Cutting Up Rough The Works

BBC Four Collections -

specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.

This goes...

..over the top. Like that.

It's made of calfskin.

And then the impala horns,

well, Thomson's gazelle horns if you want to be strict.

Goes up like that.

So it's like we cut the Thomson's gazelle in half.

I don't know whether to have them out like that.

I prefer them out like that.

Maybe sort of like...sort of like...surrounding her head.

I mean, I suppose you could class this as costume,

but it's costume with a deadly meaning, so...

I'd like to see anyone who wears this go on a number 19 bus

back to Islington.

MUSIC: Encore Une Fois by Sash!

He's British fashion's wild child,

famous for his bumster trousers and shocking shows.

He's the boy from the East End council house who's now

head of design at one of the most famous labels in the world.

Givenchy in Paris.

He's Alexander McQueen, and this is his story.

'There's always an energy in London, in the poverty,

'the unemployment, the drug-induced environment, the night life.

'It is the way I predict my own clothes, it is

'about the raw energy of London.'

This is for that Miss Selfridge finish!

HE LAUGHS

This is the commercial side.

Are you ready, Miss England?

Try these knickers on again.

For the BBC.

- Oh, right! - You are.

'When I first started as a designer after I left college,

'I really worked that East End yob,

'this type of hooligan type of person becoming a designer,

'that juxtaposition between an hooligan

'and someone who uses a needle.

'And people couldn't fathom it, and so it was new,

'it was a breath of fresh air.'

Ooh.

'Katy's the most important part of McQueen.'

Camera up, please.

'She's the Tweedledee to my Tweedledum.

'She fuels my imagination.'

KATY: 'He just sort of doesn't feel restricted, I think.

'He let's his imagination run away with him.'

If he's making a dress

and he's putting sort of resin on it or beetles' wings in it,

or whatever it might be, it sounds crazy, but, you know,

'at first you think, "God, what's he doing?"'

Look at her, Santa's sleigh girl!

HE LAUGHS

'He's got the most wicked laugh,'

and every time he laughs over the phone, I think of one person,

Jack Nicholson, I can see... And he reminds me

of Jack Nicholson every time he laughs.

This is one assistant that didn't quite work out!

HE LAUGHS

See Kath over there? If she's not lucky, she's in next year's season!

JOYCE: 'Most of the workers he calls his family.

'They have been so loyal to him, right from the very beginning.

'Many of them work for nothing with him.

'And they've builded themselves up.

'And they're a great crowd.'

This is Simon Costin. He's my art director for my shows.

'You know when he's satisfied with something because there's this'

sort of...sense of calm that descends. You know

when he's not because he's shredding it to pieces and repinning it.

Ooh, God, nearly had his own back then!

'He knows intuitively when it's worked and when it hasn't,

'because it's achieved whatever it is

'of this idea that he's got in his head.'

We should have his tail coming out the front!

McQueen's appointment as head of design at Givenchy surprised

some people.

How would the outlandish style made famous by McQueen's own label

in London transfer to the more conservative atmosphere

of the House of Givenchy in Paris?

'This is Paris and Paris chic.

'This is Givenchy, not McQueen, this is where elegant suits are made

'and fantastic fabrics are used and they're cut with precision.

'I mean, it's going to take my own label,

McQueen, another 40 years to get the reputation this one has.'

This is the Bette Lynch dress.

We also treated it, bonding plastic over the top, for raincoats.

So you get the whole ensemble.

OK.

'I've started to really like Paris and I'm thinking of staying here

'much more that I ever thought I would.

'It's kind of relaxing and it's kind of nice

'to have a special office for myself, where in London I have to...

'I use a studio and it's shared by others.'

Here I have my own office, I pick up the phone and I get what I want.

Because I want it, I want it, I want it! So I ask for it.

SHE SPEAKS FRENCH

People don't take young English yobs lightly in Paris.

I really do rely on my honesty,

and in fashion it doesn't go down too well because people want to

hear how good they are and how nice their magazine is.

I don't think that's modern, for the 21st century.

I don't think it's the way fashion's going to survive in the 21st century.

SIMON: 'Taking that Givenchy contract was such a huge thing.

'All of a sudden, we're in this very zhushy Paris couture house,

'skipping around in trainers.'

You could read...

When we first arrived, I think there as this sort of terror written.

And then they were sort of quite lulled

into a slightly false sense of security

because I think there's a lot more shocks to come.

I'm intent on just chopping things up.

Not chopping them up to destroy them, but chopping them up to alter them.

It's like...

They're quite precise and, like, take the threads out,

and I just get the scissors and go...whack it off.

And they go...like that. And I go, "It's OK, it's only clothes."

MUSIC: Sweet And Tender Hooligan by The Smiths

# He was a sweet and tender hooligan... #

'I just had this passion for it, I just loved it.

