‘Give me time and I’ll give you a revolution.’
Genius. A word that is seldom associated with the fashion industry.
Yes, you’ve all heard of this British Fashion Designer but the depth and breadth of his impact in the fashion world in my opinion is far greater than any other creator in this Century.
I for one am captivated by his works and must have walked round both the Isabella Blow and Savage Beauty Exhibition at least three times each.
The man I speak so highly of is no other than Lee Alexander McQueen. Born in Lewisham, England in 1969 and the youngest of six children. The son of a Scottish Taxi Driver and a Social Science Teacher, leaving school at 16 he made no attempt at following in their footsteps instead, he made his way as an apprentice along the famous Saville Row including Gieves and Hawkes and Angeks and Bermans. It was here he learnt the incredibly technical skills of tailoring. Which would later earn him his place as one of the most desirable designers of all time.
Applying to Central Saint Martins to work as a pattern cutter tutor, he impressed with his application and was consequently persuaded to enroll as a student. Ultimately his work shone through and his 1992 graduation collection was bought in its entirety by Isabella Blow. Having a natural sense for talent and uprising stars after working much of her career in the Magazine Industry, scouting Mcqueen was one of Blow’s most risky yet favourable discoveries.
His early collections gained attention for their controversy, but this was not McQueen’s inherent purpose. Shock tactics have become a trade mark, yes, but not the definition of his collections. For me, it’s all about storytelling. McQueen used his collections to illustrate insightful and fascinating stories.
These stories payed great attention to his heritage as both British and Scottish and it can be seen as a defining feature in McQueens work. And due to his time on Saville Row he preserves the great skill of displaying tradition. Additionally, he also took on portraying the more unexplored and lesser publicized stories of culture in Britain.
McQueen’s dedication to originality and displaying his craft in the most honest of manners is hugely admirable. “The inspiration behind the hair came from Victorian times when prostitutes would sell theirs for kits of hair locks, which were bought by people to give to their lovers. I used it as my signature label with locks of hair in Perspex. In the early collections, it was my own hair.” – an interview on his Jack the Ripper collection.
His creative and innovative shows were always eloquently harmonized with the language of each collection. Unafraid of pushing fashion world ‘boundaries’ McQueen’s shows cultivated new and unconvential views of the fashion world, consistently exploring ways to appreciate the fashion world whilst at the same time expanding its views of what it means to be a great designer.
A famous hologram display of Kate Moss in 2006, an eerie bride figure “Help me Obi One, you’re my only help”, a haunting display with roots extending to the nineteenth century stage mechanics of ‘Pepper’s Ghost.’ He remodeled the expectation of the showing of a collection and developed the fashion world into a creative outlet, just as it should be.
His 2010 Spring Collection: Plato’s Atlantis was yet another way in which McQueen joined fashion with technology, broadcasting the whole collection live via SHOWstudio.
McQueen was envisaging a biological hybridisation of women along with sea mammals. He used prints,shapes, colours all inspired by reptiles and monstrous fantastical creatures. A crossbreed of structural sharp tailoring and moulded ecological forms, this show was truly a unique and willing formula and, sadly the final collection in which he would personally be responsible.
Throughout his career McQueen has kept me fascinated, and he will continue to inspire me as he has done in the years since his death in 2010. A man so consumed with passion, he had the ability to understand and fully communicate the most intense and complex emotions. Unfortunately, his own complex emotions were too much to handle, and although his death came as a shock to the fashion world and leaves a fashion house who will never truly create collections as McQueen himself would of, it does not hinder the impact and legacy he has left behind.
By Rachel Williams
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