Alexander McQueen

At 40 years old, Alexander McQueen has this physical status:

In 1992, McQueen started his own label, and for a time he lived in the basement of Blow's house in Belgravia while it was under renovation. In 1993, he relocated to set up his studio in Hoxton Square, an area that also housed other new designers including Hussein Chalayan and Pauric Sweeney. His first collection after graduation, the Taxi Driver collection inspired by the Martin Scorsese's film, was organised by the British Fashion Council for young designers without runway shows, and presented on a clothes rack in a small room at the Ritz Hotel. He introduced the "bumsters" in this collection, but the collection was never photographed as all the clothes were stolen after the presentation. In his early collections, McQueen sewed locks of his own hair in perspex onto the clothes to serve as his label.

McQueen's first professional runway show in 1993, the Spring/Summer 1994's Nihilism collection, was held at the Bluebird Garage in Chelsea. His early runway collections developed his reputation for controversy and shock tactics, earning him the title "l'enfant terrible" and "the hooligan of English fashion". McQueen's Nihilism collection, with some models looking bruised and bloodied in see-through clothes and extremely low-cut bumster trousers, was described by journalist Marion Hume of The Independent as "theatre of cruelty" and "a horror show".

McQueen's second runway show was for the Banshee collection. Shortly after creating this collection. McQueen met Katy England, his soon to be "right hand woman", outside of a "high profile fashion show" trying to "blag her way in". He promptly asked her to join him for his following collection, The Birds, as "creative director"; thereafter she continued to work with McQueen, serving as his "second opinion". The Birds, which was named after Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film and held at Kings Cross, had a roadkill theme featuring clothes with tyre marks and the corsetier Mr Pearl in an 18-inch waist corset.

McQueen's "bumsters" were a common feature of his early shows. Although derided by some and attracted many comments and debate, it spawned a trend in low-rise jeans, especially after Madonna wore one in an MTV advert in 1994. Michael Oliveira-Salac, the director of Blow PR and a friend of McQueen's said, "The bumster for me is what defined McQueen."

McQueen's fourth runway show for his Autumn/Winter collection of 1995 brought McQueen to the world's attention. The collection, titled Highland Rape referring to the Highland Clearances of Scotland, was controversial. Some models on the runway wore clothes that were slashed and torn, and in tatters of lace with spatters of fake blood. Reviewers have interpreted it as being about women who were raped, and criticised what they saw as misogyny and the glamorisation of rape. McQueen objected to such interpretation, arguing that it referred to the rape of Scotland by the English, and was intended to counter other designers' romantic depiction of Scotland. As for the charge of misogyny, he said he aimed to empower women and for people to be afraid of the women he dressed.

McQueen continued to attract criticisms of misogyny in some of his later shows for designs that some considered degrading to women. In La Poupée (Spring/Summer 1997) inspired by Hans Bellmer's The Doll, McQueen placed models including the black model Debra Shaw in metal restraints, which observers took to mean slavery, while the silver mouthpiece ins Eshu (Autumn/Winter 2000) forced the wearer to bare her teeth. Similarly the sex-doll lips makeup of the models in The Horn of Plenty (Autumn/Winter 2009–10) was also criticised as being ugly and misogynistic. The fashion writer of the Daily Mail called McQueen "the designer who hates women".

McQueen followed Highland Rape with The Hunger (Spring/Summer 1996) and Dante (Autumn/Winter 1996). Dante further raised his international profile, and the collection was shown twice; first in Christ Church, Spitalfields, London, later in a disused synagogue in New York, both attended by large enthusiastic crowds. McQueen won his first British Designer of the Year award in 1996.

McQueen's increasing prominence led to a number of projects for music artists. In 1996, he designed the wardrobe for David Bowie's tour of 1997, such as the Union Jack coat worn by Bowie on the cover of his album Earthling. Icelandic singer Björk sought McQueen's work for the cover of her album Homogenic in 1997. McQueen also directed the music video for her song "Alarm Call" from the same album and later contributed the iconic topless dress to her video for "Pagan Poetry".

McQueen was appointed head designer of Givenchy in 1996 to succeed John Galliano who had moved to Dior. Hubert de Givenchy, founder of the label known for its elegant couture, criticised McQueen's appointment, describing it as a "total disaster". In turn, upon his arrival at Givenchy, McQueen insulted the founder by calling him "irrelevant". McQueen's debut show for Givenchy, Spring Summer 1997, featured Greek mythology-inspired gold and white designs. Although beautiful, the collection was considered a failure by some critics in contrast to the praise lavished on John Galliano's debut collection for Dior. McQueen himself said to Vogue in October 1997 that the collection was "crap". McQueen had toned down his designs at Givenchy, although he continued to indulge his rebellious streak. Givenchy designs released by Vogue Patterns during this period may be credited to the late designer.

