Background

Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969, in Stratford, London, England, the United Kingdom. His father Ronald was a taxi driver and his mother Joyce was a social science teacher. He was the youngest of six siblings.

Education

The earliest memory Alexander McQueen had for his love of fashion was of drawing dresses across the walls of his childhood home when he was only three years old. As he grew older, he would fashion dresses for his three older sisters.

McQueen attended Carpenter's Road Primary School and Rokeby School. In 1985, he left school for an apprenticeship with the traditional Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard. He also served his apprenticeship at Gieves and Hawkes and Angels and Bermans.

After working on Saville Row, McQueen applied to attend the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Hoping to get in for an undergraduate course, he was instead enrolled as a Master’s student due to the strength of his portfolio. McQueen graduated with a Master of Arts degree from Central Saint Martins College in 1992.

Career

Soon after earning his degree, McQueen started his own business designing clothes for women. In 1992 McQueen debuted a pair of trousers that redefined the traditional cut of the garment. He called them "bumster" trousers - pants cut so low that they revealed the cleavage of the backside. This brought McQueen instant media recognition.

In 1996 he was named British Designer of the Year, and later that year he took over as the head designer of Givenchy - the French couture house founded by Hubert de Givenchy in 1952 - following Givenchy’s retirement. McQueen was appointed by Bernard Arnault, chairman of Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton, which had acquired the French fashion house in 1988.

Although it was a prestigious job, McQueen took it reluctantly, and his tenure there (1996-2001) was a tumultuous time in the designer's life. Even as he was pushing the limits of what people expected from fashion (one of his shows featured a model who was an amputee walking the runway on carved wooden legs), McQueen felt he was being held back.

His audacious designs attracted notice for their darkly romantic qualities and violent, grotesque elements. Collections featured streamlined, angular suits; hourglass-shaped dresses sculpted using tight corsets; long gowns with components as varied as beaded needlework, fresh flowers, and deer antlers; and, later, bulky 10-inch Alien and Armadillo heels.

A 1995 show for his collection Highland Rape sparked accusations of misogyny for its display of blood-splattered, seemingly brutalized models wearing tartan-patterned clothing with ripped bodices and torn lace. Notable features of subsequent presentations included robotic spray-paint dispensers, a human chess game, and a hologram of model Kate Moss.

McQueen dressed American singers Madonna, Courtney Love, and Tori Amos. British musicians David Bowie and the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger wore McQueen’s work onstage. Icelandic musician Björk appointed McQueen art director for her 1997 video Alarm Call, and he designed the kimono that she wore on the cover of her 1997 album Homogenic.

His 1998 Autumn collection show caused controversy as he had roped in double amputee model Aimee Mullins who strode down the catwalk on intricately carved wooden legs. In 1999 McQueen opened his first boutique. In 2000, Gucci bought a 51 percent stake in Alexander McQueen's private company and provided the capital for McQueen to expand his business. McQueen left Givenchy shortly thereafter.

In 2003, McQueen was declared International Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England and won yet another British Designer of the Year honor. Meanwhile, McQueen opened stores in New York, Milan, London, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

With the help of Gucci's investment, McQueen became more successful than ever. Already known for the flair and passion of his shows, he produced even more interesting spectacles after leaving Givenchy. For example, a hologram of model Kate Moss floated ethereally at the showing of his 2006 Fall/Winter line.

McQueen was also known for not being shy about his lack of traditional good looks or his lower-class background. In 2007, the specter of death would come to haunt McQueen, first with the suicide of Isabella Blow. The designer dedicated his 2008 Spring/Summer line to Blow, and said that her death "was the most valuable thing I learned in fashion." Just two years later, on February 2, 2010, McQueen's mother died. One day before her funeral, on February 11, 2010, McQueen was found dead in his Mayfair, London apartment.

Alexander McQueen had eighty percent of an unfinished autumn/winter collection before he died. His long-term assistant Sarah Burton finished the collection which was presented in Paris during 2010 Fashion Week. The collection had a medieval, religious theme with a recurring theme of angels and demons.

Achievements

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  Alexander McQueen tragically died in 2010. Through his legacy of cutting-edge design, however, he remains one of the most influential figures in British fashion. Dubbed the enfant terrible of the fashion world by the press, he was renowned for his unorthodox approach to fashion and created rebellious and revolutionary collections that continue to garner attention today.
  
  Alexander McQueen is considered to be one of the most influential and innovative designers in fashion history. McQueen has been repeatedly awarded the title of British Designer of the Year by the British Fashion Council. In 2004, the designer was named Menswear Designer of the Year, just one year after receiving the Council of Fashion Designers of America Award in the Best International Designer category and being honored with the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his involvement in the fashion scene.

Works

More photos

• design

  • Blade Runner

    1998

  • design

    2006

  • design

    1997

  • design

    2010

  • design

    2009

  • Raffia dress

    2000

  • design

    2010

  • design

    2010

  • design

    1998

  • design

    1997

  • design

    1997

  • design

    2001

  • design

    2010

  • design

    2010

  • design

    2004

Religion

Alexander McQueen was an atheist. Critiquing the role of institutional religion in society, he purposely held one show in London’s 18th century Christ Church, which was designed by the famous Satanist, Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Politics

Alexander McQueen was an anti-royalist and also considered himself an anarchist.

