Lee Lee I Love You

Lee Alexander McQueen

Born March 17th 1969, Alexander McQueen was an extremely accomplished fashion designer and couturier most widely renowned for his remarkably distinguished designs. McQueen attended Rokeby School in Newham, London, and from there obtained an elite apprenticeship with Saville Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard as well as the famous theatrical costumiers Angels & Berman. These years provided him with the fundamental skills he would use to eventually build his own fashion Empire.

In 1994, McQueen was accepted to the prestigious Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, where he earned his masters degree in fashion design. Although he had no formal education, the director at the school was blown away by his extensively mastered portfolio and enrolled him immediately. 

Dark and Diabolical motifs seem to be the only prominent glue binding McQueens numerous collections together. From his first runway show to the last, McQueen’s iconic designs always dropped jaws. His Fall/Winter ’98 collection consisted of “car-robots spraying paint over white cotton dresses and a disabled model striding down the catwalk on intricately carved wooden legs” (...noteworthy, to say the least). As early on as his first collection, McQueen had made a distinct effort to alter the stereotypical gender roles splashed all over the fashion world. He dismissed the conventional use of soft, alluring shapes in association with femininity and introduced straight line suits in harsh textures for women to proudly dawn. 

The show ^

September 18, 1999; Show review by Lisa Armstrong:

"In every McQueen collection there's always an element that makes you wonder if he likes women at all. This time it was outfits that incorporated chadors and yashmaks that completely masked some of the models' faces, while leaving their nipples and buttocks on view to the world."

Despite some harsh feedback from global fashion critics, McQueen had proven himself. At 26, he had his own fashion house in Paris, millions of clients world wide and the brains to baffle nearly anyone who questioned him.