Lee Alexander McQueen: One of the Most Influential People in the

21st Century
By: Dea 12G

He once declared, “Give me time, and I’ll give you a revolution.” Lee
Alexander McQueen—known as Alexander McQueen—born on March 17 th
1969, and raised in the East End, the youngest son of a London cabdriver
—made his breakthrough in 1995 with his collection, commemorating
about the English slaughter to his Scottish ancestors. The British designer,
almost instantly, was described by Vogue as a “beer-bellied, snaggle-
toothed, foul-mouthed”—someone who seemed to be conceited and
delinquent. But, he would rocket to success with a theatrically dark—in
the most beautiful kind of way—runaway show after another. Hamish
Bowles of Vogue stated that, “the fashion world would never be the same
again.” And that McQueen’s low-string silhouette and savage imagination
would come to define the decade.

However, making people surprised at his designs and stages were not the
only two things he did exceptionally good at. In 1998, Alexander McQueen
caused a huge controversy for bringing an amputee, Aimee Mullins, to
strut the catwalk with a hand-carved leg prosthetics. McQueen turned the
whole fashion industry upside down by just one show—he was never a big
fan of following the industrial norms of the fashion world, anyway—by
putting a disabled person in his show, and made people stand from their
chairs.

Alexander McQueen died at the age of forty on the 11 th of February 2010.

He was found hanged inside his spacious closet. Many had speculated he
committed suicide due to the loss of his best friend, Isabella Blow, and his
mother. It was also said that he had been battling depression for a long
time, but eventually lost. He hung himself on the eve of his mother’s
funeral.
Despite all of the controversies he had caused back in the days where he
would make his runaway models rise their middle finger whilst on the
catwalk and called high fashion “silly cows” for they like to show off their
wealth, along with his rather odd and wacky designs, Alexander McQueen
was honored as the Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth
in 2003. He had made his audience shed tears by the haunting beauty of
both staging and clothes and was credited for adding a sense of fantasy,
rebellion, and edge to fashion.
Works Cited
Vaidyanathan, Rajini. Six ways Alexander McQueen changed fashion. 12
February 2010. 11 February 2014
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8511404.stm>.
Foley, Bridget. Hail McQueen. June 2008. 11 February 2014
<http://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/2008/06/alexander_mcqueen>.
Horyn, Cathy. Alexander McQueen's Final Bow. 3 April 2010. 11 February
2014 <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/fashion/04mcqueen.html?
pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
Marmalade, Style. Alexander McQueen's Most Iconic Pieces. 30 May 2013.
11 February 2014 <http://www.stylemarmalade.com/2013/05/alexander-
mcqueens-most-iconic-pieces.html>.