01:13:02,144 --> 01:13:04,745 and I had bandages everywhere, and I was all bruised up, 1340 01:13:04,780 --> 01:13:07,715 and he was, "Fucking wicked," [fingers click] as he would do that. 1341 01:13:08,584 --> 01:13:10,684 He absorbed things like a sponge, 1342 01:13:10,719 --> 01:13:14,789 saw the beauty in the ugly, as with the bandages on me. 1343 01:13:18,194 --> 01:13:19,527 [wild laugh] 1344 01:13:31,841 --> 01:13:33,808 [people whistling] 1345 01:13:33,843 --> 01:13:35,009 -[monitor beeping] -[heartbeat] 1346 01:13:41,550 --> 01:13:43,584 [McQueen] Life isn't perfect, and we're not all perfect. 1347 01:13:43,619 --> 01:13:45,653 We're not all size-zero models, 1348 01:13:45,688 --> 01:13:48,456 but there is beauty within the eye of the beholder. 1349 01:13:49,225 --> 01:13:51,726 [beeping turns solid] 1350 01:14:02,571 --> 01:14:06,507 [Olley] For the final image to be this one of a large woman 1351 01:14:06,542 --> 01:14:09,210 with moths everywhere, it sounds like a joke, really, 1352 01:14:09,245 --> 01:14:13,047 but I do think there's a sense of humor going on underneath there as well. 1353 01:14:13,082 --> 01:14:14,915 It's fat birds and moths. 1354 01:14:14,950 --> 01:14:17,084 I mean, isn't that just fashion's worst nightmare? 1355 01:14:17,953 --> 01:14:20,488 [applause and whistling] 1356 01:14:22,625 --> 01:14:25,159 Every season, whose collections do I look at 1357 01:14:25,194 --> 01:14:27,695 and whose collections am I jealous of, in a sense? 1358 01:14:27,730 --> 01:14:31,132 And whose collections do I think are absolutely amazing? 1359 01:14:33,035 --> 01:14:36,237 [woman] Tom was literally God in the industry. 1360 01:14:36,272 --> 01:14:38,539 I guess even if Lee was a rebel... 1361 01:14:38,574 --> 01:14:41,208 ...and he was a totally different kind of person, 1362 01:14:41,243 --> 01:14:44,845 he probably was flattered and touched by the fact 1363 01:14:44,880 --> 01:14:48,516 that someone like Tom Ford noticed him and wanted him. 1364 01:14:48,551 --> 01:14:51,051 And also, he was smart enough to know 1365 01:14:51,086 --> 01:14:53,488 that he needed that financial help. 1366 01:15:10,973 --> 01:15:14,308 The wonderful thing about Lee is he is poet, 1367 01:15:14,343 --> 01:15:16,210 and he won't like this, either, but it's true, 1368 01:15:16,245 --> 01:15:20,014 poet and commerce united, because he's very practical. 1369 01:15:20,049 --> 01:15:23,250 So he understands you can express whatever you want on the runway, 1370 01:15:23,285 --> 01:15:25,553 but you have to have something beautiful on the hanger 1371 01:15:25,588 --> 01:15:26,754 to sell to a store. 1372 01:15:27,856 --> 01:15:29,056 [Chai-Hyde] Gucci Group was smart. 1373 01:15:29,091 --> 01:15:31,325 They saw what the potential was, 1374 01:15:31,360 --> 01:15:34,695 and they offered McQueen a deal he thought he couldn't refuse, 1375 01:15:34,730 --> 01:15:37,298 which was, "Here, we'll underwrite your company 1376 01:15:37,333 --> 01:15:39,901 and give you 50% of the ownership." 1377 01:15:40,235 --> 01:15:42,703 They had secret meetings so that none of this 1378 01:15:42,738 --> 01:15:44,805 would get back to Arnault and the LVMH people, 1379 01:15:44,840 --> 01:15:47,975 and they had no idea it was coming until it hit them. 1380 01:15:49,912 --> 01:15:54,682 I was quite adamant when I talked to Tom that this was a one-man band. 1381 01:15:55,084 --> 01:15:57,685 So they leave you alone to design what you want. 1382 01:15:57,720 --> 01:15:59,119 Hundred percent. 1383 01:15:59,154 --> 01:16:01,155 I was looking for major investment... 1384 01:16:01,890 --> 01:16:04,992 and then Gucci got in touch, and... 1385 01:16:06,996 --> 01:16:08,229 the rest is history. 1386 01:16:08,631 --> 01:16:10,998 [laughter] 1387 01:16:12,167 --> 01:16:13,968 [McQueen] Au revoir, Givenchy. 1388 01:16:14,003 --> 01:16:15,636 [uplifting music playing] 1389 01:16:25,848 --> 01:16:27,048 [music stops] 1390 01:16:33,756 --> 01:16:34,789 [Isabella] Dodo. 1391 01:16:37,426 --> 01:16:38,859 [indistinct chatter] 1392 01:16:46,168 --> 01:16:47,969 [dogs growl] 1393 01:16:50,139 --> 01:16:51,805 [Detmar] What's he doing? 1394 01:16:51,840 --> 01:16:53,307 [McQueen] I have an affinity with the sea. 1395 01:16:53,342 --> 01:16:55,176 I don't know. Maybe 'cause I'm Pisces. 1396 01:16:56,111 --> 01:16:58,779 And when it rains and it snows, 1397 01:16:58,814 --> 01:17:01,849 and you're near the sea, and you can hear the waves. 1398 01:17:03,152 --> 01:17:06,287 It's very melancholic, but it's very romantic. 