"You have always made the most beautiful things out of absolute shit. This is Darrah Cloud's favourite line in her new play about Alexander McQueen, dubbed the bad boy or enfant terrible of British fashion. It's what he did, Cloud explains via Zoom from New York. He had the ability to translate trauma into beauty or joy into beauty or an oyster shell into a dress. I mean, what an extraordinary thing."
"The young Lee McQueen he later switched to his middle name, Alexander, because it sounded posh left school at 16 and apprenticed as a tailor on Savile Row, where legend has it he scrawled obscenities inside the lining of a jacket destined for Prince Charles. McQueen pursued a master's degree at the prestigious art and design college Central Saint Martins, where his graduation collection, inspired by Jack the Ripper, was bought by the fashion stylist Isabella Blow, who became his patron and mentor."
Alexander McQueen rose from a working-class London background to global fashion prominence through a blend of provocative spectacle and meticulous craftsmanship. He converted trauma, joy, and unexpected materials into striking garments, exemplified by the handmade oyster dress. Trained on Savile Row and later at Central Saint Martins, his graduation pieces attracted influential patronage from Isabella Blow. Early collections such as Highland Rape deliberately shocked audiences, aiming to provoke repulsion or exhilaration. In 1996 he became chief designer at Givenchy, where he often clashed with the constraints of a heritage house while producing memorable and unsettling work.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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