Alexander McQueen (brand)
Encyclopedia
Alexander McQueen is a luxury fashion house
founded by designer Alexander McQueen
(1969–2010). Its current creative director is Sarah Burton
.
that McQueen use his middle name for the label. The house's early collections developed its reputation for controversy and shock tactics (earning the title "l'enfant terrible
" and "the hooligan of English fashion"), with trousers aptly named "bumsters
" and a collection entitled Highland Rape. Alexander McQueen staged lavish, unconventional, runway shows, such as a recreation of a shipwreck for his spring 2003 collection, spring 2005's human chess game and the Fall 2006 show, Widows of Culloden, which featured a life-sized hologram of supermodel Kate Moss
dressed in yards of rippling fabric.
During his time as head designer, McQueen was awarded the title "British Designer of the Year" four times between 1996 and 2003; he was also awarded the CBE
and named International Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers
in 2003.
In December 2000, the Gucci
Group acquired 51% of his company and appointed him as Creative Director before launching stores in London, Milan, New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In October 31st, 2011, Alexander McQueen opens its first store in Beijing with a runway show. Following the take over, the brand's catwalk presentations were relocated from London to Paris, beginning with the Spring/Summer 2002 collection The Dance of The Twisted Bull on 6 October 2001.
Alexander McQueen launched its first menswear collection in Spring/Summer 2005 and continues to show its collections during Milan Fashion Week
. The company launched its first women's pre-spring collection on the runway with its mens collection on 22 June 2008 and has since continued releasing cruise collection
s since Spring 2010.
Alexander McQueen branched into e-commerce, launching an online store in the US in 2008. This was later expanded with an online store for the UK market in 2010.
McQueen's suicide
was announced on the afternoon of 11 February 2010. At the time of his death, the company had debts of £
32 million despite posting profits from handbag sales in 2008.
Following the expiry of the contract with SINV SpA with the Spring/Summer 2011 collection, the brand announced on 11 October 2010 that it would take control of the McQ diffusion line by creating a new internal team with the creative direction of Pina Ferlisi, under the leadership of Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton. For the first campaign for the re-acquired line, photographer Niall O'Brien collaborated with McQ by driving across the American Northwest capturing images which evoked the McQ attitude.
In August 2011, the company announced it would launch its first McQ standalone boutique in London in 2012. In November 2011, it announced that McQ would be presented at London Fashion Week for the first time in February 2012, and that the new four-storey Georgian townhouse boutique will stock womenswear, menswear and accessories.
In January 2003, Alexander McQueen collaborated with perfumer Jacques Cavallier to launch his first fragrance Kingdom, which was launched on the designer's birthday 17 March. A limited edition version of the fragrance was launched in 2004. The company launched its second fragrance, My Queen three years later in 2006. On 10 October 2003, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Michael Clark
to stage the Spring 2004 collection. On 15 October 2003, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Björk
at Fashion Rocks
where the Fall 2003 collection was presented at the Royal Albert Hall
.
In 2004, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Safilo
via a licensing deal to launch an eyewear range. The 2010 collection featured the house's trademark skull detail. The same year, the company collaborated with American Express
to launch a limited-edition version of its ultra-exclusive Centurion Card. The card is available by invitation only to AMEX Platinum card members. To launch the card, McQueen hosted a retrospective of his collections from 1995 till Fall 2003.
In 2005, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Puma
to produce a line of mens and women's footwear launched in Spring 2006. The Alexander McQueen PUMA line is founded on the union of tradition and technology, with juxtaposing influences. In 2008, the line's Fall 2009 collection was fully expanded to include men's and women's clothing and accessories, with a collaboration with film director Saam Farahmand to produce a 4 minute movie 'Ghost' as an ad campaign for the collection.
In 2007, Alexander McQueen became the first brand to participate in MAC's promotion of cosmetic releases created by fashion designers. The collection,was released on 11 October and reflected the looks used on the Autumn/Winter McQueen catwalk. The inspiration for the collection was the Elizabeth Taylor
movie Cleopatra
, and thus the models sported intense blue, green, and teal eyes with strong black liner extended Egyptian-style.