1399 01:17:08,957 --> 01:17:11,792 Sometimes you need to have a break 1400 01:17:12,695 --> 01:17:15,696 to get away from everything and not to think about 1401 01:17:16,198 --> 01:17:18,799 sort of, like, business and fashion shows 1402 01:17:18,834 --> 01:17:20,635 and to take time out. 1403 01:17:26,909 --> 01:17:28,876 I have to be surrounded by nature. 1404 01:17:29,778 --> 01:17:31,245 This is older than the house. 1405 01:17:31,280 --> 01:17:33,648 This is over 400 years old. 1406 01:17:34,083 --> 01:17:35,416 It's an elm tree, 1407 01:17:35,451 --> 01:17:38,052 and we uplight it at night. 1408 01:17:41,190 --> 01:17:43,190 And it's, like, it's good inspiration. 1409 01:17:50,899 --> 01:17:54,368 All my friends come here, and we have the fire on, 1410 01:17:54,403 --> 01:17:57,471 and we watch DVDs and listen to music, 1411 01:17:57,506 --> 01:18:00,074 and it's nice and relaxing. 1412 01:18:08,117 --> 01:18:12,219 He would be spending time with my mum a lot down the cottage. 1413 01:18:13,388 --> 01:18:16,223 [Janet] I'm grateful that we had that time together. 1414 01:18:17,025 --> 01:18:20,728 We seen more of each other. We did things together. 1415 01:18:22,030 --> 01:18:24,164 [McQueen] My family keep me grounded. 1416 01:18:24,199 --> 01:18:26,767 Fashion can be a very superficial business. 1417 01:18:29,171 --> 01:18:31,772 Where I started in London, there was nothing like this. 1418 01:18:32,541 --> 01:18:36,510 It's as close as we can get to haute couture in England, you know. 1419 01:18:36,545 --> 01:18:38,345 All the people here are students, 1420 01:18:38,380 --> 01:18:40,147 and it's like training them up and giving them 1421 01:18:40,182 --> 01:18:43,250 their initial step into the world of fashion. 1422 01:18:44,953 --> 01:18:47,054 Lee knew from when I was a little boy 1423 01:18:47,089 --> 01:18:49,857 that I loved to draw, and I was always very artistic. 1424 01:18:50,259 --> 01:18:53,827 A lot of time had passed, and I was working at a rubbish tip [laughs] 1425 01:18:53,862 --> 01:18:57,064 and Lee had the position for a textile designer on menswear, 1426 01:18:57,099 --> 01:18:58,733 and that's when he took me on. 1427 01:18:59,401 --> 01:19:01,368 Lee was really happy having me there, 1428 01:19:02,104 --> 01:19:04,204 firstly, on the creative level, 1429 01:19:04,239 --> 01:19:07,241 but secondly, just having something 1430 01:19:07,276 --> 01:19:11,145 that reminded him of his past and his childhood. 1431 01:19:13,315 --> 01:19:14,315 Does that look right? 1432 01:19:15,451 --> 01:19:17,217 [McQueen] There was a period when it wasn't so good, 1433 01:19:17,252 --> 01:19:20,220 and I had a lot of angst, and it was kind of hard. 1434 01:19:20,255 --> 01:19:22,556 There was a lot of confliction in my head 1435 01:19:22,591 --> 01:19:25,826 with doing the job I didn't particularly want to do, which was Givenchy. 1436 01:19:25,861 --> 01:19:30,030 But I think I've come to a stage where I just accept this is my life. 1437 01:19:30,065 --> 01:19:31,766 This is what I was born to do. 1438 01:19:36,205 --> 01:19:39,306 [mumbles and laughs] 1439 01:19:41,276 --> 01:19:43,877 [Gary] He controlled the vibe wherever he went. 1440 01:19:43,912 --> 01:19:47,514 A lot of the time, he was such a buzz to be around. 1441 01:19:47,549 --> 01:19:49,817 Way I kind of put it is like he was the queen bee 1442 01:19:49,852 --> 01:19:52,586 with the worker bees responding to the signals 1443 01:19:52,621 --> 01:19:55,289 from that queen bee, and people felt that, 1444 01:19:55,324 --> 01:19:58,091 you know, he had this kind of childish way 1445 01:19:58,126 --> 01:20:00,561 of sort of mucking about in the studio environment, 1446 01:20:00,596 --> 01:20:04,398 and it just made things so light and such a nice place to be. 1447 01:20:06,068 --> 01:20:07,901 There was always something creative happening. 1448 01:20:07,936 --> 01:20:09,270 That's what excited everybody. 1449 01:20:12,407 --> 01:20:15,542 [McQueen] I speak so loudly in my work itself. 1450 01:20:15,577 --> 01:20:18,111 I think everything I do is personal. 1451 01:20:18,146 --> 01:20:21,548 Even turning Kate Moss into a hologram is kind of personal. It's ethereal. 1452 01:20:21,583 --> 01:20:25,285 It's a time I'm feeling at one with the world and heavenly. 1453 01:20:25,320 --> 01:20:27,354 If you want to know me, just look at my work. 1454 01:20:27,389 --> 01:20:29,023 [applause] 1455 01:20:36,365 --> 01:20:38,399 [somber music playing] 1456 01:20:46,341 --> 01:20:48,275 [reporter] What does fashion mean to you? 1457 01:20:49,311 --> 01:20:50,377 My life. 1458 01:20:55,651 --> 01:20:57,451 [Detmar] Issie died proud. 