Kingdom of Dreams (2022): Season 1, Episode 3 - Chapter 3 - full transcript

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- Hi John.
- Hello.

- How are you?
- Very good, and you?

- I arrived in American "Vogue,"

I think it was, like, the spring of 1997,

but I'd worked for British
"Vogue" for four years.

- Plum's been spending
her week with Puff Daddy.

- Do you know Puff Daddy?
- Oh.

I've not met him, no.

- Oh, John, I wish you had.

- Meet him on Tuesday-



- Will you give me a quote about him?

You know, Anna rang me up and said,

"Do you wanna come and work for me?"

And I said, "Yeah, I'd love to."

And the sort of biggest
thing was realising

that it was a giant machine.

It was a giant corporate machine.

(car horn honking)
(telephone ringing)

- [Receptionist] Anna Wintour's office.

- I remember arriving at my
first Fashion Week at "Vogue,"

sitting with Domenico De
Sole and Domenico explaining

to me how important "Vogue"
and Anna were to Gucci.

And I remember him telling me

that, "Look, if Anna can't be
there by such and such a time,



like we'll move the show."

I was like, "Oh my God, I have never heard

of anything like that."

- The rule was that you
don't say no to Anna.

Power.

Even the Pinault and the
Arnault wanted to please

Anna because everybody needed
to be on the cover of "Vogue."

- As these two big luxury houses

started to acquire more brands,

where they would compete
in the pages of "Vogue."

And at the time Gucci
was the really hot brand

and they were spending a lot of money.

Then you might have the
people from LVMH say,

"Well, but we run more
business 'cause we're LVMH."

So we would just be
getting all this pressure.

Now what we would do is we would turn

it into like a Christie's auction.

I would be like, "Okay,
four pages this issue,

seven pages next issue.

What if you're gonna
guarantee another eight pages

and are you gonna do it
again in the February issue?"

You know?

It would be like that.

- It was like a war.

The amount of money we were giving them

was in the tens of millions.

- And when that September issue came out,

you know, people would weigh them.

They would drop it and
hear the sound that it made

because they were just
so fat with advertising.

(crowd chatting)

- I remember Anna Wintour
pulled me aside and asked me,

"What are you gonna do with Tom?"

- Obviously everybody's
watching with great interest

to see what he and Mr.
De Sole are gonna do

with the Gucci billions.

- We're talking billions.

We're talking billions and
also it's not only about,

"I want more money,"
or, "I want more fame,"

but, "I want to be the biggest one."

(gentle theme music playing)

(gentle theme music playing)

(gentle theme music playing)

(gentle theme music playing)

(gentle theme music playing)

(gentle theme music playing)

(tense music)

(tense music)

- We wanna be players in this.

There are gonna be very
good opportunities.

(tense music)

- Arnault was a seasoned luxury titan

and he had already bought
Dior and Louis Vuitton

and all those, you know, fabulous brands.

And Pinault was just at the beginning

of his move to rival LVMH.

Pinault realised with
Gucci that he could enter

that world of the luxury conglomerate.

Then they bought Yves Saint Laurent.

So the show was about to begin.

- Tom was overjoyed, because
he felt Yves Saint Laurent

was the greatest designer of all time.

Tom really wanted to be
the creative director.

He loved the brand.

So I appointed Tom to be
the creative director.

- [Tom] Oh, Yves Saint
Laurent really is responsible

for the way that modern women dress.

He made women sexy in a modern way.

- Yves was a true fashion revolutionary.

When you say the words Saint
Laurent I think it conjures up

an image of exquisite, French elegance.

- [Tom] You know, it was a huge influence

and huge footsteps to follow.

- So Tom was really excited.

I was excited at the idea

but financially the company was a joke.

(tense music)

It was beyond disaster.

They were surviving with license.

They gave license for
everything, including cigarettes.

There was Yves Saint Laurent cigarettes.

Francois obviously was eager.

He's a very quick person,

wanted to move very, very super-fast.

So it was a lot of work.

- Redefining YSL's
image for the millennium

is going to be one of
the biggest challenges

of Tom Ford's career.

The legacy of YSL was so strong,

he was like, you know, this God

and in walked, you know, like, the cowboys

or something had arrived.

That's what it felt like.

Oh, the whole scene was just
like the wild west, you know.

Like, who was gonna shoot who?