In 2008, Alexander McQueen collaborated with mass market retailer Target
as McQ Alexander McQueen for Target. The company was the first collaboration between Target and an international designer. McQueen cited Leila Moss of The Duke Spirit
as his muse for the collection. The collection was launched on 4 March 2009, with the band playing at the launch party. The same year, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Samsonite
to produce luggage formed using a mold of a human ribcage and sternum on the front and spine on the back. Other pieces in the collection apply animal patterns like crocodile to the bags skin using laser cutting technology. With the catwalk presentations, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Philip Treacy
to produce hats for the Spring 2008 collection, and again with the Fall 2009 collection.
In 6 October 2009, the company collaborated with SHOWstudio
to stream its Spring/Summer 2010 collection Plato's Atlantis live on the company's website. The shoes from that collection were later featured on the SHOWstudio website. The same year, the company collaborated with Unkle
who produced music for the McQ Autumn/Winter 2009 collection titled McQ. The collaboration was a success, and was extended a second season for the McQ Spring/Summer 2010 collection where the promotional CD was given out in a McQ press goodie bag.
In June 2010, Visionaire
magazine's 58th issue, titled Spirit: A Tribute To Lee Alexander McQueen, was released as a tribute to the late founder. The issue featured images and discussions with editors who had met McQueen in 2003 to discuss the collaboration which never materialized. The issue also features contributions from Lady GaGa
, Steven Klein
, Nick Knight
and Mario Testino
Only 1,500 numbered copies were made, with pages made from seeded paper, which will sprout wildflowers once planted signifying the ongoing legacy of McQueen.
In 1998, Alexander McQueen photographed Aimee Mullins
and sent her down the catwalk with intricately carved wooden legs — making her the first amputee to ever be featured on the catwalk. For the untitled Spring/Summer 1999 catwalk show, Shalom Harlow
's white cotton dress was sprayed by car robots as she was spun around a platform. Animal rights activists and heavy police presence due to a reported bomb scare were present at the Autumn/Winter 2000 Eshu catwalk show, due to the extensive use of fur and leather in the collection.
McQueen was accused of misogyny
following the Autumn/Winter 2009 The Horn of Plenty catwalk show where models with huge, overdrawn red and black lips were compared to a blow-up sex doll and hats made from found objects and rubbish like aluminium cans and duct tape implied models themselves were trash. Similarly, the Autumn/Winter 2010 An Bailitheor Cnámh menswear catwalk show featured men in weird masks and netted headgear that alluded to sadomasochism or bondage, and one of the suits was printed with human skulls and bones.
For the Spring/Summer 2010 Plato's Atlantis catwalk show, models refused to wear the now iconic 12 inch high armadillo shoes due to safety fears. One of the models who refused, had fainted in the Spring/Summer 2009 Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection catwalk show after being squeezed into a corset which was too tight. Lady Gaga
wore a pair in her music video for Bad Romance and created a version in chocolate encrusted with sparkly sprinkles for her Christmas shop in 2011.
Selfridges
department store in London caused controversy when they unveiled a window display showing one of his designs being hanged from the gallows. The store later apologised, saying that "presenting a fashion item from the new Alexander McQueen collection hanging was never intended to be linked to the designer's untimely death or how he died."
In October 2010, The Hell's Angels
filed a lawsuit against the company for "misusing its trademark winged death heads symbol" in several items from its Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. The lawsuit was widely reported across all media, and is also aimed at Saks Fifth Avenue
and Zappos.com
, which stock the US$1,595 "Hells Angels Jacquard Box Dress" and "Hell's Angels knuckle duster ring" which bear the symbol which is protected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since at least 1948. The US$2,325 "Hell's Angels Knuckleduster Box clutch" handbag and US$$560 "Hells Angels Pashmina" scarf was also named in lawsuit. The lawyer representing Hells Angels claimed "This isn’t just about money, it’s about membership.If you’ve got one of these rings on, a member might get really upset that you’re an imposter." The group is demanding that the companies stop producing the products, recall any items in distribution and pay damages totalling three times whatever profit they made on the products. SAKS refused to comment, Zappos had no immediate comment and the company's parent company, PPR, could not be reached for comment. The company settled the case with the Hell's Angels after agreeing to remove all of the merchandise featuring the logo from sale on their website, stores and concessions and recalling any of the goodies which have already been sold and destroying them.