1459 01:20:57,486 --> 01:21:00,487 She died having achieved beyond her wildest dreams. 1460 01:21:00,989 --> 01:21:04,391 [Sykes] The fact that Issie went was a huge blow to so many people, 1461 01:21:04,426 --> 01:21:06,627 including Alexander, huge blow. 1462 01:21:08,430 --> 01:21:11,966 [bell tolls] 1463 01:21:27,716 --> 01:21:31,552 [Detmar] I saw him at Issie's funeral, and I've never seen anyone so devastated. 1464 01:21:32,621 --> 01:21:34,321 Couldn't recognize. He was-- 1465 01:21:34,356 --> 01:21:36,490 He sat right behind me, but I turned round, 1466 01:21:36,525 --> 01:21:40,460 this person in a Highland... kilt 1467 01:21:40,495 --> 01:21:42,462 and the hat and looking very... 1468 01:21:42,497 --> 01:21:45,165 I thought, "My God, it's McQueen, Alexander." 1469 01:21:45,200 --> 01:21:47,935 And the look on his face was haunting. 1470 01:21:48,603 --> 01:21:50,537 I felt for him. 1471 01:21:51,473 --> 01:21:56,243 Could just-- you could just see the pain... he suffered. 1472 01:21:56,611 --> 01:21:59,413 I could see the love. Never deny the love. 1473 01:21:59,448 --> 01:22:01,482 It was such a love affair between those two. 1474 01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:09,423 Issie seemed to slot in between a sister and a mum. 1475 01:22:10,425 --> 01:22:12,326 And she was in the middle, 1476 01:22:12,361 --> 01:22:15,362 and Lee just loved Issie. 1477 01:22:17,399 --> 01:22:19,633 [Detmar] The connection between Issie and McQueen, 1478 01:22:19,668 --> 01:22:21,702 they both carried sadnesses. 1479 01:22:22,170 --> 01:22:24,004 Alexander had been abused. 1480 01:22:24,039 --> 01:22:27,608 He felt that person had destroyed his innocence. 1481 01:22:28,310 --> 01:22:31,178 Issie had this very sad instance when she was about five years old, 1482 01:22:31,213 --> 01:22:33,613 when her brother she was playing with died, 1483 01:22:33,648 --> 01:22:36,717 not Issie's fault, but she always felt responsible for him 1484 01:22:36,752 --> 01:22:38,485 and carried that guilt. 1485 01:22:39,021 --> 01:22:41,621 There was a destructive side and destructive issues 1486 01:22:41,656 --> 01:22:45,192 which she could never resolve entirely, and they would blow up... 1487 01:22:46,028 --> 01:22:47,728 which became more and more serious. 1488 01:22:48,597 --> 01:22:50,731 [Isabella] I don't take drugs but I take medication. 1489 01:22:50,766 --> 01:22:54,468 Sometimes I have to take a pill just to keep me calm. 1490 01:22:54,503 --> 01:22:58,639 The pathway to her self-destruction was clear. 1491 01:22:59,408 --> 01:23:03,143 Issie perhaps was thinking she didn't want to go on forever. 1492 01:23:03,412 --> 01:23:05,345 She couldn't reinvent herself as an old woman 1493 01:23:05,380 --> 01:23:07,081 'cause fashion's all about youth. 1494 01:23:07,616 --> 01:23:09,449 Discovering people is a big thing. 1495 01:23:09,484 --> 01:23:13,053 It's like being a mother, and the milk's dried up. 1496 01:23:14,289 --> 01:23:16,023 [Detmar] Issie was planning her death. 1497 01:23:17,092 --> 01:23:19,093 So she wanted to say goodbye to McQueen... 1498 01:23:20,662 --> 01:23:22,997 and she organized a weekend. 1499 01:23:23,498 --> 01:23:27,034 She gone to a lot of trouble with a very lovely menu. 1500 01:23:28,203 --> 01:23:29,736 Alexander was exhausted, 1501 01:23:29,771 --> 01:23:32,406 and he turned up and just stayed in his room. 1502 01:23:34,309 --> 01:23:37,244 Whatever she needed, he wasn't able to give it himself. 1503 01:23:38,113 --> 01:23:39,546 But they did see each other. 1504 01:23:39,581 --> 01:23:42,049 Yeah. There was a farewell between them. 1505 01:23:42,417 --> 01:23:45,652 Big hug and kiss and "See you in the next world." 1506 01:23:46,188 --> 01:23:47,621 The thing is, when you're ill, 1507 01:23:48,323 --> 01:23:50,524 you don't know-- you're very alone. 1508 01:23:50,559 --> 01:23:53,193 [Detmar] Issie had cancer at the end, ovarian cancer. 1509 01:23:53,228 --> 01:23:56,497 It was terminal. Who knows? Issie wouldn't have been interested in chemotherapy. 1510 01:23:58,600 --> 01:24:00,500 The last thing Issie said to me, 1511 01:24:00,535 --> 01:24:04,104 "Do you remember, Detmar, when I was a ray of sunshine?" 1512 01:24:04,506 --> 01:24:07,041 And I said, "Issie, you'll always be a ray of sunshine." 1513 01:24:11,146 --> 01:24:13,680 McQueen is calling his show La Dame Bleue. 