- [Tom] I'm excited about
it, really excited about it.

- [Jeanne] Why, you
think it's gonna be good?

- I hope so, Jeanne.

- [Jeanne] You hope so?

Are you nervous?

I mean, you know, this is-

- Of course I'm nervous.

- [Jeanne] You're really
under the gun here.

- Of course I'm nervous,
but you know, then again

is all I can do is do
what I think I have to do.

- They were now tied in a new challenge,

which was how to take what they had done

with Gucci, so successfully,
and then replicate it.

(gentle music)

(crowd clamouring)

- He was playing to an
extremely partisan crowd.

There was kind of a bad vibe.

Toxic atmosphere.

I suppose there were people
who looked at it and thought,

"How dare he think he can take
the reins at Saint Laurent?"

- Yves Saint Laurent in Paris
is like the Eiffel Tower,

and the idea that there
is someone, a Texan,

they call him "the Texan," that come over,

doesn't make a lot of people happy.

- [Tim] Tom's experience was shocking.

- The expectations from
the press were so high.

I'd only been here a couple
of months, I didn't feel

comfortable working with the atelier,

I didn't have my sea legs, so to speak.

It was a lot of pressure.

- [Carine] Tom was very hurt

by the way that some people reacted.

- Yves was, at the very
beginning we were quite friendly,

and then I believe when
I started to deviate

from what he felt was
appropriate for the house,

he didn't really like it very much.

And I do have some letters in his hand.

I remember one line was,

"In 13 minutes, you've
destroyed 40 years of my work."

So, of course it was hurtful.

- We were opening a new
chapter in the life of Gucci.

We tried to go from a single
brand to a multi-brand company.

I was a little bit concerned
about the challenge to perform.

If you perform, everybody likes you.

If you don't perform, you get fired.

So I knew that we were under pressure.

- [Dana] Saint Laurent,
he shows up at Dior

talking to Mr. Arnault.

(tense music)

- Gucci Group made LVMH nervous.

This could be real
competition, very quickly.

Over at LVMH Mr. Arnault
has his own problems.

- Of course, monsieur, I
agree but you say it to me

and you say it to them but it's...

Nothings happening, I'm telling you.

- [Dana] Marc Jacobs was
struggling at Louis Vuitton.

- Personally...

Okay, we'll see.

I don't regret anything
I ever did in the past,

but I lived pretty fast
and I went out a lot,

I drank a lot, and did,
you know, other substances,

and I just don't wanna do that today.

Listen, there are a lot of
people a lot safer for it.

- Marc comes out of rehab
and, even if it was just pure

survival instinct, he perseveres.

Marc is desperate for
Arnault's approval, desperate,

and that is what makes him so determined.

- This is a man who truly
believes in the luxury business

and fashion as a luxury.

He knows that there's
something that people want,

and he knows what it is,

and he's pretty well got
a handle on it, I think.

- With LVMH people were
frightened on a daily basis

not to be fired because
once you're out, you're out.

- No rings, no earrings, no
navel rings, no whatever.

- Marc needed to come up with a collection

that really would be a success,

and he went back to his roots,
his New York City roots.

- He gets this flash of
inspiration and he approaches

one of his idols, Stephen
Sprouse, a New York artist,

and they have this epic brainstorm.

- Everything is a collaboration
nowadays, sneakers, luggage,

but I don't think I had heard

of a collaboration before that.

I mean, he was really
ahead of the curve there.

- What if they destroy the LV logo?

What if we take this symbol
of elitism and extreme wealth

and turn it into something
rich people would recoil from?

(tense music)

(tense music)

(tense music)

- Marc really took it to another level.

It was basically kind of a fresh,

"Fuck you, let's stir it up."

And it could've either bombed or exploded.

(tense music)

Fortunately, it exploded.

(audience applauding)
(audience cheering)

- [Marc] Nobody does graffiti
like Stephen Sprouse,

so nobody would do graffiti
on Louis Vuitton luggage

but Stephen Sprouse, as
far as I was concerned.

- Finally, Marc, who was
always ahead of his time,

made his mark at the right time.

We were ready for it.

The label was certainly ready for it.

This is what it feels
like to be Marc Jacobs

on a good day.
- No, it doesn't.

- It doesn't?

Oh my god, this is insane.

- Do you feel numb?

