Lee had a very strong point of view on what music he wanted for a show. There were always drums in some way and always an evocative song at the end that made you feel uplifted or sentimental. Lee listened to a lot of classical music over the past three years, especially during fittings — Philip Glass’s music from The Hours or Michael Nyman’s music from The Piano. Music seemed more important once we moved to the current studio. I don’t remember it playing in the former one on Amwell Street.
What do you think the big spectacles satisfied in Lee?
The shows always seemed to be the result of remarkably stable collaborations.
Lee was amazingly loyal, with a great belief in people. He was very strong in his collaborations. His vision was so pure that he would very much be the director of whatever project he worked on, whether it was a show or a photo shoot. But when he worked with the milliner Philip Treacy, he was very respectful.
He’d show him boards and give him key words, and Philip would come up with something. For example, in the collection “The Horn of Plenty” (autumn/winter 2009–10), Lee wanted plastic bags on the heads, like he’d seen in Hendrik Kerstens’ photos at the National Portrait Gallery, but it was Philip who came up with the dustbin lid and the exploding wicker basket. Guido Palau’s coiffures for “The Horn of Plenty” brought another layer to the collection. For Lee, Philip and Guido really finished off the look. It was the same with the jeweler Shaun Leane. Lee loved his craftsmanship. When he first started to think about the production of a show, that’s when Sam Gainsbury would come in. They’d discuss the venue, the theme. When Lee began to show in Paris, he sometimes chose a venue because of its special atmosphere, such as the Conciergerie, where he staged his collection “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” 2002–03).
(autumn/winter
Most of the time, however, Lee wanted to create his own environment, so he showed at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy.
For “The Girl Who Lived in the Tree” (autumn/winter 2008–09), which featured a tree wrapped in fabric, Lee looked to the artist Christo for inspiration, then to Sam to make it happen. She had a huge input in things. Joseph Bennett and Simon Kenny worked on the design and Dan Landin on the lighting. John Gosling always did the music, which was vital, because whatever we played was part of the feeling of the collection.
He really loved the shows. He used to say, “This is the last big one we’re doing,” but he couldn’t help himself. Lee just didn’t like doing normal catwalk shows, and so much was expected from him.
The nearest he came to a standard runway presentation was for the Hitchcock-inspired “The Man Who Knew Too Much” collection (autumn/winter 2005–06). The presentation that immediately followed this — the Greek-inspired “Neptune” collection (spring/summer 2006) — was also more conventional.
You talk about Lee having a freakish visual memory. For real?
Completely. He would say, “We’re going to work on the 1940s,” or whatever the theme was going to be. He’d start with an idea, and we’d prepare boards and boards of research. Then the idea would start to change. He’d add something completely opposite or pull different things he liked. And sometimes you would come in a week later, and it would all be down and something else would be up. He was so fast, and because he could get bored quite easily with things, he just kept coming up with more and more ideas.
Lee got inspiration from anything. “I was walking to work and I saw this poster,” or “I was watching Friends, and Joey was wearing this green shirt.” He loved the Discovery Channel and nature books. We all used to get National Geographic. It was that disparate. But he had an amazing way of editing. Each day was a different thing.
He’d say, “I’d like this as a jacquard,” or “I want this damask in a new laminated technique,” or “Let’s get someone in the sewing room to make this suit.” You never said, “No, I can’t do that,” because either he could do it or you had to learn to do it, and he was always right. I remember one dress from “Scanners” (autumn/winter 2003–04) that was composed of engineered panels of embroidery, and I couldn’t get my head around it. He sketched how to work it out. For another dress, he wanted all the lace to be cut by hand and engineered onto circles.