1514 01:24:13,715 --> 01:24:15,549 He's dedicating this show 1515 01:24:15,584 --> 01:24:19,853 to his late, great friend and mentor, Isabella Blow. 1516 01:24:19,888 --> 01:24:22,489 You could see her in the clothes. 1517 01:24:22,524 --> 01:24:25,258 You could smell the perfume of her around, 1518 01:24:25,293 --> 01:24:28,261 and you could see her children, in a way. 1519 01:24:28,296 --> 01:24:31,598 And backstage, Alexander and Philip going crazy together. 1520 01:24:31,633 --> 01:24:33,667 What bonded them was Issie. 1521 01:24:34,569 --> 01:24:38,371 Isabella single-handedly invented Alexander and myself 1522 01:24:38,406 --> 01:24:42,209 from nowhere with such conviction 1523 01:24:42,244 --> 01:24:45,445 that we will never experience again. 1524 01:24:45,480 --> 01:24:47,447 Her belief in you 1525 01:24:47,482 --> 01:24:50,217 made you be the person you were. 1526 01:24:54,289 --> 01:24:56,523 [thump of wings flapping] 1527 01:25:03,265 --> 01:25:04,565 [tender music playing] 1528 01:25:10,172 --> 01:25:13,841 [Hillson] Once you sat down and you saw the set and the music... 1529 01:25:14,543 --> 01:25:17,511 you were there, and it held you, 1530 01:25:17,546 --> 01:25:21,381 because I kept seeing her in the clothes he was putting on the catwalk, 1531 01:25:21,416 --> 01:25:23,851 and the hats, of course, that Philip was designing. 1532 01:25:27,856 --> 01:25:32,759 [Viglezio] It was actually creating some mythical figure 1533 01:25:32,794 --> 01:25:35,896 that was like Issie's presence at the show. 1534 01:25:44,573 --> 01:25:47,741 So emotional. Just couldn't stop crying. 1535 01:25:47,943 --> 01:25:49,309 Was bent over double, 1536 01:25:49,778 --> 01:25:52,679 and... grief is grief. 1537 01:25:52,714 --> 01:25:54,148 You have to go through it. 1538 01:26:00,222 --> 01:26:03,457 [woman] Then to see them come on and realize how young they were, 1539 01:26:03,692 --> 01:26:06,160 and they'd lost a great friend, 1540 01:26:06,494 --> 01:26:07,928 and how they had loved her. 1541 01:26:15,237 --> 01:26:17,304 [Janet] I think it had a big effect on Lee. 1542 01:26:18,807 --> 01:26:21,441 After Issie passed away, 1543 01:26:22,244 --> 01:26:25,746 he was in a really dark place. 1544 01:26:42,931 --> 01:26:46,233 [Pons] We were watching TV in the evening, 1545 01:26:46,268 --> 01:26:49,402 and Lee McQueen opened the news that day 1546 01:26:49,437 --> 01:26:51,471 with the Horn of Plenty show. 1547 01:26:52,741 --> 01:26:55,408 And my father was sitting there, 1548 01:26:55,443 --> 01:26:57,010 and he's like, "Sebastian, come over. 1549 01:26:57,045 --> 01:26:59,980 I think it's your crazy friend's fashion on TV." 1550 01:27:00,515 --> 01:27:03,650 And when my father saw the collection and is like... 1551 01:27:04,519 --> 01:27:06,787 "I think your friend has gone really mad." 1552 01:27:07,722 --> 01:27:09,523 [applause] 1553 01:27:09,824 --> 01:27:12,492 And I think with the Horn of Plenty, 1554 01:27:12,527 --> 01:27:15,262 that really reflects the fashion world today... 1555 01:27:15,964 --> 01:27:17,464 A pile of crap. 1556 01:27:24,439 --> 01:27:26,806 Three years of being apart, 1557 01:27:26,841 --> 01:27:30,010 I think a lot, and I think he think a lot, also. 1558 01:27:31,579 --> 01:27:33,013 When I call him, 1559 01:27:33,048 --> 01:27:35,449 it was like, "Hello, Lee?" 1560 01:27:36,318 --> 01:27:37,651 "Hello?" It's, like, 1561 01:27:37,686 --> 01:27:39,386 "Lee, it's Sebastian." 1562 01:27:39,421 --> 01:27:41,488 "Where the fuck have you been all this time, 1563 01:27:41,523 --> 01:27:42,889 you fucking bastard?" 1564 01:27:43,925 --> 01:27:46,026 We just started again 1565 01:27:46,061 --> 01:27:49,329 like the brothers we were before. 1566 01:27:50,565 --> 01:27:53,300 So then I took the ferry to Ibiza, 1567 01:27:53,335 --> 01:27:54,901 and I went to his villa. 1568 01:27:55,570 --> 01:27:59,673 When he opened the door, I was in shock, 1569 01:27:59,708 --> 01:28:02,942 because the person who opened the door, 1570 01:28:02,977 --> 01:28:04,544 he was a different person. 1571 01:28:04,579 --> 01:28:08,415 He was really skinny and looking very fragile 1572 01:28:08,450 --> 01:28:10,350 and very, very pale. 1573 01:28:10,752 --> 01:28:12,485 When I hug him, 1574 01:28:12,520 --> 01:28:15,855 that's when I notice something has changed, 1575 01:28:15,890 --> 01:28:20,627 because his body structure was just bones. 1576 01:28:20,662 --> 01:28:24,431 There was hardly any muscle or flesh there. 1577 01:28:27,068 --> 01:28:31,371 [Gary] Lee come in with the idea of having an invitation for a show 1578 01:28:31,406 --> 01:28:33,440 that had that metamorphosis. 