Alexander McQueen
Many Great Fashion designers have walked down catwalks at the end of shows thanking and accepting congratulations but it’s the ones that created experiences leaving the audience stunned that stick in our minds. Alexander McQueen was known for creating his own world, one that the audience could easily get lost in, presently all the deep and mysterious thoughts that become the iconic moments that made Alexander McQueen the designer he was.
Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) was born and educated in London, leaving school at 16 to become an apprentice on Mayfair’s Savile Row (The historic centre of British menswear tailoring) where he started to developed techniques, acknowledge his creative side and most importantly came to grips with the person he wanted to be, McQueen recalls the uncomfortable atmosphere of being a young gay man within the industry “the most homophobic people I have ever worked with”. McQueen was known for being a hard worker, staying late at night to complete extra work and took quality advice from master tailors at any chance he could get. Any experience but especially professional information was valuable, he treated it almost like a gift to him, something that would help him move up within the business.
In 1988, Alexander McQueen moved from Savile to Gieves &Hawkes, where he worked tailoring military clothing, sparking interests, and developing skills that he would later use in his career, especially within his military inspired pieces. McQueen moved on to tailor for many bigger London productions, including Les Miserables. At the heart of alexander McQueen’s creative direction, was his amazing technical skills and by the time he came to creating his own brand, he understood every single aspect of how clothing was constructed and deconstructed. The process was an important part of the way McQueen thought and how he acknowledged changes that needed to be made, he knew his clothing inside out and his high expectation for quality, refinement and good craft helped him produce a high-end specific, storytelling brand.
“Alexander Truly loved beauty and had exquisite, good taste but his ability to merge it with the macabre gave him an untouchable edge in fashion” (Plum sykes, Vogue). An aesthetic that included roman gothic/Victorian inspired pieces, featuring dark, thick fabrics and interesting textures. What women wore within the eighteenth-century was an important influence for McQueen, sparking his Fondness for silhouette and experimenting with shape, using mostly female models within campaigns and fashion shows. McQueen was intrigued by the idea of female power and enjoyed pushing boundaries with masculinity and femineity. “When you see a woman wearing McQueen, there’s a certain hardness to the clothes that makes her look powerful” (Alexander McQueen, Vogue).
Although his life could have been seen as ‘perfect’ he remained a normal man that happened to be a fashion designer, he had problems and battels no different to anyone else. However, the fashion industry was, and stills is filled with intense scrutiny and immense pressure, causing creative burn-out and instability within the workplace, which later became a contributing factor towards Alexander McQueen’s death. The idea of becoming the ‘next best thing’ was very prominent within McQueen’s life, he wanted people to remember his name and know what he created. It kind of became this vitious circle, one that many creatives find themselves in, the want for acknowledgment but the need for recognition. There is hope for change within the industry and mental health is seeing more acknowledgment, but competition will remain no matter what. Alexander McQueen taught us that fashion is expression, pushing boundaries is important and taking the next step within the industry is nothing to be afraid of.
“I want to be the purveyor of a certain silhouette or a way of cutting so that, When I’m dead and gone people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.” (Alexander McQueen, Vogue)
https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/alexander-mcqueen
Vogue on Alexander McQueen (Book)
https://www.alexandermcqueen.com/en-gb
https://www.voguebusiness.com/talent/articles/10-years-after-the-death-of-alexander-mcqueen-what-has-fashion-learned/