That's what it feels like.
- I can't believe this.

I've been interviewing designers
backstage for 15 years,

I don't think I've ever
quite seen it like this.

- Really?

- How do you explain the frenzy?

It was very heartening to see
that he'd risen from the ashes

and been able to get on that LVMH horse.

- I have to do this in some
kind of order, otherwise...

- [Interviewer] He's almost revitalised-

- Not almost, he has.

No, I think he's had a huge success.

He gave it a youth and
modernity and a wonderful sense

of fashion, and now everybody
wants the luggage again

and they want the clothes,

and I think that's entirely due to Marc,

and it's very brilliant of
Mr. Arnault to hire him.

Very good for fashion.

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- Bernard Arnault always believes

that whatever he's done is genius,

and that's why he's one
of the most powerful

and wealthiest people in the world,

because he has conviction.

- [Interviewer] Are you
proud of the work Marc Jacobs

has done-
- Yes, yes.

I think Marc is really
fantastic for Vuitton.

He's so young, so modern.

- That's the first time in
the house's entire history

that there's a waiting list
for a Louis Vuitton bag.

- I don't have one of those
bags and I'm dying for one.

And, like, I look online,

and, I'm like, "They're
so expensive still."

Like, they've retained
their value, you know?

But, like, I still want that bag.

- Sales, money,
originality, energy, press.

Everything.

And for all of those reasons

it would have been a
vindication of the experiment,

the Marc Jacobs experiment.

- [Reporter] LVMH reported that sales

of Louis Vuitton products
have soared by 40%

in the first quarter...

- [Reporter] Louis Vuitton
earns more than half

of LVMH's profits, making
it the most important brand

in Bernard Arnault's empire.

- During Marc Jacobs'
reign at Louis Vuitton

the brand unlocked the Asian
market in a really big way.

Every time Marc came
out with a new colourway,

of the handbags in particular,

Asian shoppers were buying it like crazy.

(upbeat music)

- China was starting to
emerge, after decades

of communism, to a
controlled capitalist market.

- [Reporter] China is now the
world's third largest market

for luxury brands,

and it's growing
exponentially year on year.

- [Anna] There's a global
fashion world today

and no one understands
that more brilliantly

than Bernard Arnault.

- [Bernard] China may well
be the first economic power

within the next 25 years.

So it's key to be part of this growth.

- At Gucci our obsession was the numbers

that Vuitton was doing.

We opened the first shop in China,

we were opening stores at every corner.

- LVMH and Gucci Group, they could see

that China was going
to be the golden goose.

This was an untapped
market of a billion people.

They had the potential to
grow from $200 million a year

to $10 billion a year.

- These were like masters of
understanding consumerism.

Both bringing the world
of luxury to the masses.

- Pinault's ambition is to
go toe to toe with LVMH.

I think there was a
lot of personal animus.

I think it was a pissing
contest between tycoons.

- [Dana] Francois Pinault has his chateau

and his fine wines.

Arnault has his chateau
and his fine wines.

- Francois Pinault decides
to build an art foundation

to house all this contemporary art

that he's been collecting.

Well Arnault started collecting
contemporary art too.

Arnault decides he's going
to have a foundation.

- There is this rivalry
which is almost childish.

My feeling, sitting opposite Mr. Arnault,

is that he needs to be
the biggest in the world

and he cannot give up that title.

He couldn't be anything else.

So he travels in his
private plane to New York,

to Tokyo, to wherever he goes,

walks in the street, and
visits all the stores.

- He would ask for sales numbers

or count clippings in
magazines all over the world

and send me every Monday
morning a fax that would say,

"Gucci has more bags in
such and such magazine

as opposed to Vuitton, mon parlez,"

you know, talk to me about it.

So his control is down
to counting clippings.

- Power is his fuel, and he
couldn't function any other way.

- It's a great honour for
me to welcome you here

for the inauguration of the LVMH Tower.

Madame...

- Oh, thank you.

Well, thank you so much, Mr. Arnault.

President Chirac came up to
me and said, "You must attend

the opening of the most
fantastic building."

But I had no idea how
accurate those words were.

Congratulations.

(audience applauding)

(woman vocalising)

- [Interviewer] In your vast
empire there's many designers

designing under other famous names.

Do you think they have a hard time?