Similarly, costume designer Jany Temime was exposed for copying a dress from the Autumn/Winter 2008 collection The Girl Who Lived In The Tree, for her work on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Temime had claimed that she "wanted it to be a witch wedding dress but not a Halloween dress. The dress is white but it needed to have something fantastic to it. So there is the phoenix [motif], the bird, which is a symbol of love in a way because there is rebirth, love never dies, it is born again." However, the birds on the McQueen original were actually peacocks, and although Temime did manage to change the crest on the bird's heads to make them more 'phoenixy', she neglected to alter any other detail of the birds, including their rather obvious peacock feathers.
The story was widely reported by the fashion media.
On 27 May 2010, Sarah Burton, McQueen's right hand design aide since 1996, was announced as the new creative director of the Alexander McQueen brand, with further plans to launch a men's underwear collection in June 2010. The underwear line featured iconic prints from the McQueen archive and the logo on the waistband, with a percentage of the launch collection of Alexander McQueen underwear to be given to various AIDS charities around the world.
Burton launched her first menswear show Pomp and Circumstance under the McQueen brand in June 2010 to generally positive reviews, which noted how low-key the event was. She launched the brand's womenswear resort collection shortly after, which was praised for lightness and having 'a woman's touch'. Burton showed her first womenswear show on 5 October 2010 in Paris, where she said her vision for the brand would be "lighter". The show was a huge success, and praised for being one of the strongest shows at Paris Fashion Week, "full of McQueen trademarks and ideas" and a "far more optimistic sensibility". Michael Jackson
's "I'll Be There" was played at the finale of the show.
Creative director Sarah Burton
designed the dress worn by Catherine Middleton during her wedding to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge on Friday 29 April 2011.
An analysis of online chatter shows that Alexander McQueen creates the most intense feelings of brand passion amongst wedding dress designers in the NetBase Brand Passion Index.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosted a posthumous exhibition of McQueen's work in 2011 titled Savage Beauty
. Despite being open for only three months, it was one of the most popular exhibitions in the museum's history. The exhibition was so successful that Alexander McQueen fans and industry professionals worldwide began rallying at Change.org to "Please Make Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty a Traveling Exhibition" to bring honor to McQueen and see his vision become a reality: to share his work with the entire world.
On November 28 2011, Sarah Burton won the Designer of the Year at the 2011 British Fashion Awards
.
Womenswear mainline catwalk collections:
Menswear mainline catwalk collections:
Fashion House
Fashion House is an American telenovela that aired at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Monday through Saturday on MyNetworkTV stations. The series premiered on September 5, 2006 and concluded on December 5, 2006...
founded by designer Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...
(1969–2010). Its current creative director is Sarah Burton
Sarah Burton
Sarah Burton is an English fashion designer, currently creative director of fashion brand Alexander McQueen. She designed Catherine Middleton's wedding dress for her wedding to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge in April 2011....
.
History
Alexander McQueen was founded by designer McQueen in 1992. It was the suggestion of Isabella BlowIsabella Blow
Isabella Blow was an English magazine editor. The muse of hat designer Philip Treacy, she is credited with discovering the models Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl as well as the fashion designer Alexander McQueen....
that McQueen use his middle name for the label. The house's early collections developed its reputation for controversy and shock tactics (earning the title "l'enfant terrible
L'enfant terrible
L'enfant terrible is a French term for a child who is terrifyingly candid by saying embarrassing things to adults, especially parents....
" and "the hooligan of English fashion"), with trousers aptly named "bumsters
Low-rise jeans
Low-rise jeans, worn by both men and women, are jeans intended to sit low on, or below, the hips. They are also called lowcut jeans, hipsters, hip-huggers and lowriders. Usually they sit at least 8 centimetres lower than the belly button...
