8th June, a date for the diary. The eagerly awaited Alexander McQueen biopic is to premiere at the Picturehouse Central, in London.  The documentary teases to focuses around the early beginnings of McQueen; exploring behind the scenes footage, moving interviews with friends and families, spellbinding show footage and personal home videos; eventually depicting the final few years of the designer’s life, including his subsequent suicide. 

An intense trailer was previously aired two weeks ago at the Tribeca Film Festival, however now the anticipated, full two-minute trailer has been officially released. Viewers can look forward to captivating, career-defining moments such as Kate Moss as an ethereal hologram and model Shalom Harlow revolving on a platform, while two machines simultaneously spray-painted her couture dress.

The film, of course, has a dark, chilling element to it, which explores how the troubled and tortured mind of McQueen worked. The trailer sees McQueen discuss the immense pressures of his work, which saw him harnessing his inner demons to create fourteen fashion collections a year, with a narrative adding, “He thought the system was against him,”. The untimely end to McQueen’s life 8 years ago provides an eerie overcast throughout. 

If McQueen’s 2015 ‘Savage Beauty’ exhibition, is anything to go by, this documentary is set to be the fashion film of the year; almost half a million people turned out to see the V&A exhibition, featuring some of McQueen’s most memorising creations, with the museum having to open throughout the night to deal with unprecedented demand. The simply named ‘McQueen’ film has a limited release in the UK, with the American release set to be July this year. A must see this year, the trailer finishes with the haunting line from the designer himself: ‘We can all be discarded all easily, you’re there, you’re gone.’

Words / JOANNE M KENNEDY

Image credits / Alexander McQueen

Film credits / McQueen Trailer - A Film by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui