Lee Alexander McQueen (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer. Known for his unconventional designs, he was one of the most influential fashion designers in the world from the 1990s until his death by suicide in 2010. His brand, Alexander McQueen, is now owned by Gucci and remains active. McQueen was presented with four British Designer of the Year awards as well as being named the International Designer of the Year. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 for his work in fashion.
McQueen had a background in tailoring before he studied fashion and embarked on a career as a designer. His MA graduation collection caught the attention of the fashion editor Isabella Blow, who became his patron. McQueen's early designs, particularly the radically low-cut "bumster" trousers, gained him recognition as an enfant terrible in British fashion. In 2000, McQueen sold 51% of his company to the Gucci Group, which established boutiques for his label worldwide and expanded its product range. During his career, he designed a total of 36 collections for his brand, including his graduation collection and an unfinished final collection. Following his death, his longtime collaborator Sarah Burton took over as creative director of his label.
As a designer, McQueen was known for sharp tailoring, historicism, and imaginative designs that often verged into the controversial. He explored themes such as romanticism, sexuality, and death, and many collections had autobiographical elements. Among his best-known individual designs are the bumsters, the skull scarf, and the armadillo shoes. McQueen's catwalk shows were noted for their drama and theatricality, and they often ended with elements of performance art, such as a model being spray painted by robots (No. 13, Spring/Summer 1999), or a life-size illusion of Kate Moss (The Widows of Culloden, Autumn/Winter 2006).
McQueen's legacy in fashion and culture is extensive. His designs were showcased in two retrospective exhibitions: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011 and 2015) and Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse (2022). He remains the subject of journalistic and academic analysis, including the book Gods and Kings (2015) by fashion journalist Dana Thomas and the documentary film McQueen (2018).
Early life Lee Alexander McQueen was born on 17 March 1969 at University Hospital Lewisham in Lewisham, London, to Ronald and Joyce McQueen, the youngest of six children. His Scottish father worked as a taxi driver, and his mother was a social science teacher. It was reported that he grew up in a council flat, but, in fact, the McQueens moved to a terraced house in Stratford in his first year. McQueen attended Carpenters Road Primary School, before going to Rokeby School.
He was interested in clothes from a young age. As the youngest of six children, McQueen began experimenting with fashion by making dresses for his three sisters. His earliest fashion memory reaches back to when he was just three years old, drawing a dress on the wall of his East London family home. He was also fascinated by birds and was a member of the Young Ornithologists' Club; later, in his professional career, he often used birds as motifs in his designs.
Career Early work and Central Saint Martins education
McQueen left school aged 16 in 1985 with only one O-level in art and took a course in tailoring at Newham College. He went on to serve a two-year apprenticeship in coat-making with Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard before joining Gieves & Hawkes as a pattern cutter for a short time. The skills he learned as an apprentice on Savile Row helped earn him a reputation in the fashion world as an expert in creating an impeccably tailored look. McQueen later claimed that he had sewed obscenities into the lining of suits made for Prince Charles, although a recall of suits made by Anderson & Sheppard to verify this claim found no evidence of this.
After Savile Row, he worked briefly for the theatrical costumiers Angels and Bermans, making costumes for shows such as Les Misérables. In 1989, at the age of 20, he was hired by experimental Mayfair-based designer Koji Tatsuno. He first worked as a pattern cutter before moving into clothing production. Shortly after, he moved to fashion label Red or Dead, working under designer John McKitterick; here he gained experience with fetishwear. When McKitterick left Red or Dead in early 1990 to launch his own label, he hired McQueen. By this time, McQueen was interested in becoming a designer himself, and McKitterick recommended he try for an apprenticeship in Italy, then the centre of the fashion world.
In spring 1990, McQueen left for Milan, Italy. He had no standing job offer, but secured a position with Romeo Gigli on the basis of his portfolio and tailoring experience. He resigned from Gigli's studio in July 1990, and had returned to London – and McKitterick's label – by August that year.
McQueen was still hungry to learn more about designing clothes, so McKitterick suggested he see Bobby Hillson, the Head of the MA course in fashion at London art school Central Saint Martins (CSM). McQueen turned up at CSM with a pile of sample clothing and no appointment, seeking a job teaching pattern cutting. Hillson considered him too young for this, but based on the strength of his portfolio, and despite his lack of formal qualifications, accepted McQueen into the 18-month master's-level fashion design course. Unable to afford the tuition, he borrowed £4,000 from his aunt Renee to cover it.
McQueen started at CSM in October 1990. He met a number of his future collaborators there, including Simon Ungless, a friend and later house-mate, and Fleet Bigwood, a print tutor at the school. McQueen received his master's degree in fashion design after presenting his graduation collection at London Fashion Week in March 1992. The collection, titled Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims, was bought in its entirety by magazine editor Isabella Blow. Blow became a mentor and promoter for McQueen in his early years, as well as a friend. She used her industry connections to promote his early career, introduced him to collaborators, and supported his creative vision.
