231027 Collection Digital Cover 1 - Flipbook - Page 29
“A McQueen show was one not to be missed and
he never failed to disappoint, relishing every
opportunity to stun and stimulate the crowds
that flocked to see his collections.”
Thirteen years before garnering headlines for standing down in
September, Sarah Burton swept into the spotlight upon stepping
in for Lee Alexander McQueen after his shocking death by suicide
in 2010. At that time, few people had heard of the brand’s Head of
Womenswear design. Then, shortly after filling the inimitable shoes
of her mentor and friend in taking over the role of Creative Director
at his eponymous fashion house, Burton designed the wedding dress
for the nuptials of England’s future King and Queen, and she was
catapulted into the mainstream consciousness, the brand instantly
becoming a household name. Whilst her departure will perhaps not
be felt as keenly as McQueen’s, it will be hugely noticeable nonetheless.
Time will tell whether the Maison’s new Creative Director, Seán
McGirr, will be able to fill such large shoes.
However, before Sarah, there was Alexander, and it is his pure genius,
unbounded creativity and incredible legacy that Burton’s successor
will be charged with the care and continuation of too.
Crowned the unchallenged rebel King of British fashion, Lee Alexander
McQueen was the head of a sublime fashion house, ruled by rage and
savage beauty. His suicide sent shockwaves through an industry that had
come to expect from him some of the most spectacular, outlandish and
visionary creations that the world had ever seen.
Born in the East End of London to a cab driver father and a teacher
mother, it is fair to say that McQueen’s childhood days were far removed
from the fame and fortune of his later years. Growing up in a working
class family in Stratford provided McQueen with the perfect guise to hide
behind: the edgy East End bad boy, a persona that he would play up to
time and again.
Labelling himself “the pink sheep” of the family that he struggled
to relate to, McQueen had decided at a young age that he wanted to
be a designer. With no apparent connections to the fashion industry,
he set about forging his own and was accepted into an apprenticeship
with King Charles’ tailor, Anderson & Sheppard.
McQueen previously claimed to have forgotten why a former working
class rebel, with what could only be described as a cavalier attitude
to authority, would be attracted to such bastions of the Savile Row
establishment. Perhaps it was the refined atmosphere, the extreme
professional discipline of tailoring or because “You’ve got to know
the rules to break them,” as the late designer once proclaimed.
After completing his apprenticeship with the old hands of Savile Row,
McQueen trained under Italian designer Romeo Gigli, who gave his shy
young protégé the knowledge and encouragement needed to enrol at
the renowned art and design college of Central Saint Martins in London.
If McQueen’s time training under Anderson & Sheppard and Gigli were
the building blocks of his early career, then his education at Saint Martins
could be considered the cement.
Upon graduation there was a palpable buzz surrounding McQueen and
several of his peers, but it was McQueen’s lyrical pieces that caught the
eye of influential fashion stylist Isabella Blow and, in an unprecedented
move, she famously purchased his graduate collection in its entirety.
Blow was the ultimate English eccentric and sorceress of talent: you could
neither explain nor reason with her. Incredibly prolific on the subject of
fashion and rarefied tastes; her connection with McQueen was as instant
as it was influential. Blow immediately began championing the then
23-year-old, nurturing the young designer’s self-esteem and infusing him
with inspiration. So that was it: the wheels were in motion; the McQueen
powerhouse was roaring down the tracks to success and there was
no stopping it.
McQueen’s fashion shows swiftly became synonymous with shock and
awe, set in various gritty London locations: exhibitions of a kind of savage
beauty. A McQueen show was one not to be missed and he never failed to
disappoint, relishing every opportunity to stun and stimulate the crowds
that flocked to see his collections. His fashion shows were theatrical to the
point of exhaustion; his collections had the ability to silence his audiences:
at once offensive and beautiful.
27
