McQueen Found Dead: Fashion's Dark Visionary Gone at 40

Alexander McQueen fused raw emotional provocation with extraordinary technical skill, staging runway shows that felt more like performance art than fashion presentations. Born Lee Alexander McQueen in Lewisham, London, in 1969, the youngest of six children of a taxi driver, he left school at sixteen and apprenticed on Savile Row, learning traditional British tailoring from Anderson and Sheppard before studying at Central Saint Martins. His graduate collection in 1992 was purchased in its entirety by Isabella Blow, the fashion editor who became his patron and champion. His early shows were deliberately confrontational: Highland Rape featured models stumbling down the runway with torn clothing and blood-streaked skin, a collection he described as a commentary on England's historical violence against Scotland. He was appointed head designer at Givenchy in 1996, a role that paired a working-class East London rebel with one of the most aristocratic fashion houses in Paris. The tension produced extraordinary work. His own label, Alexander McQueen, launched shows that incorporated rain, fire, chess boards, and holographic projections, culminating in the spring 1999 show where two robotic arms spray-painted a white dress on a spinning model. He won British Designer of the Year four times and was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Isabella Blow's suicide in 2007 devastated him. His mother's death on February 2, 2010, was the final blow. He hanged himself in his London apartment on February 11, at forty. The house he founded continues to channel his signature blend of dark romanticism and precise British tailoring under creative directors who acknowledge they are working in his shadow.