Alexander Mcqueen

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN (1969 - 2010) burst onto the fashion stage in 1992, courting controversy as headlines hailed him as the new enfant terrible.
Though contentious and frequently misunderstood, he established the fashion label that is now internationally acclaimed and coveted without compromising his approach.
From the start of his career McQueen has both shocked and delighted his audience withraw presentations often depicting bleak history and anarchic politics. These shock tactics began in dimly-lit warehouses away from the staid environment of the London Fashion Week tents.
His autumn/winter 1995 catwalk show in particular captured the headlines. Entitled Highland Rape, the collection featured dishevelled and battered-looking models in torn clothing. It was McQueen’s comment on therape of the Highlands at the hands of the British; interpreted by others as a perverse and misogynistic celebration of the sexual violation of women.
His spring/summer 1997 collection, La Poupee, featured a black model whose movements were restrained by a metal cage attached to her limbs, hit the headlines again. Inspired by the German puppet-master Hans Bellmer, the rusty contraption wasdesigned to evoke a marionette; inevitably, again, some of the press saw bondage, slavery and the subordination of women.
McQueen’s flair for showmanship has led him to be celebrated as much for outrageous theatricality as for the unique combination of aggressive tailoring and lyrical romanticism in his clothes. As the stature of the McQueen name grew, so did the twice-yearly spectacle. His weird andwhimsical catwalk narratives have included models encircled in flames, drenched in rainstorms or spun like music-box dolls on revolving circles in the floor. The shows are inspired by cult films by Stanley Kubrick, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alfred Hitchock, or by the dark photographs of Joel-Peter Witkin. It Witkin’s work which inspired McQueen’s spring/summer 2001 show. Models staggered around,trapped in a mirrored box that obscured their view of the audience. Their bandaged heads and confused expressions evoked disease both physical and psychological. The spectacle ended as the walls of the glass box shattered to the floor to reveal an obese model wearing nothing but a gas mask, surrounded by hundreds of moths.
None of these sensational spectacles has eclipsed the substance of McQueen’sdesign. The avant-garde narrative rhetoric belied a very traditional training in bespoke tailoring on London’s famous Savile Row.
Lee Alexander McQueen was born in the East End of London on March 17th 1969, the youngest of six children; his father a taxi driver, his mother a social history teacher. From an early age he knew he wanted to be a designer and he spent his formative years at Rokeby,the local boys’ comprehensive school, drawing and reading books on fashion.
He left school at the age of 16 with a single O-Level and worked for a time clearing glasses in his uncle’s pub. He completed his A-Level in Art at night-school at West Hampton Technical College before being offered an apprenticeship at the revered Savile Row tailors Anderson & Shepherd. Here he learnt the intricacies ofcutting jackets before moving up the street to Gieves & Hawkes, (founded in the 19th century as a military outfitter but now a successful menswear brand) to apply and develop these skills to trousers. It was here that that the anti-establishment McQueen legend began, when he famously scrawled obscenities in tailor’s chalk in the inner-lining of a jacket destined for the heir to the throne, PrinceCharles.
He moved to the theatrical costumiers Angels & Bermans to work on productions for big musical shows such like Les Miserables, while continuing to master the skills of pattern-cutting – including techniques from earlier centuries that are evident in his work today. He then went to work for London-based designer Koji Tatsuno, then backed by Yohji Yamamoto, before moving to Milan to work...