A TRIBUTE: ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
Alexander McQueen knew since childhood that he wanted to be a fashion designer. Now a famous household name, McQueen has come a long way from his early childhood as the son of a taxi driver growing up in East London, to become one of the most prominent British fashion designers.
In his youth, McQueen had already begun to design clothes for his three sisters, certain that this passion would become his career. At sixteen, he got his first job in the fashion industry: an internship with a tailor, where his clients included Prince Charles. At twenty, he moved to the Italian fashion capital of Milan, where he began working for Romeo Gigli. He later went on to receive a Masters degree in Fashion Design from Central Saint Martin’s College of Arts and Design in London.
MCQUEENS’S ECCENTRIC MUSE AND SUPPORTER, ISABELLA BLOW SADLY DIED LAST YEAR
McQueen’s muse, Isabella Blow, is allegedly the person who persuaded him to use his middle name, Alexander, instead of his first name, Lee, in the world of fashion design. Blow and McQueen met at his degree show at Saint Martin’s College, where she spent 5,000 pounds to purchase his entire collection. She later became his muse, serving as an inspiration for his offbeat style. Blow died last year from cancer.
This shock factor that surrounded his late muse and her actions also radiates from McQueen’s collections, which are known as controversial and shocking, especially in his early days, when he developed a collection called “Highland Rapers.” His reputation as an “enfant terrible” followed him to Givenchy in the 90s, where he caused controversy by using double amputee model, Aimee Mullins, wearing wooden legs, as a runway model. McQueen eventually left Givenchy because he felt that the environment was not conducive to his particular form of creativity.
McQueen’s Spring collection for 2009 continues in the vein of this off-the-wall style, renewing his reputation as the British emblem of punk fashion. His new collection is apparently inspired by Charles Darwin, the survival of the fittest and the effects of industrialisation on the world.
McQueen’s newest collection has evolved from the spray painted white dresses that characterized one of his earlier collections, becoming much more adult and developed. He seems to have move past punk style in order to allow for intricacy and maturity, while still retaining the creativity that allowed him to win British Designer of the Year three times between 1996 and 2003, one of the youngest to ever receive the honor.