" and a collection entitled Highland Rape. Alexander McQueen staged lavish, unconventional, runway shows, such as a recreation of a shipwreck for his spring 2003 collection, spring 2005's human chess game and the Fall 2006 show, Widows of Culloden, which featured a life-sized hologram of supermodel Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
dressed in yards of rippling fabric.
During his time as head designer, McQueen was awarded the title "British Designer of the Year" four times between 1996 and 2003; he was also awarded the CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
and named International Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers
Council of Fashion Designers of America
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. is a not-for-profit trade association of over 350 of America’s foremost fashion and accessory designers. As of 2009, Diane von Fürstenberg is the group's President and Steven Kolb is the Executive Director...
in 2003.
In December 2000, the Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...
Group acquired 51% of his company and appointed him as Creative Director before launching stores in London, Milan, New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In October 31st, 2011, Alexander McQueen opens its first store in Beijing with a runway show. Following the take over, the brand's catwalk presentations were relocated from London to Paris, beginning with the Spring/Summer 2002 collection The Dance of The Twisted Bull on 6 October 2001.
Alexander McQueen launched its first menswear collection in Spring/Summer 2005 and continues to show its collections during Milan Fashion Week
Milan Fashion Week
Milan Fashion Week is a famous fashion week held semi-annually in Milan, Italy Spring/Summer event held in February - March of each year and Autumn/Winter event held in September - October of each year....
. The company launched its first women's pre-spring collection on the runway with its mens collection on 22 June 2008 and has since continued releasing cruise collection
Cruise collection
A cruise collection or resort collection, sometimes also referred to as holiday or travel collection , is an inter-season or pre-season line of ready-to-wear clothing produced by a fashion house or fashion brand in addition to the recurrent twice-yearly seasonal collections - spring/summer and...
s since Spring 2010.
Alexander McQueen branched into e-commerce, launching an online store in the US in 2008. This was later expanded with an online store for the UK market in 2010.
McQueen's suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
was announced on the afternoon of 11 February 2010. At the time of his death, the company had debts of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
32 million despite posting profits from handbag sales in 2008.
McQ
In 27 July 2006, the company launched a lower-priced diffusion line McQ. The new line carries men's and women's ready-to-wear and accessories, was exclusively designed by Lee Alexander McQueen, manufactured and distributed worldwide by SINV SpA under the terms of a five-year licence agreement with Alexander McQueen. Promoted as a denim line, the focus of McQ is a youthful target market. The Spring/Summer 2011 was the final collection in collaboration with SINV SpA. Pina Ferlisi was appointed as the creative director for the line in June 2010.Following the expiry of the contract with SINV SpA with the Spring/Summer 2011 collection, the brand announced on 11 October 2010 that it would take control of the McQ diffusion line by creating a new internal team with the creative direction of Pina Ferlisi, under the leadership of Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton. For the first campaign for the re-acquired line, photographer Niall O'Brien collaborated with McQ by driving across the American Northwest capturing images which evoked the McQ attitude.
In August 2011, the company announced it would launch its first McQ standalone boutique in London in 2012. In November 2011, it announced that McQ would be presented at London Fashion Week for the first time in February 2012, and that the new four-storey Georgian townhouse boutique will stock womenswear, menswear and accessories.
Collaborations
Between 1996 to 2001, Alexander McQueen collaborated with jeweller Shaun Leane on bespoke jewellery pieces for the catwalk presentations.In January 2003, Alexander McQueen collaborated with perfumer Jacques Cavallier to launch his first fragrance Kingdom, which was launched on the designer's birthday 17 March. A limited edition version of the fragrance was launched in 2004. The company launched its second fragrance, My Queen three years later in 2006. On 10 October 2003, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Michael Clark
Michael Clark (dancer)
Michael Clark is a Scottish dancer and choreographer.-Early life:Michael Clark was born in Aberdeen and began traditional Scottish dancing at the age of four. In 1975 he left home to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, and on his final day at the school he was presented with the Ursula...
to stage the Spring 2004 collection. On 15 October 2003, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
at Fashion Rocks
Fashion Rocks
Fashion Rocks was an annual international charity fundraiser event which features fashions by the world's top designers being presented to live performances by popular music acts.The inaugural event was held at the Royal Albert Hall on October 15, 2003...
where the Fall 2003 collection was presented at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
.
