Fri May 18, 2012
A Tribute to Fashion Designer Alexander McQueen
By Lorna Skuraton, New York – March 2010
Fashion designers are inventors – the engineers of an industry that help us make a statement about ourselves. They are also the fashion world’s entertainers creating new ways to excite the eye with the presentation of vibrant trends.
Alexander McQueen was this kind of artist. Often referred to as a designer that comes along once in a generation, McQueen was dedicated to taking his worldwide following “on journeys you never dreamed were possible” – knowing instinctively how to create theatrical fashion showstoppers.
Not many designers can say their shows have brought an audience to tears, but McQueen’s often evocative and beautiful stage antics were replete with fantasy and phantasm. Whether it was supermodel Kate Moss billowing onto the stage like a chiffon illusion, or a paraplegic model making her way down the runway with the help of hand carved prosthetic legs, McQueen’s collections were dramatic, dynamic, and always succeeded in attracting buyers, young designers and Hollywood starlets.
Although young designers, like me, never met the man behind the illustrious magic, he was a role model for our industry. Renowned for his exotic textiles – his famous armadillo shoes – and also his wild prints McQueen’s designs coupled with his futuristic theatrics succeeded in forever changing the way many people think about fashion.
An impeccable tailor, McQueen’s meticulous attention to garment detail caught the attention of the Gucci Group early on in his career. He became very successful working under the House of Givenchy (both Givenchy and Alexander McQueen are owned by the Gucci Group). As his career evolved, he developed several labels, including McQ, McQueen for Target, and a menswear label.
Named British designer of the year for four consecutive years and international designer of the year by the Council of Fashion Design Awards, McQueen’s evocative style was frequently featured on the covers of fashion magazines – his name often associated with establishing the bar for establishing trends in the fashion world.
In fact, the fashion world anxiously awaited his leadership into the next era. But on Feb. 12 (2010) the excitement ended when the industry lost this design-master, leaving people like me and my peers at the Fashion Institute of Technology (NY) heartbroken and overwhelmed with anticlimactic sentiment.
It is disheartening that sometimes the most gifted people are the most troubled. In that regard, McQueen was the Kurt Cobain of fashion design. Worshipped by a cult of followers, both artists were endowed with innovative and groundbreaking gifts. Perhaps living life under such intense public scrutiny is a difficult burden for any artist to bear.
Despite his untimely death, McQueen’s legacy lives on as a beacon of individuality for fashion design students, like me who strive to achieve a level of perfection with our own creative development. And if I become half as great a designer as Alexander McQueen, it will be my greatest achievement.
world headlines
U.S. headlines
editorial headlines