- No, I think what is very interesting

and good is that we have, I
think, found the right designers

for each brand.

- [Photographer] And keep smiling.

- [Photographer] Gentleman,
can you get closer

a little bit together?

- I feel great.

I mean of course I'm totally
indebted to Mr. Bernard Arnault

who realised that to
take some of these houses

into the 21st century would
involve bringing new blood in,

and he was the first.

Really a visionary as
well as a businessman

to have brought people like
myself in, Marc, Alexander...

Well you know.

The boys.

- [Photographer] This way, please.

(dramatic music)

- By installing Galliano at Givenchy

and then moving him over to Dior

and putting McQueen in Givenchy

Bernard Arnault obviously did
put the cat among the pigeons

and I could never see him as benign,

in the sense that the kids
are pitted against each other.

- I got a sense that
Mr. Arnault was capable

of anything for his means.

They use people as pawns.

Like little pawns in a war.

- Mr. Arnault had always set it up

where that the brands worked

very independently of each other,

so the brands were
essentially competing within.

- Of course with Galliano and
McQueen, as the golden boys

of British fashion, the
best possible ambassadors

to the world that British
fashion will ever have,

how could there not be a
rivalry between the two of them?

- [Alexander] Cat, whoo hoo! Ha ha!

- McQueen was very admirative of Galliano

and I think that it was a need

to be as good as, or
better, than Galliano.

- This is the Bet Lynch dress.

We also treated it.

Bonding plastic over
the top for raincoats.

So you get the whole ensemble.

- Before I met him I was scared

he would be kind of like mean or scary.

And that's why I was so relieved

when he was like pleasant and giggling.

He was making crude jokes
all the time and swearing.

- Jenne came to interview at Givenchy.

She'd been working with Galliano.

This was amazing for us,
we were really excited

to have her be part of the team.

- [Jenne] He loved the haut couture

because he was from a Saville
Row tailoring background,

so he was gonna get the most out of that.

- They're quite precise and
like take the threads out

and this and I just get the
scissors and go whack it off.

And, uh, they go...

Like that.

And I go, "It's okay, it's only clothes."

- What's the difference, as
you would characterise it,

between you and Galliano?

- Well John's more fluid and
romantic, he has a great vision

for romanticising his ideal woman.

I think I'm more sort
of like, I really care

about a woman's independence

and I don't like her to look
so naive and so fragile.

I like her to look more stronger,

that if a man goes up to her
he's got to have real balls

to go up to her.

- Women want to look sexy, you know.

They have fantastic waists, busts, hips,

they want to show it.

No one wants to hide behind
shapeless clothes anymore.

- Obviously they were competitive.

So Lee would be like,
"Did John use this fabric?

Did John go there?

Did you do that with John?"

Like he would ask those kind of questions.

Galliano, if somebody brought
up McQueen he'd be like,

"Who?

Um, Steve McQueen?"

And just pretend like
he'd never heard of him.

So they have a different
way of dealing with it.

- Inevitably the younger
one would be looking

at the older one.

John was the benchmark.

The London designer
going to Paris benchmark.

(gentle music)

- When you come to a Galliano
show it's just beyond fashion.

It's like he gives you
something that's joyous

and just so womanly, he
cares so much about a woman.

It's so feminine and it's
so trembling and romantic.

(gentle music)

- Well I guess we're feeling
a little bit more at home.

Chez Dior.

It's like any relationship,
you have to work at it.

And the more you work at it
the kind of happier you are.

So I guess it's beginning to show now.

It takes time, huh?

(gentle music)

- [Tim] The sky is the limit.

If John Galliano wanted
to send a steam engine

charging into a railway
station, he could do it.

- Galliano's shows were huge spectacles

costing more than making a movie.

- [Jeanne] Wasn't that something?

- [Spectator] Amazing.

For 40 minutes we were
transported into another world.

It's a dream world.

I want to look like that, don't you?

I mean, I love those clothes.

- John, congratulations,
John, you were great.

You were great.

- John?

Oh, I think he wanted world domination.

I mean, he always thought he deserved

to be able to do all of his dreams.

- John is about pure creativity

but also, um, you know, he
likes to do products that sell.

Since he arrived sales have tripled.

So what he does is really
not only pure creativity

but also what the ladies,
the consumers, want and wear.

- Bernard Arnault always made me feel

like he was absolutely
150% behind Galliano.

That was apparent.

You know, "Oh, it's the genius
of John, he's just so great."

- Bernard Arnault, he
said when I was hired

that I was his horse.

I don't know if that's in
looks or what but he said

I was his horse he betted on.

And, er-

- He bet on you to restore
the health of this label.

- In a way like it's
better than it's ever been

for McQueen at Givenchy,
right, because this is a budget

he's never had before.

But he wasn't getting half of the budget

that John was getting at Dior.

Dior was spending 10 times, 20 times more

on those collections.

- [Catherine] We had
to be very resourceful.

- We used material that you
would find in a hardware store

because you couldn't find what you need.

And Alexander was expecting
me to go that far.

- [Catherine] I don't
feel there was jealousy.

Jealousy is something
that's very destructive.

But rivalry can spur you
on to greater heights,

and I think that's what was going on.

- We went beyond, we went beyond.

- [Catherine] I remember
as the girls were lining up

before they went out,

I remember Jenne and I
looking at each other

and Jenne going, "Wow, man,
you know, Galliano would love

to have done this."

- I think it's been great.

John Galliano and Alexander
both did fabulous collections

and I mean I was particularly pleased

to see how far McQueen had come.

Really a tour-de-force.

- It was clear that he
was going his own path.

To heck with the history,

this is Alexander McQueen's Givenchy.

- [Dana] His collection's
just getting stronger

and stronger and stronger,

and still Mr. Arnault was
like, "You know, Givenchy."

- I think that he really
appreciated Alexander

but I don't think that
Givenchy had the place

in the hierarchy that
Dior and Vuitton did.

- It was really like the
runt of the litter, you know.

Like, "Ugh, and then we have Givenchy."

So, whoever was at Givenchy
didn't get the same love

as anyone who would ever be at Dior.

Simple as that.

(tense music)

- [Catherine] He seemed
like he was trying very hard

to please Arnault, but whatever
he gave wasn't quite enough.

I do remember how heartbroken Lee could be

when he felt he'd given so much.

- [Alexander] He's got great vision

but his vision of what I
was like was his same vision

as what John was like.

Maybe John was more pliable than I was.

- We were trying to do
something that was innovative,

exciting, and then to be
met with sort of stony faced

reality telling us that actually
we don't have enough colour

or we don't have enough,
you know, straight skirts

or we don't have enough
boring clothes in there.

- [Leslie] He became extremely frustrated.

He knew that his creative potential

was not being optimised on.

- [Catherine] There was frustration,

and then it became
resentment and disrespect.

- [Interviewer] What do you have to do

to get these French to wise up?

- Be yourself.

If they don't like you,
too bad, tough shitty.

- [Interviewer] It
doesn't bug you too much?

- I don't give a...

I don't give a shit.

I do what I do, they like it or lump it.

If they don't like it, they
can sack me, fine as that.

- He was in the belly of the beast

and he appreciated the material advantages

but he was furious at the
selling his soul aspect of it.

- [Jeanne] He got really bitter.

Like he was feisty before,
but then he really got bitter.

You're pretty passionate,
I mean you put your soul

out there on the line when
you do a show, I know you do.

- Yeah, I do.

But then you've got to
feel the appreciation back.

You can only keep on going on for so long.

- [Catherine] When you try
and impress a father figure

and you're not getting the affirmation

that you're looking for,
perhaps you're gonna

look somewhere else.

(birds twittering)

- Yves Saint Laurent was
really this big hot potato.

It was a big burden on Tom

because obviously he was doing Gucci

but he really was eager
to reposition the brand

where it belonged.

- And sometimes what you were thinking

was gonna work doesn't work.

The most difficult thing has
probably just been learning

to split my time and split my brain

between Gucci and Saint Laurent.

It's hard to really
sometimes keep your focus

and to say, "Look, why am I doing this?"

It's hard.

- So what happened was Tom was able to go

in to the archives and get inspiration.

(upbeat music)

It represented a more modern
way, the African Collection,

than had been done before
by Yves Saint Laurent.

The Chinese collection.

He just remade them, so
he was inspired by that.

And they were really very successful.

(audience applauding)
(audience cheering)

- What Tom Ford did for Saint
Laurent was so grown up.

I think he was so smart to differentiate

Gucci from Saint Laurent.

This was just really
chic, feminine clothes.

I thought it was sensational.

- [Domenico] We weathered the
storm, it was a painful time.

- The best satisfaction
was when the sales jumped

that week more than 100%.

That means people are
responding to what you do,

people like it, people
are starting to buy it,

and that's exciting.

- The fact that they had,
now, a very successful YSL,

big deal, you know.

Instinctively I think that
we were all very curious

of what was going on with
Pinault, De Sole and Ford.

Obviously they were trying to do something

that no man had done
before, besides Mr. Arnault.

- The strategy of the
fashion business excites me

and interests me a great deal

and it's more and more part of my day

and more and more something
that I'm interested in.

- There are those who say

that you might wanna buy Versace,

there are those who say you
might wanna buy Calvin Klein-

- We are obviously looking
at other acquisitions.

We have nothing to
announce at this moment.

We look for companies where we believe

that our expertise could enhance
the value of that company

and thus enhance the value of Gucci Group.

(gentle music)

- This is where I'm from, this is my home,

and this where I love.

I mean, I work in Paris
but I love it here.

I don't wanna leave here.

- [Jenne] He's always missing
London, missing his family.

And I guess he thrived off
the coolness factor of London.

- [Alexander] This is what
the rest of the world wants

but can never have.

And this is why there's
so many British designers

at these big houses.

Because we're always trend
setters and we don't follow,

we create it.

- [Interviewer] Why did you go to Givenchy

having already created your own name?

- For one reason, the money was good.

But then what I do with
the money from Givenchy,

I put it straight back into McQueen

and it helps me employ people

for McQueen to build my own company up.

- [Catherine] His label
is always where he's doing

his most exciting work.

(gentle music)

- My heart was more in McQueen
than it was in Givenchy,

'cause I didn't have
much love for the brand.

It wasn't Dior and it
wasn't Saint Laurent.

Bernard Arnault brought
this young designer in

and he didn't do it for my
reason, he did it for his own.

This is what I'm really about.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

- [Michelle] His shows in
London were pretty legendary,

his set designs and his themes.

(dramatic music)

- Things went missing at Givenchy

and then showed up on the McQueen catwalk.

With the (speaking french),
which was where all the fabrics

and leathers and things were stored

would be raided quite regularly.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

Sometimes he comes up
with an idea at Givenchy

and says, "Oh, you
know, I'm not gonna give

that to Givenchy.

I'm gonna save that and I'm
gonna use it for McQueen."

♪ It's all around you ♪

♪ All is full of love ♪

- His own brand got the best.

Normal.

♪ Love ♪

♪ All is full of love ♪

- [Alexander] I think that's
the first time tonight

that I was blown away by my own show.

♪ All is full of love ♪

- That man and machine
thing at the end is...

I'm still in shock really.

That's the first time
I've cried at my show.

So, yeah.

(gentle music)

- It was incredible.

That was really...

It was just such a moment.

Truly one of the great visionaries

of fashion of the past century.

But to imagine that any one individual

is going to be responsible

not only for designing their own label

but then also designing
for a legendary house,

the pressure is unthinkable.

- [Catherine] In the
six years that I worked

for Lee we would do six shows a year.

And that wasn't one every two
months, nicely spaced out.

You would have haute couture
followed very quickly

by the ready to wear London,
the ready to wear Paris.

It was one after the other.

It was constant, constant,
constant pressure.

And after each show,

the highs and lows of
working on the show...

- [Interviewer] Are you alright, darling?

Sorry.

Yeah, I know, but he's like really tired.

Lee, do you want me to call everyone away?

- Yeah, I'm alright, it's
just my legs went wobbly.

It's alright.

- [Interviewer] Shall I get you

a glass of water or something?

- [Catherine] Needing to keep
that artificially inflated,

otherwise you'd crash.

- [Alexander] Sorry.

- The excitement...

(gentle music)

- It was clear that the
writing was on the wall

and it wasn't gonna last for
much longer, him at Givenchy,

but he needs to be able to
still support his own house.

- [Catherine] He didn't
look at Marc Jacobs

and John Galliano and think,
"I want to be like them,

I want LVMH involved in my company."

On the contrary.

- But he has to find a plan.

He's not gonna just quit
Givenchy unless he has a plan.

(birds tweeting)
(waves crashing)

(dramatic music)

- There was this big fashion party.

Everybody who was anybody
in fashion was there.

John was there, and McQueen was there.

And McQueen heard that
Domenico De Sole was there.

- Well I just remember
meeting him and at some point

he asked me to take a picture
with me, out of the blue.

And then he turned
around and he said to me,

"By the way, I wanna send
it to Bernard Arnault."

He was a joker, he was
really a wonderful person.

And he just wanted to show Bernard Arnault

that he didn't need him.

(tense music)

- [Dana] He started talking
to Dom and Tom and saying,

"You know, what can we do?"

He had been pouring his
Givenchy money into the company

but he still didn't have
the business structure

that the Gucci Group
could provide for him.

He needed them.

He needed investment.

- Every time we're trying to buy a company

we were always doing it secretly

because we were afraid
that LVMH would jump in

and bid higher than we did.

- They have spies everywhere.

In every group there
is a spy for the other.

- So they negotiate this.

They had code names,

they were meeting in
the backroom of Browns,

they had the lawyers
there, and LVMH had no idea

this was going on, that they
were gonna steal McQueen

from Givenchy and take
a part of his own brand.

- We were just waiting to find out

if he was gonna go there or not.

- He had a reputation of
being the enfant terrible

of fashion, for being erratic,
that he's very difficult,

and was very outspoken.

There were discussions about drugs too,

that it'd had been a problem in the past.

I remember that being a concern
and discussing it with Tom.

So it was a risk.

(gentle music)

- I came to London to
attend the Voss show.

He had a big contract,
Alexander, at Givenchy.

That contract was up for renewal

and negotiations were
stalled by Alexander.

I showed up early and I felt desperate.

- I did when I walked in, saw
Tom Ford, who was attending

the show and, you know,
it doesn't take much

to add things up.

- We needed to make a decision.

You wouldn't take
something that didn't work

just for the sake of
thumbing my nose to Arnault.

Tom and I wanted to make sure
that McQueen could deliver.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(audience applauding)
(audience cheering)

It was mesmerising.

His imagination was...

That was immense.

I don't know how to describe it.

I really loved what I saw.

(audience applauding)
(audience cheering)

- Alexander was at his peak, really.

This man who's by now, what,
30, is just on a trajectory

that is something else.

(audience applauding)
(audience cheering)

- Me, the insider, watching
that show and thinking, "Damn."

I knew I was going to lose him.

- This is the man.

- Yeah, right.

- Turn the camera here.

This is the man.

- So we invested in his company.

(dramatic music)

- [Reporter] It's handbags
at 20 paces between Givenchy

and Gucci, as l'enfant
terrible of fashion,

Alexander McQueen, jumps ship.

The Italian house has signed a deal

with the British designer who
will develop his own label

into a luxury brand
under the Gucci banner.

(somber music)

- This was a huge disappointment.

Huge.

- [Dana] LVMH went bananas.

Bernard Arnault went bananas.

(somber music)

- [Dana] Mr. Arnault took
this all quite personally.

- I think they even thought
about canceling his show

at Givenchy which was
due to show in a week,

just to spite him.

- Alexander had planned
a lovely, large venue

and we were told that
the venue was canceled

and that the show was
going to be held in-house

and that the press was not
going to be allowed to attend.

He was like, "What the fuck!"

You know?

- Lee really enjoyed
being able to leave LVMH

and just go, "Ha ha."

Do you know?

(Alexander laughing)

- [Alexander] Au revoir Givenchy!

(tense music)

- Alexander's choice to partner
with Gucci Group made sense.

They were fashion people.

The LVMH machine at that
time was very corporate.

They wouldn't be considered
necessarily fashion experts,

they were business people.

(audience applauding)

Domenico De Sole and Tom
Ford, I think they gave him

what he wasn't getting at LVMH, frankly.

(audience applauding)
(audience cheering)

- You know, you are like a king.

You know, everybody applauds
you, everybody celebrates you.

Because you know you're living the dreams,

in the world of dreams.

But it's just an illusion.

The tough part is not to get up there;

the tough part is to stay
there, and deal with pressure,

deal with constantly being creative.

They want a new vibe,
they want a new direction,

they want a new trends.

Trends.

Again and again and again and again.

It is terrifying.

And if you cannot keep up,

suddenly, just like that, you're gone.

(gentle theme music playing)