In 2004, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Safilo
Safilo
-History:Safilo Group S.p.A. was founded in 1934 after Guglielmo Tabacchi purchased Italy’s first industrial complex for producing lenses and frames in Pieve di Cadore. Exports in the 1930s expanded to many European countries, North Africa, the Middle East and South America.In the 1940s,...
via a licensing deal to launch an eyewear range. The 2010 collection featured the house's trademark skull detail. The same year, the company collaborated with American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
to launch a limited-edition version of its ultra-exclusive Centurion Card. The card is available by invitation only to AMEX Platinum card members. To launch the card, McQueen hosted a retrospective of his collections from 1995 till Fall 2003.
In 2005, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Puma
PUMA AG
Puma SE, officially branded as PUMA, is a major German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear. Formed in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, relationships between the two brothers deteriorated until the two...
to produce a line of mens and women's footwear launched in Spring 2006. The Alexander McQueen PUMA line is founded on the union of tradition and technology, with juxtaposing influences. In 2008, the line's Fall 2009 collection was fully expanded to include men's and women's clothing and accessories, with a collaboration with film director Saam Farahmand to produce a 4 minute movie 'Ghost' as an ad campaign for the collection.
In 2007, Alexander McQueen became the first brand to participate in MAC's promotion of cosmetic releases created by fashion designers. The collection,was released on 11 October and reflected the looks used on the Autumn/Winter McQueen catwalk. The inspiration for the collection was the Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
movie Cleopatra
Cleopatra (1963 film)
Cleopatra is a 1963 British-American-Swiss epic drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy...
, and thus the models sported intense blue, green, and teal eyes with strong black liner extended Egyptian-style.
In 2008, Alexander McQueen collaborated with mass market retailer Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
as McQ Alexander McQueen for Target. The company was the first collaboration between Target and an international designer. McQueen cited Leila Moss of The Duke Spirit
The Duke Spirit
The Duke Spirit are an English rock band based in London. Their sound has been seen as a melding of many influences ranging from the alternative noise of 1980s/90s guitar bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and Spacemen 3, the tremulous rock n roll of bands such as The Gun Club and The...
as his muse for the collection. The collection was launched on 4 March 2009, with the band playing at the launch party. The same year, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Samsonite
Samsonite
The Samsonite Corporation makes luggage with its products ranging from large suitcases to small toiletries bags and briefcases. It was started in Denver, Colorado, USA in 1910 byJesse Shwayder, as the Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company. Shwayder named one of his initial cases "Samson", after the...
to produce luggage formed using a mold of a human ribcage and sternum on the front and spine on the back. Other pieces in the collection apply animal patterns like crocodile to the bags skin using laser cutting technology. With the catwalk presentations, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Philip Treacy
Philip Treacy
Philip Treacy OBE is an Irish milliner.Born in Ahascragh,in the West of Ireland, he lived with his parents, seven brothers and sister across the road from the village church...
to produce hats for the Spring 2008 collection, and again with the Fall 2009 collection.
In 6 October 2009, the company collaborated with SHOWstudio
SHOWstudio.com
SHOWstudio.com is a fashion website, founded and directed by Nick Knight. Since it began at the start of the new millennium, SHOWstudio.com has championed film and moving image as the ideal medium for fashion in the digital age, and has utilised online streaming and real-time reporting methods –...
to stream its Spring/Summer 2010 collection Plato's Atlantis live on the company's website. The shoes from that collection were later featured on the SHOWstudio website. The same year, the company collaborated with Unkle
UNKLE
Unkle are a British musical outfit founded in 1994 by school friends James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Originally categorized as trip-hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have employed a variety of guest artists and producers.-First incarnation :Lavelle and Goldsworthy were joined...
who produced music for the McQ Autumn/Winter 2009 collection titled McQ. The collaboration was a success, and was extended a second season for the McQ Spring/Summer 2010 collection where the promotional CD was given out in a McQ press goodie bag.
