A Man’s Story By Varon Bonicos

A Man’s Story is an inoffensive and inessential videography of the life and times of men’s fashion designer Oswald Boateng. The director, Varon Bonicos, Boateng’s in-house hagiographer, is already responsible for two television documentaries about the designer, and has spent more than a decade trailing his subject.

Boateng is something of a cult figure in the British fashion firmament. The son of first generation Ghanaian immigrants, he grew up in post-Brixton riots London. After leaving school he began an unlikely meteoric rise as a suit maker that lead to him becoming the first black, and the youngest man, ever to own their own store on the legendary Savile Row.

The film, however, introduces him at his lowest ebb in 1998, after a failed Far East expansion and a painful divorce have left him in dire financial and emotional straights. Boateng, a cocky but surprisingly likable character, shows admirable persistence and self-belief in rebuilding his empire, an achievement that results in an invitation to become the creative director of Givenchy, as well as the opportunity to ‘break’ America.

Episodic, self-indulgent, and shot like a late ‘90s music video, A Man’s Story provides its subject with a first-rate home video; whether it holds much appeal for a general audience remains to be seen.

By Michael O’Regan