1579 01:28:33,475 --> 01:28:36,910 He wanted his face to transform into a skull. 1580 01:28:37,946 --> 01:28:42,883 Everything in his life had just led to these feelings of torment. 1581 01:28:43,952 --> 01:28:45,719 Lee was HIV-positive. 1582 01:28:47,055 --> 01:28:50,424 Even though it isn't a death sentence, as such... 1583 01:28:50,859 --> 01:28:54,027 I think it was always in the back of Lee's mind. 1584 01:28:54,562 --> 01:28:56,963 You'd feel the bad vibes when Lee was down, you know? 1585 01:28:56,998 --> 01:29:00,600 There was a real depression that was brought with that as well. 1586 01:29:01,035 --> 01:29:02,636 [violin music playing] 1587 01:29:13,615 --> 01:29:15,949 [Janet] I think the trouble is with Lee, 1588 01:29:15,984 --> 01:29:18,918 after a show, when you've done that build-up 1589 01:29:18,953 --> 01:29:21,054 and you've worked hard, and you could see 1590 01:29:21,089 --> 01:29:23,657 there was a little bit of a down. 1591 01:29:26,561 --> 01:29:29,730 And then on to the next show again. 1592 01:29:30,999 --> 01:29:34,634 Yeah, it was show after... I don't know how Lee did it. 1593 01:29:34,669 --> 01:29:36,703 [applause] 1594 01:29:40,008 --> 01:29:43,777 [McQueen] The pressure's kind of quite immense now 1595 01:29:43,812 --> 01:29:47,514 because of the Gucci contract, and... 1596 01:29:49,083 --> 01:29:53,587 You know, I do the men's now, and now I also do McQ, 1597 01:29:53,922 --> 01:29:56,489 so it's about 14 collections a year again, 1598 01:29:56,524 --> 01:30:00,594 same as when I was at Givenchy, so it's hard work. 1599 01:30:07,001 --> 01:30:09,002 [Gary] I think he would have liked the idea of moving away 1600 01:30:09,037 --> 01:30:10,870 and just leaving everything behind, 1601 01:30:10,905 --> 01:30:13,006 but as it is his name above the door 1602 01:30:13,041 --> 01:30:16,510 and his reputation as a person and everything he had built, 1603 01:30:16,744 --> 01:30:18,011 he couldn't just abandon it. 1604 01:30:25,620 --> 01:30:27,554 [McQueen] If I ever get that old and I'm still around 1605 01:30:27,589 --> 01:30:30,957 and I leave my company, I'll just burn the place down. 1606 01:30:30,992 --> 01:30:33,126 [man] Yeah. No one'll work there. [laughs] 1607 01:30:33,161 --> 01:30:35,695 [reporter] Really? So you'd never let someone carry on... 1608 01:30:36,231 --> 01:30:39,199 the McQueen tradition or the McQueen brand 1609 01:30:39,234 --> 01:30:41,034 if you weren't actively involved? 1610 01:30:43,972 --> 01:30:44,904 I don't think so. 1611 01:30:44,939 --> 01:30:46,640 I mean... It doesn't-- 1612 01:30:48,143 --> 01:30:50,677 because that person will have to come up with the concepts for my show, 1613 01:30:50,712 --> 01:30:54,548 and my shows are so personal, how can that be? 1614 01:30:56,184 --> 01:30:59,686 [Janet] I said, "Why don't you step away, Lee, for a year? 1615 01:30:59,721 --> 01:31:01,154 And he just said, "You don't understand." 1616 01:31:01,189 --> 01:31:04,191 He said, "I'm responsible for 50 people. 1617 01:31:04,592 --> 01:31:07,761 They've got to pay their mortgage. I can't just stop." 1618 01:31:10,832 --> 01:31:12,765 [Viglezio] I was always thinking, 1619 01:31:12,800 --> 01:31:15,168 "There's so much sadness in him," 1620 01:31:15,203 --> 01:31:17,270 and that was sad, 1621 01:31:17,305 --> 01:31:21,941 because he was this successful, flamboyant being 1622 01:31:21,976 --> 01:31:24,244 who actually was so lonely deep inside. 1623 01:31:24,279 --> 01:31:27,080 It can be really lonely, 1624 01:31:27,315 --> 01:31:30,517 and I think, you know, I'd... 1625 01:31:30,552 --> 01:31:32,652 I think there's more to life than fashion, 1626 01:31:32,687 --> 01:31:34,821 and I don't want to be stuck in that bubble 1627 01:31:34,856 --> 01:31:36,956 of this is what I do, 1628 01:31:36,991 --> 01:31:39,792 because it's nice, because you see everyone in the office, 1629 01:31:39,827 --> 01:31:42,195 they go home, and they can shut off, 1630 01:31:42,230 --> 01:31:45,298 but I'm still Alexander McQueen after I shut the door. 1631 01:31:45,333 --> 01:31:48,201 You know what I mean? I've got to go home with myself. 1632 01:31:49,003 --> 01:31:50,537 If you've had a bad day, 1633 01:31:50,572 --> 01:31:52,672 I've only got myself to answer to, so... 1634 01:31:52,707 --> 01:31:53,806 [both laugh] 1635 01:31:53,841 --> 01:31:55,175 [violin music continues] 1636 01:32:01,950 --> 01:32:04,150 I mean, with us, it was like 1637 01:32:04,886 --> 01:32:08,555 behaving all right, okay, 1638 01:32:09,257 --> 01:32:13,293 but deep inside, we knew that he wasn't... 1639 01:32:15,263 --> 01:32:16,997 he wasn't hundred percent. 