Alexander McQueen: Genius, Interrupted

By Theresa Tan

I woke up this morning to half a dozen messages that Alexander McQueen had died last night. At the risk of “jumping on the bandwagon”, I’m going to share some thoughts and memories. Even as I write this, Massive Attack has dedicated a track to him, and Lady Gaga has Tweeted a recent photo of herself and McQueen. The world is in mourning.

There is always a profound sense of loss when a great genius dies — Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy (who, to me was the greatest talent of her generation — more so even than Britney Spears), Yves Saint Laurent, now McQueen. But while the world enjoyed the full run of YSL’s creativity, McQueen had just shown his most brilliant collection last October — the Spring/Summer 2010 collection that fashion lovers can expect to get their hands on in a few weeks.

I had gone shopping for a piece of McQueen last Christmas — for a showbiz friend who adores his fashion, and was clamoring for those famous claw shoes (which I said flatly, I couldn’t get my hands on). Given budget constraints, I bought her a McQ piece eventually, a trapeze dress in purple and grey crepe — deceptively simple, stunningly seductive when worn.

I’ve been out of the fashion magazine business a while now, but I remember catching McQueen’s 2000 collection for Givenchy — it was the year (1999) Gisele was literally on every runway in Paris and Milan. He had come up with this puzzling sports-inspired collection that critics mostly panned; now in hindside, that probably ushered in the era of the super-designer sports contract (ala Stella McCartney for Adidas, and McQueen himself designed collectible sneakers for Puma).

The next year he left Givenchy and with funding from Gucci group, launched his eponymous label, and that’s when it started to get fun.

The last nine years have seen “L’enfant Terrible” of British fashion skyrocket to dizzying heights of design genius. It seemed to me he was only going to get bigger. Born March 17, 1969, McQueen was a East London boy who grew up in a council house. He dropped out of school at age 16 and apprenticed Savile Row tailors Anderson and Shepherd — the skills he gained here served him greatly throughout his career. His entry into high fashion began in Milan with Romeo Gigli. He finished his masters degree in fashion design at Central St Martins, and his graduation show was lauded by the media, and fashion icon Isabella Blow bought up every piece. (I’m sure the irony’s not lost on many that Blow took her own life too, in 2007.)

McQueen was named British Designer of the Year four times between 1996 and 2003. In 1997 he was hired by Givenchy, which proved a short-lived arrangement. He was really much better off doing his own line and building a name for himself. In 2003 he was made a “Commander of the British Empire” (CBE). As his star rose, his boutiques opened in fashion capitols from New York to Milan.*

Of course, the celebrities adored him, from SJP to Madonna (who wore his designs in her Louis Vuitton bag ads) to Lady Gaga (who was the first to dance in his 10-inch claw heels in her video for ‘Bad Romance’). And actually, if you ask me, I thought the leather outfit he made for Janet Jackson was fantastic, even if her right breast popped out during her Superbowl performance with Justin Timberlake.
 

For me, my three favourite memories of McQueen are:

a) the Bumster

He was responsible for launching those hipsters worn so low your butt crack showed as you walked (forget about sitting!).
 

b) his first collection for his own label

An ethereal dreamscape of shapes and details that I’d only even seen in movies before. Cascades of cloud fluff appeared down the collar and bodice of his Yeti-fur dress like a fantasy. If I could do my wedding over, that’d have been the dress I wanted to wear.
 

 

c) The fact he loved using Alek Wek

She was the darkest supermodel anyone had ever seen, and I thought he just made her look marvelous every time.
 

 
I am sure, like so many fashion fans across this world, I am not alone in my sadness that this young man who has grown so much creatively and as a person, has had his life cut short for lack of hope. Someone once said to me “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” I cannot begin to understand the dark despair he went through losing his mother, but I also cannot help but regret that he chose the permanent solution …

You’ll be sorely, deeply missed, Alexander McQueen.

* Thanks to Wikipedia and Bio Channel