Alexander McQueen or Lee Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969 in East London to a taxi driver or caddy Ronald and to a social science teacher Joyce. Lee was the youngest of the six McQueen siblings, growing up in a council flat in Stratford. He first entered Carpenters Road Primary School where he started making clothes for his sister and declared his intentions to become a fashion designer. Afterwards, Lee then entered in Rokeby School, however, by the time he turned 16, he left the school with an outstanding level in art. Upon leaving school, he immediately immersed himself to the field of fashion as an apprentice in Savile Row, to Givenchy’s lead creative director, and up to establishing his own clothing brand after his name. Lee was very close to his family, especially to his mother Joyce as she supported his decision to come out openly as a gay. However, when she died on February 2, 2010, it made Lee very depressed and ended committing suicide on February 11, 2010 .
Alexander McQueen’s aesthetic could be considered a mixture of haute couture, torture, and contorted beauty as he prefers dressing up his models and customers with intricate spiky tailoring and debilitating outfits that could be classified as torture. Lee believes that feminine beauty is best viewed with aggression and brutality, enabling women to fight back. For Lee, the McQueen woman is a warrior, utilizing her weapons of jewellery to protect her from danger. McQueen’s designs were inspired by Aimee Mullin’s prosthetics as it challenged the limits of fashion to enable the wearer to equip accessories that would consolidate protection and a mixture of mechanism, establishing his warrior-type woman. The ‘woman-as-doll” and warrior woman is a theme that Lee continued to establish even when he was in Givenchy. McQueen commissioned jewellery from Shaun Leane, whose jewellery is capable of contouring with the body. Her jewellery was customized to imitate the style of spears, spikes, barbs and even thorns to fit McQueen’s preferences. The McQueen preferences with abused and torture style was met in immediate criticisms, however, many admit his combination and application enables the wearer and observer to understand the texture he selects for his designs. For viewers, they see the dress as a protection, signifying they should maintain distance, protecting the wearer
Since the death of Alexander McQueen on February 11, 2010, Gucci has selected Sarah Burton, Alexander McQueen's right hand as the creative director of the brand on May 27, 2010. Sarah was able to sustain the Alexander McQueen's eccentric and unique style as she incorporated the iconic prints Lee was known to prefer. Under Sarah Burton’s leadership, the Alexander McQueen brand now had a woman’s touch to its designs, especially seen in her first men and women wear collections in 2010 . Currently, the Alexander McQueen main design house is based in London, United Kingdom and is still a subsidiary company under the Gucci Group. The Alexander McQueen franchise is also a member of the Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode or the French Federation of Fashion and of Ready-to-Wear of Couturiers and Fashion Designers, under the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture group specializing in high fashion .
Works Cited
Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode. Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode / Members. n.d. Web. 25 February 2012
Fox, Imogen. "Alexander McQueen protege Sarah Burton steals the show in Paris." The Guardian, 5 October 2010. Web. 26 February 2012
Quinn, Bradley. Techno Fashion. Oxford: Berg, 2002. Print.
The Biography Channel. Alexander McQueen Biography. The Biography Channel: Biography, n.d. Web. 25 February 2012
