Ozwald Boateng: In the Kitchen

Oscar-Nominated actor Laurence Fishburne gives Savile Row designer Ozwald Boateng a whirlwind culinary lesson at his Hollywood home in this clip from director Varon Bonicos’s intimate documentary, A Man’s Story. A candid portrait of Boateng at his most brilliant and most flawed, the film was assembled from over 580 hours of footage. “Ozwald doesn’t sleep—maybe two hours a night,” says Bonicos of the hyper-energetic and driven designer. “Half the battle was keeping up with this constantly moving target.” Opening his first store on London’s iconic Savile Row aged just 23, Boateng famously brought English tailoring to the Paris catwalks (subsequently earning a stint as Creative Director at Givenchy), before conquering Hollywood with his own reality show and a loyal clientele of A-list stars—including Brad Pitt, David Bowie, Jude Law and Matt Damon. Bonicos spent 12 years traveling the world to chronicle the menswear designer’s public and private life, including the turbulent divorce that inspired Fishburne’s impromptu cooking lesson. “When I first saw the finished film, I literally couldn’t talk about it for a week afterwards,” says Boateng. “It was like watching your life flashing before your eyes. I gave in to the honesty of the piece. It’s quite raw. But then, life is like that.”

Read an interview with Varon Bonicos about the making of A Man’s Story on our Facebook page.