'I mean, if you talk to any of my school teachers, my old books,

'science books, English books, maths books, were full of clothes.'

# And he swore that he'll never, never do it again,

# And of course he won't Oh, not until the next time. #

JOYCE: '"Lee finds it difficult to cope in a large comprehensive school

'"and needs to organise himself more.

'"He has a tendency to chatter, but he realises this

'"and is working hard to improve."'

Then we go on to his art. Oh, he got an A.

"Excellent.

"Lee has artistic ability and always works hard."

The one that surprised me most probably was French.

Of all subjects.

"Lee is an enthusiastic student who clearly enjoys French."

He obviously enjoyed learning French at that time, which is

rather peculiar, isn't it, really, when you think about it?

- The skirt. - La jupe?

Jupe.

Vous-avez une jupe comme ca?

Oh, the...

Le robe.

- Le robe? - La robe comme ca? Oui.

Mais il y a des jupes?

Yeah. Yeah, it's OK.

- Il y a une jupe? - Oh, jupe! Oh! Oh, it's OK.

I thought it was pantalon.

Er, no.

It should be...

'We have a universal language.'

'Although I can't speak French, you know, as soon as I start

'working with them, we know instantly, the way I move my hand...'

- Bon. - Ah, oui. Non, non, d'accord.

OK.

I'm not one of these designers who sit back and say...

And point to things, you know. I can't work like that.

At the end of the day, I come from the atelier myself,

the workrooms of Savile Row.

The tailoring skills McQueen learned on Savile Row have become

one of the hallmarks of his work.

But the teenage apprentice had no intention of staying

below stairs for long.

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

'cluttered in a small workshop, sitting on a bench padding lapels.

'God, it was so boring!'

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

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

Quick at learning trousers. I wanted to learn everything, everything.

Give me everything!

MAN: 'I certainly remember him working with us,

'and though sadly we lost his talent, no way were we going to keep him!'

His mind and nature was inquisitive. Never short of asking questions.

"Why this? Why that?

'"Why put a cut in a coat here rather than there to create a chest

'"or create suppression in a waist?"

'All this was very evident from the way he worked and the way he talked.'

A single-breasted jacket is a single-breasted jacket.

It doesn't move on. A double-breasted is a double-breasted.

You know what I mean?

It's like, a jacket is a jacket, but I wanted to pull lapels round

the back of the neck, up the arse and everywhere else.

This coat, which is based on

a sort of, like, 19th-century frock coat,

and what we've done here with a Prince of Wales check

is embroidered it with a satin-stitch rose going up the side.

Then we took the same pattern

and then turned it into streetwear

by putting it in denim with bleach in it.

And here we have, like, a city suit,

and it's quite a nice one with a pink pinstripe.

And it looks like the lining's coming out underneath, and it's not.

It's all been, sort of, like, panelled into the jacket.

And, you know, it's just that the idea that...

It's that weird idea of mine that, you know, something could be

so messy but it can still look elegant.

HE MIMICS EXPLOSION

No, it is really busy at the moment, but...

I like people that chase the future instead of working with the norm.

What's the point in designing a mini if a mini is already there?

I'll tell him. He won't come to the phone, because he's really busy.

Horny little devil, isn't he?

LAUGHTER

'It's what fashion was about.

'It's that time to experiment and push boundaries.'

I mean, I've always had a fascination with the macabre.

Well, I'll tell him, but I know what he's going to say.

The idea is that this wildebeest has eaten a really lovely blonde girl

and she's trying to get out.

HE CHUCKLES

My mum's looking at me kind of weird, thinking,

"What have I given birth to? It's a sort of, like, creature!"

Oh, it's funny!

I did often wonder when he'd get a job,

you know, like what we'd call a proper job.

That's the last thing he was ever going to do.

No, he was different right from the very beginning. As I said, he...

He was different right from when he was young.

McQueen's first big break came

when he won a coveted place on the Fashion MA course

at St Martins School of Art in London.

But his entry into this hothouse for British fashion was highly unusual.

WOMAN: 'It was pretty extraordinary because, you know,

'you interview endless students to decide who you will

'take on the course, and they come to you from all over the world.

'And with Alexander, he just arrived,'

walked into my office with a bundle of clothes

and asked me to give him a job. He didn't...

He wasn't thinking of joining the course.

'And I was intrigued!

'So we talked a bit more and then I said,

'well, did he design himself or did he draw at all?

'And he said yes, he'd always drawn.'

And I was very interested and I said, "Well, I haven't time

"to go on talking to you, but, if you like, come back and see me

"with some drawings, because, you know, it might be a good idea

"if you took this course."

And I was thrilled to pieces that he'd been offered.

But, of course, straightaway, where am I going to get the college fees?