Launch of own label and early shows
In 1992, McQueen started his own label, and for a time he lived in the cellar of Blow's house in Belgravia while it was under renovation. In 1993, he relocated to Hoxton Square, an area that also housed other new designers including Hussein Chalayan and Pauric Sweeney. He launched his label under his middle name, Alexander, rather than his given name; there are competing explanations for this. Blow was said to have suggested it, arguing that Alexander was "more regal". McQueen may also have been attempting to avoid losing the unemployment benefits he was drawing under his legal namehis only significant means of income at that time. In his early career, McQueen refused to show his face in photographs because he did not want to be recognised when drawing his benefits.
His first post-graduation collection, Taxi Driver (Autumn/Winter 1993), was inspired by the 1976 Martin Scorsese film of the same name. The British Fashion Council sponsored McQueen and five other young designers for small displays at the Ritz Hotel during London Fashion Week in March 1993. Taxi Driver saw the introduction of the "bumster", an extreme low-rise trouser which McQueen returned to repeatedly. With this collection, McQueen began his early practice of sewing locks of his own hair in perspex onto the clothes to serve as his label. The entire collection was lost after McQueen forgot it in bin bags behind a club following the exhibition.
McQueen did not have a professional runway show until the following season, when he presented Nihilism (Spring/Summer 1994) at the Bluebird Garage in Chelsea. His early shows relied heavily on controversy and shock tactics to draw attention, earning press monikers such as enfant terrible and "the hooligan of English fashion". Models in Nihilism were styled to look bruised and bloodied in see-through clothes and extremely low-cut bumsters. Marion Hume of The Independent described it as a "theatre of cruelty" and "a horror show". Evans, Caroline, "Fashion: Alexander McQueen", 032c issue 7 (Summer 2004). McQueen's second professional show was entitled Banshee (Autumn/Winter 1994). While he claimed it was meant to be more refined and commercially viable than Nihilism, the clothing in Banshee was, like its predecessor, highly sexualised. Many garments were cut to expose nipples or full breasts.
Soon afterward, McQueen met Katy England, who became his creative director for the following collection, The Birds (Spring/Summer 1995). She remained with him for many years and was known as his "right hand woman". The Birds, which was named after the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds and held at Kings Cross, had a roadkill theme featuring clothes with tyre marks and the corsetier Mr Pearl in an 18-inch waist corset. By this point, McQueen was beginning to attract popular attention as an avant-garde designer. He is generally credited with sparking a global trend for low-rise pants via the controversial bumsters, particularly after Madonna wore a pair in an MTV advert in 1994.
Mainstream publicity
Although McQueen had found some success with The Birds, it was his controversial sixth collection, Highland Rape (Autumn/Winter 1995), that properly made his name. The collection was inspired by Scottish history, particularly the Highland Clearances of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Styling at the runway show was violent and aggressive: many of the showpieces were slashed or torn, while others were spattered with bleach or fake blood. Reviewers interpreted it as being about women who were raped and criticised what they saw as misogyny and the glamorisation of rape. McQueen denied this, arguing that it referred to "England's rape of Scotland", and was intended to counter other designers' romantic depiction of Scottish culture. As for the charge of misogyny, he said he aimed to empower women and for people to be afraid of the women he dressed. His use of style as a protective barrier has been linked to his experience of witnessing violence against women in his family.
McQueen followed Highland Rape with The Hunger (Spring/Summer 1996) and Dante (Autumn/Winter 1996). Dante further raised his international profile, and the collection was shown twice; first in Christ Church, Spitalfields, London, later in a disused synagogue in New York, both attended by large enthusiastic crowds. McQueen won his first British Designer of the Year award in 1996.
McQueen's increasing prominence led to a number of projects for music artists. In 1996, he designed the wardrobe for David Bowie's tour of 1997, such as the Union Jack coat worn by Bowie on the cover of his album Earthling. Icelandic singer Björk sought McQueen's work for the cover of her album Homogenic in 1997. McQueen also directed the music video for her song "Alarm Call" from the same album and later contributed the iconic topless dress to her video for "Pagan Poetry".Alien Rock. "The Light of Love: The Making of the Pagan Poetry Video ". Bjork.com. 2002.
McQueen continued to be criticised for misogyny in some of his later shows for designs that some considered degrading to women. In Bellmer La Poupée (Spring/Summer 1997), inspired by Hans Bellmer's The Doll, McQueen placed models including the black model Debra Shaw in metal restraints, which observers interpreted as a reference to slavery, while the silver mouthpiece in Eshu (Autumn/Winter 2000) forced the wearer to bare her teeth. Similarly the sex-doll lips make-up of the models in The Horn of Plenty (Autumn/Winter 2009–10) was also criticised as being ugly and misogynistic. The fashion writer of the Daily Mail called McQueen "the designer who hates women".
Givenchy appointment