Fashion | NEW YORK - LONDON Do you think he saw himself as an artist?
I don’t know. Lee wanted to go back to art college. He actually got into the Slade School to do art, but he always called himself a designer, not an artist. He was a showman more than anything. Still, when you think about the way he designed, it did feel more about art. It was never, “Oh, is that comfortable?”
It was all about the vision and the head-to-toe look of it. When you saw the models lined up, it was so clear and so direct. Lee was a designer who was making a world and telling a story.
Sometimes it was on such a level that maybe the fashion audience wasn’t the right audience to tell it to, but what audience was right? That’s the problem
I think he had. The stigma: Is it fashion? Is it art? But if it’s not making money, you can’t do these amazing shows. Lee did care about the commercial side of the industry, but what most people remember are the shows.
But you said he’d start with the show, so if that’s how he was assessed, surely that’s what he wanted.
I think you’re right. But what I realize as well is that he created a world for himself where he could do anything he wanted to do, with no constraints, no merchandiser coming upstairs and asking, “Where’s my three-button jacket?” That’s very unusual in fashion.