In June 2010, Visionaire
Visionaire
Visionaire is an art and fashion publication that has come out in limited, numbered editions three times a year since spring 1991. Each issue has a specific format and theme around which prominent artists, designers, photographers, and others guests edit the publication...
magazine's 58th issue, titled Spirit: A Tribute To Lee Alexander McQueen, was released as a tribute to the late founder. The issue featured images and discussions with editors who had met McQueen in 2003 to discuss the collaboration which never materialized. The issue also features contributions from Lady GaGa
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
, Steven Klein
Steven Klein
Steven Klein is an American photographer based in New York.-History:After studying painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, he moved into the field of photography...
, Nick Knight
Nick Knight (photographer)
Nick Knight OBE is a British fashion photographer, documentary photographer, and web publisher—as director of SHOWstudio.com.-Life and career:Knight studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design....
and Mario Testino
Mario Testino
-Early Life:Testino grew up in Lima, the eldest son of a businessman. When he was young he wanted to be a priest. Testino recalls being unpopular at school because of his flamboyance. He was good at math and went on to study economics at Universidad del Pacífico, where his insistence on wearing...
Only 1,500 numbered copies were made, with pages made from seeded paper, which will sprout wildflowers once planted signifying the ongoing legacy of McQueen.
Controversies
McQueen first caused controversy with his Spring/Summer 1995 collection which featured his signature "bumster trousers". At the time, the trousers were described as indecent as they barely covered the natural downward curve of the buttocks. He followed this by entitling his Autumn/Winter 1995 collection Highland Rape which he explained was about the "rape" of Scotland by the English, a subject that had a personal resonance as his family is of Scottish descent. The collection featured tattered dresses made of scraps of tartan and chiffon and a tampon-strewn skirt.In 1998, Alexander McQueen photographed Aimee Mullins
Aimee Mullins
Aimee Mullins is an American athlete, actress, and fashion model best known for her collegiate-level athletic accomplishments, despite a medical condition that resulted in the amputation of both of her legs....
and sent her down the catwalk with intricately carved wooden legs — making her the first amputee to ever be featured on the catwalk. For the untitled Spring/Summer 1999 catwalk show, Shalom Harlow
Shalom Harlow
Shalom Harlow is a Canadian model and actress.-Life and career:Harlow was born in Oshawa, Ontario, the daughter of Sandi Herbert and David Harlow. Though her mother named her Shalom , meaning "peace" in Hebrew, her family is not Jewish. She was discovered at a Cure concert in Toronto and started...
's white cotton dress was sprayed by car robots as she was spun around a platform. Animal rights activists and heavy police presence due to a reported bomb scare were present at the Autumn/Winter 2000 Eshu catwalk show, due to the extensive use of fur and leather in the collection.
McQueen was accused of misogyny
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
following the Autumn/Winter 2009 The Horn of Plenty catwalk show where models with huge, overdrawn red and black lips were compared to a blow-up sex doll and hats made from found objects and rubbish like aluminium cans and duct tape implied models themselves were trash. Similarly, the Autumn/Winter 2010 An Bailitheor Cnámh menswear catwalk show featured men in weird masks and netted headgear that alluded to sadomasochism or bondage, and one of the suits was printed with human skulls and bones.
For the Spring/Summer 2010 Plato's Atlantis catwalk show, models refused to wear the now iconic 12 inch high armadillo shoes due to safety fears. One of the models who refused, had fainted in the Spring/Summer 2009 Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection catwalk show after being squeezed into a corset which was too tight. Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
wore a pair in her music video for Bad Romance and created a version in chocolate encrusted with sparkly sprinkles for her Christmas shop in 2011.
