“McQueen”, a new documentary about fashion’s enfant terrible

A provocateur but also an avant-gardist, the British bad boy Lee Alexander McQueen remains one the leading figures of a fashion world that he revolutionised. Entitled McQueen, this new documentary, just under two-hours long, by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui retraces the incredible path taken by the designer, from his darkest moments to the most glorious. Through exclusive interviews, previously unseen backstage footage and extracts from his most spectacular runway shows and collections, the documentary invites us to discover the chimerical and often tortured world of the man who adored drama and scandal, and wanted to constantly surprise the industry with unconventional collections.  

 

It’s impossible to forget his incredible hologram of Kate Moss at his 2006 Paris show, his astonishing use of robots in London in 1999, and his visceral décor made to resemble a lunatic asylum of 2001. We all know him as a designer, but this documentary proclaims him an artist. Although deeply melancholic, he wanted to tell stories and transmit messages as shocking as they were moving through a highly sophisticated fashion with Gothic inspiration, mixing nature and fantasy. Guaranteeing runway shows bursting with theatricality, Alexander McQueen presented excessive and opulent conceptions, sprinkled with artistic references relating to dance, painting, music and literature. He even went as far to say, “People don’t want to see clothes, they want to see something that fuels the imagination.”

 

The McQueen documentary, which has released only a 30-second teaser so far, will be premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22nd before a limited theatrical release in June.