The Rule BreakerLee Alexander McQueen

By Iason Raissis

Alexander McQueen was a London based, English fashion designer who was head designer for Louis Vuitton Givenchy line, before starting his own line In 2004, he launched his own menswear line McQueen earned the British Fashion Council’s British Designer of the year award four times and was named commander of the order of the British Empire

Lee Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969, into a working-class family living in public housing in London’s Lewisham district. His father was a cab driver and his mother taught social science. On their small incomes, they supported McQueen and his five siblings. McQueen called “Lee” by his friends for most of his life, recognized his homosexuality at an early age and was teased extensively about it by schoolmates.

At age 16, McQueen dropped out of school. He found work on Savile Row, a street in London’s Mayfair district famous for offering made-to-order men’s suits. He worked first with the tailor shop Anderson & Shephard, and then he moved to nearby Gieves & Hawkes.

Deciding to further his clothes-making career, McQueen moved from Savile Row and began working with theatrical costume designers Angels & Bermans. The dramatic style of the clothing he made there, would become a signature of his later independent design work. McQueen left London and traveled to Milan, where he worked as a design assistant to Italian fashion designer Romeo Gigli.

Upon his return to London, McQueen enrolled at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design and received a Master’s in Fashion Design in 1992. The collection he produced as the culminating project of his degree was inspired by Jack the Ripper and was famously bought to its entirety by the well-known stylist Isabella Blow. She became a long-time friend of Alexander, as well as an advocate for his work.

Only four years out of graduate school, McQueen was named Chief Designer of Louis Vuitton Givenchy. Although, at the time this was a prestigious job, McQueen took it reluctantly. Even though he was pushing the limits of what people expected from fashion, he felt he was being held back.

The designer would later say that the job "constrained his creativity," though he also made the following admission: "I treated Givenchy badly. It was just money to me. But there was nothing I could do: the only way it would have worked would have been if they had allowed me to change the whole concept of the house, to give it a new identity, and they never wanted me to do that." Even with his reservations about his work, McQueen won British Designer of the Year in 1996, 1997, and 2001, all during his time at Givenchy.

McQueen's rise from lower-class high school dropout to internationally famous designer is a remarkable story His bold styles and fascinating shows inspired and wowed the world of fashion, and his legacy lives on Longtime co-designer Sarah Burton took over the stilloperating Alexander McQueen brand, and McQueen's contribution to fashion was honored by a 2011 exhibition of his creations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

McQueens story, is what made me come closer with the industry and finaly work in fashion At the time I created the magazine, the only thing I knew how to do well was to interview people, listen to their stories McQueens story, had already been written before I even knew what the fashion industry was all about

Today, we celebrate one year of lush , 5 issues of pure fashion and journalism And although i wasn't able to interview McQueen myself, I have pledged to help those young designers out there to find their voice through lush , and introduce their work to the public at the beginning of their careers