Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBEwas a British fashion designer and couturier. He is known for having worked as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and for founding his own Alexander McQueen label. His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards, as well as the CFDA's International Designer of the Year award in 2003. McQueen committed suicide in 2010 at the age of forty...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionFashion Designer
Date of Birth17 March 1969
CityLondon, England
I always wanted to be a designer. I read books on fashion from the age of 12.
Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive. I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there's no room for fault. But I don't expect to turn things around all by myself. I'm not a saint.
I like the concept of dressing people. I used to not care whether people bought the clothes or not, but I kind of like it now. I wouldn't label that commercialism; it's more like I do this work because I want people to wear it.
I spent a long time learning how to construct clothes, which is important to do before you can deconstruct them.
I've had good times; I've had bad times.
I like things to be modern and still have a bit of tradition
I am married to work.
I don’t want to do a cocktail party. I’d rather people left my shows and vomited.
I am a melancholy type of person.
What I do is look at ancient African tribes, and the way they dress. The rituals of how they dress. . . . There’s a lot of tribalism in the collections,
As a designer, you've always got to push yourself forward; you've always got to keep up with the trends or make your own trends. That's what I do.
I'm not interested in being liked.
Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't.
I feel more Scottish than Norman.