Alexander McQueen: Found Dead in London

Fashion’s original bad boy Alexander McQueen has died aged just 40 years old.

We will keep to the facts as they are known at this time and report that McQueen was found dead in his London home just after 10 am, Thursday 11th February.

From The Guardian, UK:

“A post-mortem has been scheduled but police said his death was not being treated as suspicious. They would not comment on reports he had killed himself.”

Formerly an apprentice on Savile Row, son of a taxi driver Alexander McQueen was well known for his performance art style shows and fashion extremism that precipitated a new age of futurist design in the naughties. His rise through industry ranks was exceptionally swift.

Taking over from John Galliano’s troubled tenure at Givenchy in 1996, he stayed put at the house until 2001. Although his own stay at Givenchy was nearly as difficult as Galliano’s, the position afforded him enough renown to be noticed by the Gucci Group, who bought a 51% stake in his company name in 2000.

Although already recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List as a CBE – despite having reputedly sewn ‘I am a c***’ in to the lining of Prince Charles’ tailored suits – and been awarded ‘British Designer of the Year’ four times from 1996-2003, Alexander McQueen’s career showed no signs of slowing down. However having lost his mother earlier this month and posting about his unhappiness on Twitter, McQueen’s personal life, it would seem, was not so rosy.

Radical concepts, from splattering model Shalom Harlow with paint for a 1999 show to his influential line in techno-Japanese reinterpretation, ensured McQueen remained fresh in the sometimes stale world of couture. Just recently he had designed the extravagant installation style costumes for Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance music video and reworked some of Colleen Atwood’s dresses from the upcoming Alice in Wonderland film by Tim Burton for a high fashion exhibition.

At such a young age, who knows where he would have travelled to next.

Alexander McQueen, 17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010

Source: The Guardian