'But that's when his aunt stepped in and offered him the money.'

ALEXANDER: 'I was so desperate for that money.

'I didn't pay it back until I got the Givenchy job'

and I just paid it back with all one lump sum

and it was like, "Phew!" It was fab!

JOYCE: 'To me, at that time, that was the pinnacle,

'seeing him having his MA show.'

I never doubted his talent, but I wondered whether

he'd ever discipline it enough to actually, you know, control it.

'One didn't realise that he would produce a collection

'which would be so exciting, and Isabella Blow,'

who was a contributing editor to Vogue,

spotted him, and he was the one she took up.

His real name is Lee.

'Everyone else calls him Lee but I call him Alexander,

'because I think of Alexander the Great.'

I was sitting on the floor -

I couldn't even get a seat at the St Martins show -

'and the pieces went past me and they moved in a way I've never seen,

'and I wanted them.

'They were modern, they were classical.

'The colours were very extreme.

'He would do a black coat but then he'd line it with human hair

'and it was blood red inside, so it was like a body.

'It was like the flesh with blood.

'And I just thought, "This is the most beautiful thing

'"I've ever seen."'

Next day, I rang up and I couldn't get hold of him,

and his mother said to him, "Look, there's this mad woman

"who keeps trying to call us. She wants some of your clothes."

I rang between six and eight times a day.

Finally, I got a little voice on the end of the line - "Hello."

So I said, "Yes, can I come and make an appointment with you?

"My name's Isabella Blow." I don't know to this day

if he knew who I was.

No, I just wanted the money. I was desperate for money.

I wasn't interested in him either - I just wanted the clothes.

I didn't give her no money off.

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

And she loved that.

Actually, it wasn't 350 the lot - it was 350 per piece.

Issy? She's a lovely person.

She really is a lovely person. And, er...

You know, you have to give her such praise because isn't she talented?

You know, apart from the hats and everything -

I mean, Issy loves her hats -

but isn't she talented, to spot all these people?

BOBBY: 'I think Isabella just took on, you know,

'where the school left off.

'I mean, she bought his collection, she wore it, she promoted him,

'she talked about him.

'As far as I know, he stayed in her house.'

She's been incredible and I think she's helped him quite enormously.

These designers think that you made me and...

- No, they don't. - It's never been about...

No, they don't. They know that that...

They do! Cos you seen it the other day.

You see it all the time in the press.

"Isabella Blow, responsible for Philip Treacy and Alexander McQueen."

- No, they say... - They do say that!

The thing is, it's never been about that for me and you.

Whether I was part of it...

Does that really annoy you, that they always put,

"as discovered by Isabella Blow"? Does it piss you off?

No, not at all, because Issy has helped me a lot in that way,

but not in the way that she sort of like...

You know, she does it because she loves my clothes,

not because she loves me.

- Exactly. That's the point. - Oh.

Because I can't stand her guts!

LAUGHTER

Joke!

ISABELLA: 'I just knew that he had something really special,'

very modern.

It was about sabotage and tradition, which is the perfect combination,

and beauty, violence - all the things that, I suppose,

the '90s represent.

McQueen was to become the most controversial designer of the '90s,

making his name with the plunging waistlines of the bumster trouser.

ALEXANDER: 'I had to elongate the abdomen and the only way to do that

'was to bring the waistline down to the possible bare minimum.

'My focus was on the front of the body, not on the back.

'And the good old British press love to make something out of nothing

'and, sort of, like, it was...

'"Gorgeous bum," and there's, like, "Oh, builder's bum."

Naturally, they're not appealing at all, even to a gay man, I'm afraid.

PA SYSTEM: 'Air France is pleased to announce

'the departure of its Paris Express flight.

'Would all passengers proceed to gate number five,

'where the flight is now boarding?'

KATY: 'When you think of Givenchy, you think of Audrey Hepburn.'

And you can't live in the '50s.

He wants to take it into the 21st century

and, sort of, almost put a little bit of Audrey Hepburn in the past.

ALEXANDER: 'I want to try and make it slightly younger and hipper

'and more funkier.

'It's to do with Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave, Georgy Girl

'and that type of thing.

'To me, the company, before I came here, lacked that direction a bit.

'You know, you couldn't really identify what the Givenchy look was.

'And because Hubert Givenchy was such a fine tailor,

'it's better that we stick to the tailoring side.'

ISABELLA: 'I think he's already done a lot with the house.

'Because Givenchy have had a lot of press,

'it's a more difficult thing to deal with,'

cos McQueen is McQueen in London.

Givenchy is taking over from another man in Paris

and it's like, as Alexander says himself,

it's like taking a dinosaur out of the sea and I think,

in one season, he's done that.

So I think, in a year, he will have done 20 times that.

'He comes up here about four times a year.

'Maybe half a dozen.