1640 01:32:17,599 --> 01:32:19,666 He could hear voices. 1641 01:32:19,701 --> 01:32:23,003 He was telling me that they were chasing him. 1642 01:32:24,238 --> 01:32:26,239 One thing he used to say, 1643 01:32:26,274 --> 01:32:28,575 "Paranoia will destroy ya." 1644 01:32:29,611 --> 01:32:32,111 [Bennett] I remember doing a drawing, 1645 01:32:32,146 --> 01:32:35,114 which is basically it's got lots of cameras around, 1646 01:32:35,149 --> 01:32:37,684 then we're thinking, "Maybe the cameras could be on robots." 1647 01:32:37,719 --> 01:32:40,186 It was always about getting the camera right in your face. 1648 01:32:40,221 --> 01:32:43,690 It's surveillance. It's making the audience uncomfortable. 1649 01:32:44,225 --> 01:32:46,125 [Gary] The idea behind Plato's Atlantis 1650 01:32:46,160 --> 01:32:49,095 is where people come from the land and go back into the sea. 1651 01:33:03,044 --> 01:33:05,244 [Gary] He loved swimming, scuba diving. 1652 01:33:05,279 --> 01:33:06,879 He loved that feeling 1653 01:33:06,914 --> 01:33:08,315 of just being in a different world underwater. 1654 01:33:09,050 --> 01:33:10,783 You know, just away from everything, 1655 01:33:10,818 --> 01:33:13,152 almost like you're back in the womb floating, 1656 01:33:13,187 --> 01:33:17,324 you know? And that kind of serenity you would get through that. 1657 01:33:18,159 --> 01:33:21,828 [Pons] Plato's Atlantis was kind of like a study in his head 1658 01:33:21,863 --> 01:33:25,965 with all the digital printing and all the experimenting, 1659 01:33:26,000 --> 01:33:30,670 pattern cutting, and the robots were there again. 1660 01:33:31,005 --> 01:33:35,075 He said to me, "I design my last collection, Sebastian," 1661 01:33:35,877 --> 01:33:38,878 and he told me, "I had enough with all this. 1662 01:33:39,380 --> 01:33:40,880 I gonna kill myself." 1663 01:33:42,083 --> 01:33:45,084 "What do you mean, you're gonna kill yourself?" 1664 01:33:45,119 --> 01:33:48,388 He's like, "Yeah." He's like, "I am fed up. 1665 01:33:48,423 --> 01:33:52,425 I had it with this. I just want to put this an end. 1666 01:33:52,460 --> 01:33:56,696 And in my last show, in the end," 1667 01:33:56,731 --> 01:33:58,331 he said, "Do you remember Voss? 1668 01:33:58,833 --> 01:34:03,169 So I'm gonna do the sort of same thing, but it's gonna be a Perspex box, 1669 01:34:03,204 --> 01:34:06,773 the size of a human being, so when the show ends, 1670 01:34:06,808 --> 01:34:10,644 this box is gonna come out from the ground... 1671 01:34:12,013 --> 01:34:13,213 with me inside, 1672 01:34:13,948 --> 01:34:17,250 and then I'm just gonna shoot myself." 1673 01:34:19,087 --> 01:34:19,986 And... 1674 01:34:21,923 --> 01:34:25,224 [stammering] And I just didn't know 1675 01:34:25,259 --> 01:34:27,126 how to react to that, you know what I mean, 1676 01:34:27,161 --> 01:34:30,764 because... he sounded so convincing. 1677 01:34:41,375 --> 01:34:47,080 It was like he thought that the whole fashion system 1678 01:34:47,115 --> 01:34:48,415 was against him. 1679 01:34:49,183 --> 01:34:51,818 And I said, "No, no one is against you." 1680 01:34:53,054 --> 01:34:56,222 "But if you are thinking to do this, 1681 01:34:56,257 --> 01:34:58,758 you're gonna harm so many people, 1682 01:34:59,193 --> 01:35:01,160 because people come to your shows 1683 01:35:01,195 --> 01:35:04,163 to see your beauty, your talent, your creativity, 1684 01:35:04,198 --> 01:35:08,401 and you-- to see you, to see your work." 1685 01:35:08,436 --> 01:35:10,070 [somber music playing] 1686 01:35:25,853 --> 01:35:27,487 He was like a movie director. 1687 01:35:27,522 --> 01:35:30,389 We had to be like aliens, and he told us this. 1688 01:35:30,424 --> 01:35:33,960 He said, "Listen, you have to have this face, strong. 1689 01:35:33,995 --> 01:35:35,795 You have to be powerful." 1690 01:35:36,030 --> 01:35:38,498 With this show, he kind of throw a bomb on us. 1691 01:35:38,533 --> 01:35:40,133 "Okay, this is it. Finish. 1692 01:35:40,168 --> 01:35:41,968 Everything is finished. We are reborn. 1693 01:35:42,003 --> 01:35:44,804 We're starting new-- new chapter, new plans." 1694 01:35:44,839 --> 01:35:46,873 [dramatic music playing] 1695 01:35:57,518 --> 01:35:59,452 I was really scared. 1696 01:35:59,954 --> 01:36:02,322 I tried to not to picture myself falling. 1697 01:36:02,857 --> 01:36:06,993 I wanted him to be proud of me, and I wanted him to be proud 1698 01:36:07,028 --> 01:36:10,163 that he has such a army of models. 