Shoe style – Alexander McQueen

It is well known that looking good comes with a price. Alexander McQueen is a famous brand that manages to impress through its outrageous, yet gorgeous designs.

Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969, in London. He became head designer of the Louis Vuitton-owned Givenchy fashion line and, in 2004, launched his own menswear line. He earned the British Fashion Council’s British Designer of the Year award four times, and was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire. McQueen committed suicide in 2010, shortly after the death of his mother.

ProfileFashion designer. Lee Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969 into a working-class family living in public housing in London’s Lewisham district. His father was a cab driver, and his mother was a social science teacher. McQueen had five siblings. He recognized his homosexuality at an early age and was mocked about it at school. He stopped school at age 16.He started working in a tailor shop. He worked in Milan and then enrolled at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.

MacQueen started his own business as a designer for women clothes and met a huge success.He was then named Chief Designer of Louis Vuitton-owned Givenchy, a French haute couture fashion house. Even though it was a very prestigious work, McQueen had the feeling it was constraining his creativity.

However, he also made the following admission: “I treated Givenchy badly. It was just money to me. But there was nothing I could do: the only way it would have worked would have been if they had allowed me to change the whole concept of the house, to give it a new identity, and they never wanted me to do that.” Nevertheless McQueen won British Designer of the year in 1996, 1997, and 2001, all during his time at Givenchy.

In 2003, McQueen was declared International Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and A Most Excellent Commander of the British Empire by the Queen of England, and won yet another British Designer of the Year honor.

Meanwhile, McQueen left Givenchy to expand his own business and opened stores in New York, Milan, London, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. With the help of Gucci’s investment, McQueen had become even more successful than he was before. Already known for the flare and passion of his shows, McQueen produced even more interesting spectacles after leaving Givenchy. For example, a hologram of model Kate Moss floated ethereally at the showing of his 2006 Fall/Winter line.

In 2007, the specter of death would come to haunt McQueen, first with the suicide of Isabella Blow. The designer dedicated his 2008 Spring/Summer line to Blow, and said that her death “was the most valuable thing I learnt in fashion.” Just two years later, on February 2, 2010, McQueen’s mother died. One day later , McQueen committed suicide.

Alexander McQueen’s rise from lower-class high school dropout to internationally famous designer is a remarkable story. His bold styles and fascinating shows inspired and wowed the world of fashion, and his legacy lives on. Longtime co-designer Sarah Burton took over the still-operating Alexander McQueen brand, and McQueen’s contribution to fashion was honored by a 2011 exhibition of his creations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

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