As I sat in front of the TV watching the British documentary on Alexander Lee McQueen’s life, the so famous fashion rebel that shortened his life a year ago, I wondered how fashion can bring the best and the worse out of people. Lee was nothing short of genius. His talent was stunning, fascinating but above all shocking. Nobody pushed fashion to such extremes. His shows were performances loved and loathed by the public and specially the press.
But what fascinated me tonight was to see the fashion industry stripped down naked. Out came some of the most realistic facts that nobody wants to touch or for this matter talk about. In the open was Lee’s tough love relationship with Isabella Blow and, of course, his long term cocaine habit.
As he made as a designer taking a job at the house of Givenchy, Isabella was left behind and was not invited to ‘join the party’ in Paris. These were difficult years for them both. As Godfrey Deeny from FWD points out, “the press hated (Lee’s Givenchy collections) and I was not going to lie to Lee”. McQueen found difficult to fit in as a creative force behind a such a traditional French house. Back in UK, Isabella was jobless and lonely.
Isabella, for those who do not know, is the British fashion journalist and editor who discovered McQueen at his Central Saint Martins MA graduation show, buying all his collection, becoming his muse and presenting him to the world. She was an aristocratic Lady Gaga, wearing mind blowing hats and extravagant outfits. The sadness, resent and unhappiness of Isabella’s life is heartbreaking. I completely sympathise with her. She made many stars in the fashion world and despite being globally well known she struggled to even keep a job. Six suicide attempts in 2 years, Isabella seemed to find difficult to fit in. To the world she seemed to have everything, but deep inside she lived a constant battle to proof herself. “She did not want to become a charicature”, says her husband.
Brilliant and outrageous at its best, fashion geniality. Isabella’s sense of fashion was inspiring, beautiful and very, very ahead of her time. But apparently expensive and not commercial, so as a visionary she found hard to have a job and like any other mortal was having trouble to even pay her bills.
Asked if fashion had let down by she surprisingly says “No, ‘fashion’ is my everything”.
Indeed Issie, isn’t it to us all ?
Roxy Ribeiro
ta escrevendo muito gostoso,