Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen's recent death at his own hand leads the fashion world to wonder why a man at the peak of his brilliant career would end it all so unexpectedly. Inarguably one of the most innovative living designers, McQueen rewrote the direction of fashion each season. He managed to stay accessible to the everyday Saks Fifth Avenue customer while developing a huge avant garde fan base. Celebrities from the down to earth Sandra Bullock to the daring fashionites Kate Moss and Lady Gaga came to McQueen for his edgy and dramatic pieces. Socialite and magazine editor Isabella Blow, one of McQueen's muses, bought his entire degree collection upon his graduation from St. Martin's.

McQueen's shows were more like performance art pieces. His fall 2009 ready to wear show featured other-wordly head pieces and models donning sex-doll lips that caused controversy in the fashion world. The brassy showmanship of the show hid the fact that most of the individual pieces were stunningly crafted houndstooth jackets and printed dresses with universal appeal. Many consider his most recent spring/summer 2010 ready to wear collection to be the his most shockingly beautiful. The twelve-inch platform shoes and fiercely architectural mini-dresses in reptilian digital prints spoke to environmentalism and the theorized watery beginning of mankind. From water we came, said McQueen, and to water we will return if we continue on the same path.

Truthfully, the spring/summer 2010 collection was an extension of his past work. The spring/summer 2009 pieces show the nascent properties of what is to come- reptilian digital prints and architectural craftsmanship. McQueen had been thinking about his statement on the fate of humanity for several collections, and the spring/summer 2010 was a culmination of his artistic process. In fact, McQueen was one of the last designers standing with an artistic process. For his fall 2008 collection, he made up a story about a girl living in a 600 year old oak tree meeting a prince and moving to India. The result was a dark and moody Victorian collection that was both completely modern and totally vintage. McQueen removed himself from the trend concept and gave women art to wear. His designs carried no jaded cynicism or snobbery. McQueen's edgy darkness spoke at once to the hopeless atmosphere of recent years, while his boldness and lack of fear spoke to hope for the future. With his death, the fashion world lost a visionary and one of the remaining genuine artists of the industry.