The documentary MCQUEEN is about the working-class Alexander Lee McQueen, who learned how to tailor on Savile Row from Pike before becoming a costume designer in London, working for Japanese designer Koji Tatsuno, and studying fashion design in London. His degree fashion show was bought up by Vogue stylist Isabell Blow and she took McQueen under her well-dressed wings. The film is about how McQueen processed his personal traumas and political-historical interests in his collections and fashion shows, while his friend Blow with her pheasant hat tells him that they will do some falconry the next day. Those who have known McQueen for a longer time will discover controversial stories about McQueen‘s work and private life from the film by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, but perhaps the directors should have given more time and space to McQueen‘s fashion shows that are talked about so much. The brilliant concept of the scandalous 1995 show “The Highland Rape“ being a commentary on the systematic rape of Scottish women in the British Civil War only becomes clear in context. It beginswith clean, elegant creations and then a model appears in a tulle skirt with scraps coming out of her vagina. After that the powerful models switch back and forth between traditional Scottish elements and staggering models in torn clothes. McQueen‘s shows seem like pseudo-provocative gimmicks in the small film snippets, but in context they are radical and moving statements of self-determination. What is clear are the personal consequences of his quick rise to fame as he had to dealt with the the stress, cocaine, a lot of fights and betrayals.

Hannes Stein (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy