It was after Alexander McQueen’s Banshee show at Café de Paris in 1994. Lee, as his friends called him, had asked me to shoot the shows backstage and I was making a little Super 8 home movie for him for a launch event in New York. So I filmed backstage at the shows as well as at Isabella Blow’s house, which Lee used as a studio, on Elizabeth Street. Lee took a camera and filmed his family himself over a weekend.
I had met Issy a few weeks earlier. She asked what else I was up to and I told her I was trying to photograph Malcolm McLaren, but he was giving me the runaround. The deadline was approaching. So she just put her hand up to stop me talking and phoned him straightaway. And then he called me half an hour later to organise the shoot. I had been chasing him for ages. That’s typical of her – she would just make things happen.
We decided to shoot Issy at her house in Gloucestershire, so we went up to Hilles House for the weekend. It was me, Lee, Isabella and her husband Detmar, and we drove up from London. Detmar was driving. Lee and I were in the back. It felt like being taken away by your mum and dad for the weekend, with Lee cracking jokes and being naughty. He had such a wicked sense of humour.
Isabella was really excited about hanging out with Lee and wanted to tell people about him – whoever they were. We walked into a baker’s to buy a loaf of bread, and she was there making a big deal about this new fashion designer. They were just like: “Do you want brown or white?” But she was so excited about him – she even introduced him to the guy putting petrol in the car, saying: “This is Alexander McQueen!” and Lee was just completely embarrassed about the whole thing. She wanted everybody to know how good he was.
We spent two nights there filming Isabella running around in the orchard in McQueen dresses – just messing about, getting little snippets for the film. She was really playful. Every time with Isabella Blow was memorable because she was a unique spirit. That weekend she was fully glammed up the whole time. I took a picture of her when we got back to London and were unloading the car at Elizabeth Street. She fell asleep with a Philip Treacy hat she had taken off and put on the floor next to her and she had a big monkey coat on just to travel in the car.
The annoying thing is that I never saw the film again after I gave it to Lee. I know where it is – it’s in a friend’s storage lock-up in London, but he works in LA. I’ve been chasing him for years to get it back. I’d really like to watch it again one day.
Gary Wallis is a photographer and a lecturer at Central Saint Martins. His latest book is McQueen: Backstage – The Early Shows (bigsmilepublishing.com, £55)