Selfridges
Selfridges
Selfridges, AKA Selfridges & Co, is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and was opened on 15 March 1909.More recently, three other stores have been...
department store in London caused controversy when they unveiled a window display showing one of his designs being hanged from the gallows. The store later apologised, saying that "presenting a fashion item from the new Alexander McQueen collection hanging was never intended to be linked to the designer's untimely death or how he died."
In October 2010, The Hell's Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
filed a lawsuit against the company for "misusing its trademark winged death heads symbol" in several items from its Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. The lawsuit was widely reported across all media, and is also aimed at Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...
and Zappos.com
Zappos.com
Zappos.com is an online shoe and apparel shop currently based in Henderson, Nevada.In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Since its founding in 1999, Zappos has grown to be the largest online shoe store.-Inception:Zappos...
, which stock the US$1,595 "Hells Angels Jacquard Box Dress" and "Hell's Angels knuckle duster ring" which bear the symbol which is protected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since at least 1948. The US$2,325 "Hell's Angels Knuckleduster Box clutch" handbag and US$$560 "Hells Angels Pashmina" scarf was also named in lawsuit. The lawyer representing Hells Angels claimed "This isn’t just about money, it’s about membership.If you’ve got one of these rings on, a member might get really upset that you’re an imposter." The group is demanding that the companies stop producing the products, recall any items in distribution and pay damages totalling three times whatever profit they made on the products. SAKS refused to comment, Zappos had no immediate comment and the company's parent company, PPR, could not be reached for comment. The company settled the case with the Hell's Angels after agreeing to remove all of the merchandise featuring the logo from sale on their website, stores and concessions and recalling any of the goodies which have already been sold and destroying them.
Similarly, costume designer Jany Temime was exposed for copying a dress from the Autumn/Winter 2008 collection The Girl Who Lived In The Tree, for her work on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Temime had claimed that she "wanted it to be a witch wedding dress but not a Halloween dress. The dress is white but it needed to have something fantastic to it. So there is the phoenix [motif], the bird, which is a symbol of love in a way because there is rebirth, love never dies, it is born again." However, the birds on the McQueen original were actually peacocks, and although Temime did manage to change the crest on the bird's heads to make them more 'phoenixy', she neglected to alter any other detail of the birds, including their rather obvious peacock feathers.
The story was widely reported by the fashion media.
Post-Lee Alexander McQueen through today
On 18 February 2010, Robert Polet, the president and chief executive of the Gucci Group, announced that the Alexander McQueen business would carry on without its founder and creative director. He also added that a McQueen collection would be presented during Paris Fashion Week.On 27 May 2010, Sarah Burton, McQueen's right hand design aide since 1996, was announced as the new creative director of the Alexander McQueen brand, with further plans to launch a men's underwear collection in June 2010. The underwear line featured iconic prints from the McQueen archive and the logo on the waistband, with a percentage of the launch collection of Alexander McQueen underwear to be given to various AIDS charities around the world.
Burton launched her first menswear show Pomp and Circumstance under the McQueen brand in June 2010 to generally positive reviews, which noted how low-key the event was. She launched the brand's womenswear resort collection shortly after, which was praised for lightness and having 'a woman's touch'. Burton showed her first womenswear show on 5 October 2010 in Paris, where she said her vision for the brand would be "lighter". The show was a huge success, and praised for being one of the strongest shows at Paris Fashion Week, "full of McQueen trademarks and ideas" and a "far more optimistic sensibility". Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's "I'll Be There" was played at the finale of the show.
Creative director Sarah Burton
Sarah Burton
Sarah Burton is an English fashion designer, currently creative director of fashion brand Alexander McQueen. She designed Catherine Middleton's wedding dress for her wedding to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge in April 2011....
designed the dress worn by Catherine Middleton during her wedding to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge on Friday 29 April 2011.
