LONG LOST TAPES BY MCQUEEN

During London Fashion Week, fashion lovers got a big surprise. Short film "The Long Lost Tapes" premiered on an online platform. The film featured never-before-seen footage of fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who died in 2010. The footage provides an intriguing look into the creativity and personality of and designer in the fashion world who is still missed. Text: Fleur de Jong
Image: Gary Wallis | FashionUnited | Pierre Verdy | AFPTheimages were commissioned by McQueen by photographer Gary Wallis who attended every McQueen show between 1992 and 1996. The film features a young Alexander McQueen at the British estate Hilles House, among others. The fashion designer is filmed doing cartwheels and wiggling his bare feet in the air.

Clothing made just before show

The film also takes you to the London neighborhood of Soho, where the designer's favorite fabric store and pastry chef was located. In the final scene of the film, the viewer finds himself in Cafe de Paris, the location of the McQueen show in February 1994. The footage shows McQueen, just before the models go on, cutting large slits in the tulle skirts they are wearing. Photographer Wallis says the clothes were made as the models took to the catwalk.

All the footage was filmed in grainy black and white, according to the photographer, a deliberate choice by McQueen, who did not want the film to be "slick. 

The footage in the film was actually meant to be played at an event in New York. However, the material disappeared into a storage unit in London and it was forgotten. It wasn't until 2018 when McQueen's documentary was released that the tapes resurfaced from under the dust.