'And he completely takes it over, arrives, it becomes his office.

'And it becomes his sort of play den,

'and he relaxes and he feels very at home.'

JOYCE: 'He just loves it up there. He just finds it so relaxing.

'I think he just goes into another world when he's up there,

'especially when he's with his birds.'

HE WHISTLES

Good boy.

HE WHISTLES

ALEXANDER: 'I've always had this thing about nature.

'I get a lot of inspiration from nature itself.

'It comes a lot in my work, really. I mean, it's a big aesthetic for me.

'So I work on that a lot.'

BIRD CROWS

ALEXANDER: 'The whole show feeling was about the Thomson's gazelle.

'It's a poor little critter.' HE LAUGHS

'The markings are lovely.'

It's got these dark eyes, the white of the belly,

'then the black line going across, then the tan, the horns.

'But it is the food chain of Africa.

'As soon as it's born, it's dead.

'I mean, you're lucky if it lasts a few months.

'And that's how I see human life, in the same way.

'You know, we can all be discarded quite easily

'and nothing depicts it more honestly than the way animals are.

'And I always try and...'

also say the fragility of a designer's time in the press.

You're there. You're gone. HE CLICKS FINGERS

HE LAUGHS It's a jungle out there.

BUZZ OF CONVERSATION

MAN: Any film crews, all camera crews, go round to the front gate.

ANNOUNCEMENT ON TANNOY

It's the night of the show for McQueen's own label.

He forces the fashion world to take a trip to Borough Market,

just south of London Bridge.

ALEXANDER: 'It was nice to show them the rough part of London

'and make them a bit scared and look over their shoulder once in a while.

'For me, the reason people come to London is to see the real London,

'not to see a make-believe London.'

JANET: 'You always sit there a bit apprehensive at the beginning.'

- JOYCE: 'I do. I sit there.' - 'She's waiting to see what comes.'

I'm a bundle of nerves, I think,

"Oh, my God, what am I going to see this time?" You know.

I think we all are.

KATY: 'Before the show is probably the most stressful moment

'in any designer's year, really.'

ALEXANDER: We want to start the show.

Just get back out there. What's happening?

'Naturally, he's just completely on edge and he just sort of

- 'goes a bit crazy, really.' - ALEXANDER: What the BLEEP?

WOMAN: Yeah, are we all standing by, ready to go?

- WOMAN 2: Yeah. - Where's Russell?

Is he out there? Is he getting ready?

WOMAN: Yeah, yeah.

ALEXANDER: Keep to the right. Keep to the right.

You are taking yourself as a model to a level that, you know,

in Milan, in New York, in Paris, that you would never go.

'It's never happened, so it's so strange and brilliant and new.'

WHISTLING AND CHEERING

DANCE MUSIC BEGINS

# The witch doctor! #

CHEERING

ISABELLA: 'He's constantly playing, as a traditional tailor,

'with the body in very modern forms, so the armpits get longer,

'the shoulders get wider, they get higher,

'the hips are accentuated, the waists, etc.

'I mean, God knows where he's going to slash next.

'But that's what makes him so modern.'

# The witch doctor! The witch doctor!

# The witch doctor! The witch doctor!

# The witch doctor! The witch doctor... #

JOYCE: 'I thought it was absolutely mad, absolutely mad.

'The horns in the back of the jacket and sticking up!'

# The witch doctor... #

BOBBY: 'I think he's unaware of quite how shocking

'some of the things he does are and how they kind of jolt people.

'It isn't something he's acquired,

'because he thinks it's fashionable to do so. It's him.'

JOYCE: 'I thought there was some lovely suits there.

'Really lovely suits.'

# The witch doctor! The witch doctor!

# The witch doctor! The witch doctor... #

SHOUTING

ALEXANDER: 'I don't see the point in doing anything

'that doesn't create an emotion, good or bad.

'If you're disgusted, well, at least that's emotion.

'If you walk away and you've forgot everything you saw,

'then I haven't done my job properly.'

'I don't think I've done my best yet.

'I've not been happy with anything I've done so far.

'I've been happy, adequately happy, but I haven't been blown away.'

MUSIC: Get Down On It by Kool and the Gang

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: Georgy Girl by The New Seekers

# Hey there, Georgy Girl

# Dreamin' of the someone you could be

# Life is a reality You can't always run away

# You're always window shopping but never stopping to buy

# So shed those dowdy feathers and fly, a little bit

# Hey there, Georgy Girl

# There's another Georgy deep inside

# Bring out all the love you hide and, oh, what a change there'd be

# The world would see a new Georgy Girl

- # Hey there, Georgy Girl! - Wake up, Georgy Girl!

- # Hey there, Georgy Girl! - Come on, Georgy Girl!

- # Hey there, Georgy Girl! - Wake up, Georgy Girl... #