1699 01:36:17,104 --> 01:36:21,274 Endless print designs. Might've been a fish's fin. 1700 01:36:21,309 --> 01:36:22,809 Scales from a snake. 1701 01:36:23,211 --> 01:36:29,282 Then manipulated and montaged into a repeat pattern 1702 01:36:29,483 --> 01:36:31,851 and become something else unrecognizable. 1703 01:36:32,186 --> 01:36:35,455 This was the turn of the digital age coming into fashion. 1704 01:36:37,258 --> 01:36:39,158 [Pons] If it was the end, 1705 01:36:39,193 --> 01:36:43,163 then that had to be why his best collection is there. 1706 01:36:51,572 --> 01:36:55,241 He knew he needed something revolutionary, 1707 01:36:55,943 --> 01:36:58,578 and I think Plato's Atlantis it is. I'm sorry. 1708 01:37:05,253 --> 01:37:07,854 [applause] 1709 01:37:09,590 --> 01:37:13,159 [Janet] I didn't go to Plato, my mum not being well. 1710 01:37:13,194 --> 01:37:15,294 She was on dialysis at the time. 1711 01:37:15,329 --> 01:37:17,630 Lee didn't really want to face the fact 1712 01:37:17,665 --> 01:37:22,235 that we was gonna lose Mum because he'd lost Issie. 1713 01:37:22,270 --> 01:37:23,536 He wasn't... 1714 01:37:25,640 --> 01:37:28,374 dealing with Mum not being well. 1715 01:37:30,244 --> 01:37:32,278 [somber music playing] 1716 01:37:39,153 --> 01:37:42,055 [Gary] After my grandmother, Joyce, had passed away... 1717 01:37:44,125 --> 01:37:45,592 he was in really bad shape. 1718 01:37:46,994 --> 01:37:48,261 [Janet] Lee was distraught. 1719 01:37:49,096 --> 01:37:51,931 We were sitting in the living room at my dad's... 1720 01:37:53,167 --> 01:37:56,202 and he didn't look hisself at all, Lee. 1721 01:37:57,405 --> 01:38:01,441 We was all taking my mum's passing bad, 1722 01:38:02,343 --> 01:38:05,311 but I think we was all worried about Lee, 1723 01:38:05,346 --> 01:38:07,247 because obviously, Mum and Lee... 1724 01:38:09,984 --> 01:38:12,218 Lee idolized my mum. 1725 01:38:23,164 --> 01:38:27,934 The last job he gave me to do was designing the gravestone. 1726 01:38:29,103 --> 01:38:32,138 He liked the idea like the wings wrapping round a gravestone 1727 01:38:32,173 --> 01:38:34,674 to kind of embrace my grandmother, Joyce. 1728 01:38:36,444 --> 01:38:38,444 Originally, I had the hands, 1729 01:38:38,479 --> 01:38:40,680 which were facing down on top of the gravestone... 1730 01:38:41,482 --> 01:38:43,683 but the hands for him, facing down, 1731 01:38:44,151 --> 01:38:46,619 was holding them down. 1732 01:38:46,654 --> 01:38:49,656 He want them uplifted, so he turned the hands upwards. 1733 01:38:54,228 --> 01:38:55,395 [Janet] I called Lee, 1734 01:38:56,197 --> 01:38:57,263 and... 1735 01:38:58,766 --> 01:39:02,635 we spoke about Mum's funeral, 1736 01:39:02,670 --> 01:39:07,273 and... and that was the last conversation. 1737 01:39:23,257 --> 01:39:26,692 The night, I was in bed, I was reading, 1738 01:39:26,727 --> 01:39:29,996 and I felt something touch my head... 1739 01:39:32,033 --> 01:39:34,734 very softly and very gently touch my head, 1740 01:39:34,769 --> 01:39:38,538 and I said to myself, "Who's here? Who are you?" 1741 01:39:38,773 --> 01:39:43,242 You know, I knew someone had passed and was saying goodbye. 1742 01:40:02,830 --> 01:40:07,100 I got a call at half past nine in the morning 1743 01:40:07,435 --> 01:40:08,501 from my sister, 1744 01:40:08,836 --> 01:40:11,337 and then that phone call... 1745 01:40:13,407 --> 01:40:15,608 just... changed... 1746 01:40:17,244 --> 01:40:18,144 everything. 1747 01:40:19,713 --> 01:40:21,647 I really couldn't believe what I was hearing, 1748 01:40:21,682 --> 01:40:25,151 because it just seemed so surreal in that moment. 1749 01:40:27,655 --> 01:40:30,523 Just a vision in my mind 1750 01:40:30,558 --> 01:40:33,392 of Lee being sort of all alone 1751 01:40:33,427 --> 01:40:36,429 and doing that as well was playing through my mind, 1752 01:40:36,464 --> 01:40:37,663 and it's quite... 1753 01:40:40,534 --> 01:40:43,769 it's not the nicest way to go, you know, 1754 01:40:43,804 --> 01:40:45,738 suicide, alone, hanging. 1755 01:40:46,774 --> 01:40:47,673 It's... 1756 01:40:49,643 --> 01:40:52,478 Don't want to think really what was going through his mind, 1757 01:40:52,513 --> 01:40:55,148 how lonely he must have been as well doing it. 1758 01:41:04,625 --> 01:41:06,492 [TV 1] The fashion world is in shock tonight 1759 01:41:06,527 --> 01:41:08,561 over the news that Alexander McQueen... 1760 01:41:08,596 --> 01:41:10,863 [TV 2] Alexander McQueen, the darling of British fashion, 1761 01:41:10,898 --> 01:41:12,364 has been found dead after apparent... 