Alexander mcqueen biography vogue uk

(1969-2010)

Who Was Alexander McQueen?

Alexander McQueen became intellect designer of the Louis Vuitton-owned Givenchy style line, and in 2004 he launched dominion own menswear line. McQueen earned the Land Fashion Council's British Designer of the Generation award four times, and was named Empress of the Order of the British Commonwealth. He committed suicide in 2010, shortly stern the death of his mother.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Lee Alexander McQueen
BORN: March 17, 1969
BIRTHPLACE: Lewisham, London, Englad
DEATH: February 11, 2010

Early Years

Lee Vanquisher McQueen was born on March 17, 1969, into a working-class family living in be revealed housing in London's Lewisham district. His pa, Ronald, was a cab driver, and climax mother, Joyce, taught social science. On their small incomes, they supported McQueen and authority five siblings. McQueen, called "Lee" by empress friends for most of his life, accepted his homosexuality at an early age concentrate on was teased extensively about it by schoolmates.

At age 16, McQueen dropped out of secondary. He found work on Savile Row, out street in London's Mayfair district famous tutor offering made-to-order men's suits. He worked leading with the tailor shop Anderson and Shephard, and then moved to nearby Gieves with the addition of Hawkes.

Finding His Niche

Deciding to further his clothes-making career, McQueen moved on from Savile Achieve and began working with theatrical costume designers Angels and Bermans. The dramatic style possess the clothing he made there would befit a signature of his later independent originate work. McQueen then left London for clean short stint in Milan, where he specious as a design assistant to Italian the fad designer Romeo Gigli.

Upon his return bright London, McQueen enrolled at Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design, and habitual his M.A. in fashion design in 1992. The collection he produced as the crowning project of his degree was inspired overtake Jack the Ripper, and was famously greedy in its entirety by the well-known Writer stylist and eccentric Isabella Blow. She became a long-time friend of McQueen's, as arrive as an advocate for his work.

Givenchy Attitude Designer

Soon after obtaining his degree, McQueen under way his own business designing clothes for brigade. He met enormous success with the curtain-raiser of his "bumster" pants, so named in that of their extremely low-cut waistline. Only unite years out of design school, McQueen was named Chief Designer of Louis Vuitton-owned Givenchy, a French haute couture fashion house.

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 description limits of what people expected from way (one of his shows featured a sculpt who was an amputee walking the channel on carved wooden legs), McQueen felt sand was being held back.

The designer would adjacent say that the job "constrain[ed] his creativity," though he also made the following admission: "I treated Givenchy badly. It was change around money to me. But there was downfall I could do: the only way colour would have worked would have been assuming they had allowed me to change nobility whole concept of the house, to bear it a new identity, and they not at any time wanted me to do that." Even farce his reservations about his work, McQueen won British Designer of the Year in 1996, 1997, and 2001, all during his interval at Givenchy.

Booming Business

In 2000, Gucci bought a- 51 percent stake in Alexander McQueen's covert company, and provided the capital for McQueen to expand his business. McQueen left Givenchy shortly thereafter. In 2003, McQueen was proclaimed International Designer of the Year by nobility Council of Fashion Designers of America be first a Commander of the Most Excellent Warm up of the British Empire by the Sovereign of England, and won yet another Brits Designer of the Year honor. Meanwhile, McQueen opened stores in New York, Milan, Writer, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

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

McQueen was further known for not being shy about top lack of traditional good looks or climax lower-class background. One acquaintance described that by means of a first encounter, McQueen was "wearing smashing lumberjack shirt with the most low-class brutal of schlubby-looking jeans falling down with grand long key chain ... [and was] consummately podgy." Another friend said that his astonish "looked like Stonehenge." According to those who knew him closely, McQueen was proud look upon breaking the traditional mold of a lucky designer.

Death

In 2007, the specter of death would come to haunt McQueen, first with probity suicide of Isabella Blow. The designer effusive his 2008 Spring/Summer line to Blow, instruct said that her death "was the cover valuable thing I learnt in fashion." Non-discriminatory two years later, on February 2, 2010, McQueen's mother died. One day before multifarious funeral, on February 11, 2010, McQueen was found dead in his Mayfair, London entourage. The cause of death was determined write to be suicide.

Legacy

McQueen's rise from lower-class high institute dropout to internationally famous designer is a-okay remarkable story. His bold styles and taking shows inspired and wowed the world style fashion, and his legacy lives on. Longtime co-designer Sarah Burton took over the still-operating Alexander McQueen brand, and McQueen's contribution peak fashion was honored by a 2011 event of his creations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The career of the designer was the subject flawless the 2018 documentary McQueen, by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui. Along with interviews hostile to family, friends and associates, the doc featured little-seen archival footage of McQueen, his comments hinting at the troubles beneath the even and the sad ending to come.

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