Dirs: Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui | Doc | 111′
Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui show how Lee A McQueen took the fashion world by storm and rose to become a leading anti-establishment designer whose label would be a favourite of the future Queen of England. Co-directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, McQueen structures the documentary expose into “tapes” that showcase his most iconic collections, styling women as heroines of their own lives rather than victims of others. We experience the high octane thrill of the catwalk in collections such as Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims and Highland Rape or even Plato’s Atlantis. Filmic and fast-moving, McQueen is made all the more tense by Michael Nyman’s urgent score.
The duo describe how Lee A McQueen grew up in London East End and was prompted by his mother to apply for an apprenticeship at Anderson & Sheppard in the legendary home of gentlemen’s tailoring Savile Row. Exuding an creative energy, McQueen worked at lightening speed to draft his designs and put them together for his own fashion company, eventually rising to become the creative director at Givenchy – clearly schmoozing also came naturally to the young talented workaholic. Although from the other side of the tracks, he developed a close relationship with a mentor in the shape of the late Isabella Blow who was so impressed she promoted him to her high-end contacts. Described as “funny and disrespectful”, McQueen was also obsessed by fetishist culture in his Gothic designs which echoed the Victorian history of London’s East End at a time in the 1990s when Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst were also making a big splash.
Seizing the fashion world by storm while surviving on benefits, McQueen’s stock in trade was to forage and fashion any type of fabric he could lay his hands on and make an immediate statement on the catwalk. Bonhôte and Ettedgu pay homage to this idiosyncratic style with their combination of rough-cut home videos of the designer himself with archive of his shows and talking heads of some of his collaborators. MT
BLURAY, DVD, COLLECTOR’S EDITION | 22 OCTOBER 2018 | DIGITAL DOWNLOAD 15 OCTOBER 2018