McQueen's relationship with Givenchy was fraught, and he left in March 2001 after his contract ended, with McQueen arguing that Givenchy had started to 'constrain' his creativity.

Five weeks after his criticised debut for Givenchy, McQueen staged his own show titled It's a Jungle out There, which was inspired by nature. The title was a response to the criticism he received; according to McQueen, after he watched a nature documentary about gazelles being hunted by lions: 'That's me!' Someone's chasing me all the time, and, if I'm caught, they'll pull me down. Fashion is a jungle full of nasty, bitchy hyenas.". Model wore eye makeup to resemble gazelles and clothes with horns in the show. This collection, presented at London's Borough Market, was judged a triumph, Amy Spindler of New York Times, who had criticised his Givenchy debut, wrote that McQueen was "fashion's closest thing to a rock star. He isn't just part of the London scene; he is the scene.". The London show restored his reputation and he went on to produce a number of well-received collections for Givenchy.

McQueen staged many of his shows in an unusual or dramatic fashion. His Spring/Summer 1998 Untitled collection (originally titled "Golden Shower" until the sponsor objected) was presented on a catwalk showered with water in yellow light, while the following Joan (after Joan of Arc) ended with a masked model standing in a ring of fire.

A catwalk show that received widespread media attention was the Spring/Summer 99 collection No. 13 (it was his 13th collection), which was held in a warehouse in London on 27 September 1998. It took inspiration from William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, with its concern for handcraft. Some of the dresses incorporated Morris-inspired embroidery, and the show featured double amputee Aimee Mullins in a pair prosthetic legs intricately hand-carved in ash. The climax of the show, however, provided a counter-point to the anti-industrial ethic of the Arts and Crafts movement. It featured Shalom Harlow in a white dress spray-painted in yellow and black by two robotic arms from a car manufacturing plant. It is considered one of the most memorable finales in fashion history.

The following Autumn/Winter 99 collection, The Overlook (titled after the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining) featured winter snowy scene with ice-skaters and presented clothes mostly in white and grey. A notable creation in show was the Coil Corset made in collaboration with jeweller Shaun Leane, who also crafted many other pieces for McQueen, including a Spine Corset (Untitled Spring/Summer 1998) and a yashmak in aluminium and crystal (Eye, Spring/Summer 2000). The Coil Corset, an expansion of the idea of a coiled neckpiece made by Leane for It's a Jungle Out There, was made out of aluminium rings. It was sold in 2017 for $807,000.

McQueen held his first runway show in New York in 1999, titled Eye (Spring/Summer 2000). The theme was on West relation to Islam and featured designs that were sexualised version of traditional Islamic dress, which was poorly-received by the critics. The show ended with models in niqāb and burqa floating above spikes that had appeared out of water.

One of McQueen's most celebrated and dramatic catwalk shows was his 2001 Spring/Summer collection, named Voss after a Norwegian town known for its wildlife habitat. Nature was reflected in the natural material used in some of his clothes such as ostrich feathers, but more unusual were outfits made out of razor clam and mussel shells.

The centre piece tableau that dominated the show was an enormous dark glass box within a larger glass box. Inside the inner dark glass case was an interior filled with moths and, at the centre, a naked model on a chaise longue with her face obscured by a gas mask. The tableau was revealed when the glass walls of the inner box fell away towards the end of the show and smashed onto the ground. McQueen said that the tableau was based on the Joel Peter Witkin image Sanitarium. The model chosen by McQueen to be the centre of the show was the British writer Michelle Olley. The British fashion photographer Nick Knight said of the VOSS show on his SHOWstudio.com blog: "It was probably one of the best pieces of Fashion Theatre I have ever witnessed."

Because the room outside the box was lit and the inside of the box was unlit before the show started, the glass walls appeared as large mirrors, so that the seated audience saw only their own reflection. Alexander McQueen later described his thoughts on the idea used during VOSS of forcing his audience to stare at their own reflection in the mirrored walls for over an hour before the show started:

Before his contract with Givenchy had finished, McQueen signed a deal with Givenchy's rival Gucci in 2000, daring Givenchy to fire him. Gucci bought 51% of McQueen's company with McQueen remaining its creative director, and the deal allowed McQueen to expand his own Alexander McQueen label. In the following years a number of Alexander McQueen boutiques opened in cities around the world, and the label also extended into perfume, eyewear and accessories, trainers, as well as a menswear line.