1762 01:41:12,399 --> 01:41:13,733 [TV 3] Alexander McQueen... 1763 01:41:18,205 --> 01:41:22,375 [overlapping TV reports in multiple languages] 1764 01:41:29,884 --> 01:41:31,384 [Pons] He used to say that a lot-- 1765 01:41:31,619 --> 01:41:35,421 one day, I'm gonna come home 1766 01:41:35,789 --> 01:41:37,356 inside a body bag... 1767 01:41:39,426 --> 01:41:40,860 and that day when... 1768 01:41:43,497 --> 01:41:45,765 the news open again that day... 1769 01:41:46,767 --> 01:41:49,469 him leaving his house inside a body bag. 1770 01:41:56,377 --> 01:42:01,480 [Barton] I'd taken my kids to Hamleys' hundredth-year celebration, 1771 01:42:01,515 --> 01:42:04,450 and my partner picked me up and said, 1772 01:42:04,485 --> 01:42:06,552 I've got-- [tearfully] I can't do it. 1773 01:42:06,587 --> 01:42:08,621 Just be wast-- I just cry. 1774 01:42:08,656 --> 01:42:12,358 He said, "Lee's dead," and... 1775 01:42:12,860 --> 01:42:14,527 it was just such a shock, 1776 01:42:14,562 --> 01:42:18,330 and I was so angry for a really long time. 1777 01:42:18,365 --> 01:42:20,633 'Cause you think just, "How do you-- 1778 01:42:21,202 --> 01:42:23,469 How did that happen?" He's... 1779 01:42:25,272 --> 01:42:26,405 I think that... 1780 01:42:28,742 --> 01:42:31,710 perhaps after my mum went 1781 01:42:31,745 --> 01:42:35,214 that he felt there was nothing 1782 01:42:35,249 --> 01:42:37,316 that could make him happy anymore. 1783 01:42:38,419 --> 01:42:42,155 And I just think it was in that moment that... 1784 01:42:44,358 --> 01:42:46,559 he had that emptiness. 1785 01:42:48,696 --> 01:42:50,496 I miss him a lot, yeah. 1786 01:42:51,565 --> 01:42:54,500 I miss that... that, you know... 1787 01:42:55,302 --> 01:42:58,304 he could've had some really great happiness in his life 1788 01:42:58,339 --> 01:43:01,540 and he didn't quite have that in his personal life, 1789 01:43:01,575 --> 01:43:05,678 and that's what I wish... wished for him most. 1790 01:43:06,447 --> 01:43:07,446 Yeah. 1791 01:43:11,785 --> 01:43:17,223 I'm so happy I got to... to meet him 1792 01:43:17,258 --> 01:43:18,791 and to... 1793 01:43:19,960 --> 01:43:22,895 to share part of my life 1794 01:43:22,930 --> 01:43:25,531 with his story, and everything. 1795 01:43:26,867 --> 01:43:27,900 But I miss him. 1796 01:43:28,369 --> 01:43:29,735 I wish... 1797 01:43:30,938 --> 01:43:33,839 things ended in a different way. 1798 01:43:37,611 --> 01:43:39,645 [piano music playing] 1799 01:43:49,890 --> 01:43:52,024 [Sykes] He wanted to make really beautiful things, 1800 01:43:52,059 --> 01:43:53,592 and he was-- sculpted in clothing. 1801 01:43:53,627 --> 01:43:55,594 He was a sculptor, really, I think, 1802 01:43:55,629 --> 01:43:57,563 and that's where that silhouette came from. 1803 01:43:59,533 --> 01:44:02,668 [Chai-Hyde] His clothes made me feel that you could be feminine, 1804 01:44:02,703 --> 01:44:05,704 but at the same time, "Don't fuck with me. 1805 01:44:05,739 --> 01:44:06,839 I'm a bitch." 1806 01:44:06,874 --> 01:44:08,274 [laughing] 1807 01:44:10,678 --> 01:44:14,947 [Pons] Things I remember best is seeing him working. 1808 01:44:15,616 --> 01:44:19,785 It was magical. For me, it was like a magician. 1809 01:44:23,891 --> 01:44:26,058 [Sykes] One outfit would just be insane, 1810 01:44:26,093 --> 01:44:28,794 and then the next one would just be genius. 1811 01:44:30,731 --> 01:44:33,966 [Danan] Nobody could create emotions in a show 1812 01:44:34,001 --> 01:44:36,269 like Lee McQueen did. 1813 01:44:38,939 --> 01:44:42,708 [Gary] Fashion for Lee was a way of communicating a whole world, 1814 01:44:42,743 --> 01:44:45,511 and he wanted to take himself out of the picture 1815 01:44:45,546 --> 01:44:49,282 and for people to focus on this art Lee's creating. 1816 01:44:51,018 --> 01:44:52,951 [Costin] Raucous, bolshie, 1817 01:44:52,986 --> 01:44:55,854 incredibly funny, incredibly driven. 1818 01:44:55,889 --> 01:44:57,623 Not only did he have a singular vision, 1819 01:44:57,658 --> 01:45:00,592 but he was a very singular individual, 1820 01:45:00,627 --> 01:45:04,730 and his strength of personality was quite phenomenal. 1821 01:45:05,632 --> 01:45:07,466 You don't see many people like that. 1822 01:45:08,068 --> 01:45:09,935 They don't come up very often. 1823 01:45:15,142 --> 01:45:17,376 [chamber music playing] 1824 01:48:08,282 --> 01:48:11,750 [chamber music stops suddenly, piano music] 1825 01:50:57,084 --> 01:51:00,352 [music ends] 149617

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