Views

McQueen has said, "I believe in depicting what's going on. I'm a big anarchist. I don't believe in religion, or in another human being wanting to govern over someone else. The themes that go through my shows will continue to." He translated his ideas about the world into his clothing, which were set apart from other designers by their beauty and craftsmanship, strong silhouettes, and the marriage of tradition with the avant-garde.

After committing suicide, McQueen left £100,000 each to four chosen charities, including Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in South London, the Blue Cross animal welfare, London Buddhist Centre, and Terrence Higgins Trust.

Though London is an incredibly diverse city with a lot of Indian influence, no fashion designers were using any Indian models. Alexander McQueen, on the other hand, did not discriminate, and he was among the first designers to use Indian models in the city.

Quotations: "When I’m dead and gone, people will know that the 21st century was started by Alexander McQueen."

"You've got to know the rules to break them. That's what I'm here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition."

Personality

The youngest of six children, McQueen understood that throughout his life he was the "pink sheep" of his family. Aware that he was gay from the tender age of six, he wouldn’t come out of the closet to his family until he was 18 years old.

McQueen was proud of breaking the traditional mold of a successful designer. He dropped out of high school and was from a lower-class background. His first fashion collection was called "Taxi Driver," honoring his father's profession.

McQueen was passionate about bird-watching, he was also fascinated by the depths of the sea. A keen scuba diver, the designer was inspired by his favorite diving spot in The Maldives for his infamous spring/summer 2010 collection He was an avid cinema fan. Several of his collections are directly inspired by cinematographic masterpieces, particularly in his Fall/Winter 1993-1994 show.

After graduating from Central Saint Martins, the designer explored Robert De Niro's character in Taxi Driver and revisited the scene where Travis Bickle shaves his head. The following season, the designer focused on Alfred Hitchcock's thriller The Birds, before taking inspiration for his Spring/Summer 1996 collection from Tony Scott's The Hunger and, in 1999, from The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, one of his favorite directors (or so it seems).

Having grown up in the neighborhood where Jack the Ripper’s murders occurred, McQueen used the serial killer as inspiration for his graduation collection, which was entitled "Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims." He also claimed that one of his relatives had rented a room to one of the victims.

Deeply depressed, Alexander McQueen would hang himself in his London home on February 11, 2010. Leading up to his suicide, according to a close friend, he had been "very unhappy" and "doing a lot of drugs." Only nine days earlier, his mother, whom he was very close with, had died, which led to his spiral. That said, he had already been diagnosed with mixed anxiety and depression disorder. Prior to hanging himself, he also took an overdose of drugs.

Physical Characteristics: Alexander McQueen was HIV positive.

Interests

• bird-watching

• Writers

  Libro de Geometria, Pratica y Traça by Juan de Alcega, Leigh Bowery by Robert Violette, The Clans of the Scottish Highlands by James Logan, A New History of Photography by Michel Frizot, Harms Way: Lust & Madness, Murder & Mayhem : A Book of Photographs by Joel Peter-Witkin, Sam Taylor-Wood by Margo A. Crutchfield, The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Flora by Nick Knight, Cabinets of Curiosities by Patrick Mauries, Oeillades Ciselées en Branche by Georges Hugnet & Hans Bellmer, Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel, The Birds of America by John James Audubon

• Sport & Clubs

  scuba diving, synchronized swimming

• Music & Bands

  Lady Gaga, David Bowie, Rihanna

Connections

In 2000, Alexander McQueen married his partner George Forsyth aboard a yacht in Ibiza, before splitting a year later. However, the pair remained close friends up until his tragic death in 2011.

Father:

Ronald McQueen

Mother:

Joyce McQueen

Friend:

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga dedicated a song to McQueen titled Fashion of His Love, which was part of the special edition of her album Born This Way.

Friend:

George Forsyth

Alexander McQueen would tie the knot with George Forsyth in 2000 in a ceremony on a yacht in Ibiza. Because the wedding took place in Spain, it was not actually an official marriage because same-sex marriage was still illegal in the country.

Acquaintance:

David Bowie

In the late 1990s, Bowie invited McQueen, then a recent graduate, to create a long Union Jack blazer for the cover of his Earthling album. A model that David Bowie did not hesitate to wear throughout his 1997 tour and that was to be admired at the David Bowie Is exhibition.

Friend:

Björk Guðmundsdóttir

References

• Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano In the mid-1990s, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen exploded onto a fashion scene that was in an artistic and economic rut. Their daring visions shook the establishment out of its bourgeois, minimalist stupor with vibrant, sexy designs and theatrical runway shows. By the end of the decade, each had been hired to run one of couture’s most storied houses, Galliano at Dior and McQueen at Givenchy.
  2015
• Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin When Alexander McQueen committed suicide in February 2010, aged just 40, a shocked world mourned the loss of its most visionary fashion designer. McQueen had risen from humble beginnings as the youngest child of an East London taxi driver to scale the heights of fame, fortune, and glamour. He designed clothes for the world's most beautiful women, including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.
  2015