An analysis of online chatter shows that Alexander McQueen creates the most intense feelings of brand passion amongst wedding dress designers in the NetBase Brand Passion Index.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosted a posthumous exhibition of McQueen's work in 2011 titled Savage Beauty
Savage Beauty (exhibition)
Savage Beauty was an art exhibition held in 2011 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring haute couture clothing created by the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, as well as accessories created for his runway shows. The exhibit was extremely popular in New York City and resulted in...
. Despite being open for only three months, it was one of the most popular exhibitions in the museum's history. The exhibition was so successful that Alexander McQueen fans and industry professionals worldwide began rallying at Change.org to "Please Make Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty a Traveling Exhibition" to bring honor to McQueen and see his vision become a reality: to share his work with the entire world.
On November 28 2011, Sarah Burton won the Designer of the Year at the 2011 British Fashion Awards
British Fashion Awards
The British Fashion Awards is a ceremony held annually in the United Kingdom to present awards to those who have made the most outstanding contributions to British clothing design during the year. The awards include that of British Designer of the Year, and Outstanding Contribution as well as...
.
List of Alexander McQueen collections
Alexander McQueen collections each featured a title revolving around the specific theme for each collection and show. The tradition ended for Fall 2011 with McQueen's death, and subsequent collections were launched without titles. The list excludes pre-collections and accessories lines.Womenswear mainline catwalk collections:
- Spring/Summer 1994 - Nihilism
- Autumn/Winter 1994 - Banshee
- Spring/Summer 1995 - The Birds
- Autumn/Winter 1995 - Highland Rape
- Spring/Summer 1996 - The Hunger
- Autumn/Winter 1996 - Dante
- Spring/Summer 1997 - Bellmer La Poupee
- Autumn/Winter 1997 - It's A Jungle Out There
- Spring/Summer 1998 - Untitled (Originally The Golden Shower)
- Autumn/Winter 1998 - Joan
- Spring/Summer 1999 - Untitled
- Autumn/Winter 1999 - The Overlook
- Spring/Summer 2000 - Eye
- Autumn/Winter 2000 - Eshu
- Spring/Summer 2001 - Voss
- Autumn/Winter 2001 - What A Merry-Go-Round
- Spring/Summer 2002 - The Dance of The Twisted Bull
- Autumn/Winter 2002 - Supercalifragilistic
- Spring/Summer 2003 - Irere
- Autumn/Winter 2003 - Scanners
- Spring/Summer 2004 - Deliverance
- Autumn/Winter 2004 - Pantheon as Lecum”
- Spring/Summer 2005 - It's Only a Game
- Autumn/Winter 2005 - The Man Who Knew Too Much
- Spring/Summer 2006 - Neptune
- Autumn/Winter 2006 - The Widows of Culloden
- Spring/Summer 2007 - Sarabande
- Autumn/Winter 2007 - In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem, 1692
- Spring/Summer 2008 - La Dame Bleue
- Autumn/Winter 2008 - The Girl Who Lived In The Tree
- Spring/Summer 2009 - Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection
- Autumn/Winter 2009 - The Horn of Plenty
- Spring/Summer 2010 - Plato's Atlantis
- Autumn/Winter 2010 - Angels & Demons (Unofficially titled)
- Spring/Summer 2011 - Untitled
- Autumn/Winter 2011 - Untitled
- Spring/Summer 2012 - Untitled
Menswear mainline catwalk collections:
- Autumn/Winter 2004 - Textist
- Spring/Summer 2005 - Untitled
- Autumn/Winter 2005 - Untitled
- Spring/Summer 2006 - Killa
- Autumn/Winter 2006 - Untitled
- Spring/Summer 2007 - Harlem
- Autumn/Winter 2007 - The Forgotten
- Spring/Summer 2008 - Please, Sur
- Autumn/Winter 2008 - Pilgrim
- Spring/Summer 2009 - Love You
- Autumn/Winter 2009 - The McQueensbury Rules
- Spring/Summer 2010 - An Alexander Film Directed by David Sims
- Autumn/Winter 2010 - An Bailitheor Cnámh
- Spring/Summer 2011 - Pomp and Circumstance
- Autumn/Winter 2011 - Untitled
- Spring/Summber 2012 - Untitled