McQueen continued to present his runway shows in an unconventional manner for which he had become known. The Autumn 2001 show, his last show in London before moving to Paris, featured a merry-go-round with models in clown make-ups dragging along a golden skeleton; the Autumn/Winter 2002 Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious collection was shown with live caged wolves and a black parachute cape inspired by Tim Burton; the Autumn/Winter 2003 Scanners was presented in a snowy wasteland setting with models walking along a wind tunnel; and the Autumn 2004 show was a re-enactment of dance scenes from the Sydney Pollack's film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, choreographed for the show by Michael Clark. For the spring 2005 It's Only a Game collection, he presented a human chess game, and his autumn 2006 show Widows of Culloden, featured a life-sized hologram of supermodel Kate Moss dressed in yards of rippling fabric.

McQueen also became known for using skulls in his designs. A scarf bearing the skull motif, which first appeared in the Irere Spring/Summer collection of 2003, became a celebrity must-have and was copied around the world.

Although McQueen had incorporated menswear into many of his previous catwalk shows, for example Spring/Summer 98, it was only in 2004 that a separate menswear collection was introduced with his first menswear runway show in Milan's menswear event. He was named GQ magazine's Designer of the Year in 2004.

In 2007, McQueen dedicated his Spring 2008 collection, La Dame Bleue, to Isabella Blow, who had died by suicide earlier that year. The show included works by his long-time collaborator Philip Treacy, another of Blow's protégé. The collection had a bird theme and featured brightly coloured clothes with feathers.

McQueen produced a well-received collection, The Girl Who Lived in the Tree, for Autumn/Winter 2008. It was based on a story McQueen created about a feral girl who lived in a tree but transformed into a princess and marry a prince to become a queen. He took inspiration from the Queens of England and the British Raj and Empire to create a romantic and regal collection. The first half of the show focused on dark decorative dresses over petticoats, which became lighter and more lavish in the second half.

The Spring/Summer 2009 collection, Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection, was inspired by Charles Darwin who was the creator of the theory of natural selection, and the impact of industrial revolution on nature. It was presented on a runway filled with taxidermied animals. The show presented structured clothes that featured prints with images of natural materials, as well as crystal-encrusted bodysuits and bell jar-shaped dresses.

In 2009, McQueen also collaborated with dancer Sylvie Guillem, director Robert Lepage and choreographer Russell Maliphant, designing wardrobe for a theater show "Eonnagata", which premiered at Sadler's Wells theatre in London.

Alexander McQueen's last appearance on a fashion show was in Plato's Atlantis, presented during Paris Fashion Week on 6 October 2009. This Spring/Summer 2010 collection was inspired by nature and the post-human manifesto featuring 46 full looks depicted with sea creature and reptile prints. McQueen installed two large cameras on the runway, both of which moved back and forth, documenting and broadcasting the entire show live on SHOWstudio. Plato's Atlantis was the first fashion show by any designer to be streamed live over the internet, although the website streaming it crashed after Lady Gaga tweeted about the show before it started.

The show began with a video of Raquel Zimmerman lying naked on sand with snakes on her body. The fashion show and the collection addresses Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. as well as current global warming issues. The fantasy collection, named after Plato's island that sunk in the sea, envisaged a future where humans are forced to evolve from living on land to living in water in order to survive. The color scheme changed during the show from green and brown (land) to blue and acqua (ocean). The models exhibited an androgynous look (which represents McQueen's evolutionary themes), as well as possessing post-human characteristics. The prints shifted from reptilian to prints of water creatures such as jellyfish and stingrays. The collection's final silhouettes gave the models marine features while the McQueen's signature armadillo shoe also transformed the appearance of the models' anatomic foot. Plato's Atlantis was yet another way in which McQueen fused fashion with technology. The finale of the show was accompanied by the debut of Lady Gaga's single "Bad Romance".

At the time of Alexander McQueen's death, he had 16 pieces that were eighty-percent finished for his Autumn/Winter collection. These outfits were completed by his design team and shown in seven presentations to small groups of specially invited audience. This collection, unofficially titled Angels and Demons, was first shown during Paris Fashion Week on 8 March 2010, to a select handful of fashion editors in a mirrored, gilded salon at the 18th-century Hôtel de Clermont-Tonnerre. Some fashion editors said the show was hard to watch because it showed how McQueen was obsessed with the afterlife.

The clothes presented had a medieval and religious look. Basic colours that were repetitively used were red, gold and silver with detailed embroidery. The last outfit presented has a coat made of gold feathers (shown left). His models were accessorised to show his love for theatrical imagery. "Each piece is unique, as was he", McQueen's fashion house said in a statement that was released with the collection.

After company owner Gucci confirmed that the brand would continue, McQueen's long-term assistant Sarah Burton was named as the new creative director of Alexander McQueen in May 2010. In September 2010, Burton presented her first womenswear collection in Paris.

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