McQueen

The film about Alexander McQueen the fashion designer. It was a very interesting and sad film. He was one of those rare geniuses, a young man brought up in very modest circumstances in the South East of London, physically unattractive, openly gay and out at the age of 18 and later on HIV positive but who had an absolute passion for designing clothes. He was apprenticed to one of the top men’s tailors in Saville Row, worked long and hard, learning, learning all the time, went to Milan without speaking a word of Italian and landed himself a job as a cutter with a top Italian designer by sheer brazen cheek. Walked in to the shop and announced “I can cut better than you”. He could. It came out late in the film that he was capable of just looking at someone and was able to cut a dress or suit freehand without even chalk marking the fabric! He took over as head of house at Givenchy while at the same time running his own brand in the UK. When he left Givenchy he went over to Gucci. In the end he just felt he had nothing else to live for and hanged himself at the age of 40.  A shooting star that died far too soon.