McQueen: a truly influential designer

The inexorable rise of social media has quietly permeated into our everyday lives over the past three years. It serves as a space to re-unite with friends, promote events, and an immediate news source. It is through the vector of social media that the world initially learned the fate that met Lee Alexander McQueen on 11 February 2010. Within minutes of the statement being announced, a Google search overflowed with news coverage from around the world, sources increasing by the second.

McQueen’s work has long provided a visual commentary on excessive elegance, a glimpse at the darkness simmering underneath the steady composure of everyday life. McQueen’s designs speak to our vanity as much as our core; the marriage of theatre and function acting as the thread that binds its recipient in a powerful and protective layer.

An Exceptional Talent

From humble East End beginnings to Savile Row, the front row and beyond; McQueen transcended his mentors, rivals and admirers, and ultimately the pressures and rewards his talent has afforded him. McQueen was as adept at grabbing headlines as he was a finely tuned craftsman; his early shows so excessive and engaging that you could not ignore them – or him.

From the shock-inducing early shows that confirmed his inauguration into the fashion elite, a raw but formidable style and persona emerged.  McQueen’s collections have garnered many awards; winning Designer of the Year on four occasions and awarded a CBE in 2003. Such accolades also mark his ascent from his Savile Row apprenticeship, working for Gieves and Hawkes; to his position as Head Designer at Givenchy in October 1996. It is here a friendship with Tom Ford arguably provided the necessary intervention that saw Ford as nurturer and patron. McQueen’s subsequent tenure at Gucci allowed him the time and space to concentrate on his eponymous label. The man whose work is often referred to as body armour seemed protected himself for a time by Ford’s unwavering support.

While McQueen displayed infrequently in the UK during many of his early collections, he is strongly identified as a champion of British fashion. The highlights of his career are undoubtedly his live shows; they are his triumphs in communicating emotional and often pertinent social messages through creations that regularly blur the boundaries of definition between art and fashion.

The McQueen Legacy

McQueen’s legacy has long been assured as an iconoclast of British fashion.  The narrow silhouette cultivated at McQueen’s shows , once deemed too severe off the catwalk has long since pervaded throughout the high street; and on virtually every street McQueen’s influence as vanguard for pioneering British fashion is apparent via the popularity of skinny jeans, studs; and iconic McQueen imagery such as the skull and cross-bones motif. There is a prevailing sense of beauty in McQueen’s designs, even if on first encounter stronger emotions are evoked. The complexity of McQueen’s oeuvre is best exemplified when he sewed “I am a cunt” into the lining of a coat designed for Prince Charles, or feelings that emerged after he commented of David Beckham: “That man is vainer than the veins running through my dick”. Even when one is faced with a powerfully aggressive style, it is that of a staunchly northern directness draped and balanced in carefully constructed beauty.

McQueen’s imagination and boundless creativity are epitomised at a show that took place in a disused Parisian school when the show opened to an empty catwalk and the chilling and unmistakable noise from a woman’s heels, a reference from Hitchcock’s The Birds.  The sound grew increasingly louder as the figure in the shadows drew closer.  The effect merged cinema and high fashion and resulted in a powerful moment that embodied the quiet and sometimes horrifying emptiness from which beauty can still grow.

Iconic designs from Alexander McQueen's Fall 2009 collection

Even when Kate Moss fell out of favour with most of the fashion world and commercial partners due to her cocaine scandal, a “We love you Kate” shirt featured proudly on the chest of the designer. Perhaps McQueen was drawn to the imperfection of everyday life; not in some morbid fascination with darkness but because it shines a light on the normality, the stresses and problems that everyone encounters – that makes us human.

Posthumous Praise

So, befitting for one of the finest British designers of his generation, in December 2010 McQueen received the British Fashion Awards posthumous accolade for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design. And while he may be gone, McQueen is far from forgotten. His work continues to permeate through popular culture, making the front pages and causing controversy. Michelle Obama may have divided opinion but looked striking in a daring red organza silk dress for the state dinner she and President Obama hosted in honour of Chinese president, Hu Jintao; while Mila Kunis lit up the red carpet in a blaze of red layering in a McQueen Resort 2011 collection dress at the SAG awards in January.

The Alexander McQueen label may be missing its visionary leader but it is still highly respected in fashion circles. Since McQueen’s death, the brand has continued to grow under the guardianship of Sarah Burton, McQueen’s right hand woman for more than 14 years. Burton’s leadership as Creative Director has assured that McQueen’s legacy flourishes; and her debut spring/summer 2011 collection – a vision of potent silhouettes and historical references, silenced any critics who may have doubted her. His memory continues to thrive through the label’s unmistakable aesthetic, adorned on the bodies of ardent supporters such as Cate Blanchett and Lady Gaga.

Lee Alexander McQueen: A man who is globally revered for his razor-sharp and uncompromising vision; has had such a pronounced and lasting impression on the fashion world that his departure continues to feel so tragic.

McQueen's celebrity fans, Mila Kunis, Lady Gaga and Cate Blanchett make an impact on the red carpet