R.I.P. Alexander McQueen

[Aleks]

I'm sure Alexander Mcqueen would prefer for his death to not be on television...

[mononon]

I'm sure Alexander Mcqueen would prefer for his death to not be on television...

especially not E!

[Faust]

laughed, i wasn't criticizing you - i was being sincere.

[mononon]

looking back at earlier mcqueen womenswear fashion shows, i simply forgot how amazing and over-the-top (in a good way) they were, there's nothing like it. sad it had to come to his death for me to remember how amazing he is.

[laughed]

Faust, no worries, you're right ;)
deleted some old ones.
I've said my piece and really I didn't even need to say my piece.
There is no way we can comprehend what this means to others, I just want to say, this one hit me like crazy and that's why I sounded crazy earlier. I'll be the second person to apologize for talking crazy - after Whitney ;) hehe
anyway, not only do I need to turn the TV off, but the internet too to digest this and some other things.
post AMcQ day two has brought me back to reality a little bit and well,
he was awesome and that's all I have left to say.

[SHYE_POSER]

What i find disgusting,is a reputable,internationally known London Boutique is cashing in on his death!
As most stores are selling out of all products McQ, this boutique is capatalising on his death even more.
By pulling old season stock from a sale shop,and putting it back on the main shop floor at full price.
to miss quote some one from the waywt thread, with great tragedy comes great profit!

[mrbeuys]

What i find disgusting,is a reputable,internationally known London Boutique is cashing in on his death!
As most stores are selling out of all products McQ, this boutique is capatalising on his death even more.
By pulling old season stock from a sale shop,and putting it back on the main shop floor at full price.
to miss quote some one from the waywt thread, with great tragedy comes great profit!

That's got Browns written all over it...

[SHYE_POSER]

Cheeky Bernsteins indeed!

[mrbeuys]

Just found this, and while it feels a bit macabre to post it, I vividly remember seeing these images for the first time and thinking how brilliant it was. Will scan the rest on Monday.

[SHYE_POSER]

I remember this! This was due to a sneaky italian Trademarked the name McQueen (i think it was his then distributor or showroom/dodgy bugger named eo bocchi i think).
Which is what the label was originally called.
Hence the name change to Alexander McQueen,and the qoute on the cover of the above pic.

Alot of his work was rather macabre anyway,so i think its rather fitting.

[Fade to Black]

yeah, very fitting indeed. I saved that image, it's a good one and I don't think Lee himself would mind the tribute.

[Castor]

Tragic loss too early in life. A true genius.

[laughed]

HOLY CRAP MRBEUYS! that's it! that's what i was looking for -
specifically - during this photoshoot there was a video shot of AM
in this exact "get-up" where he trashes Marilyn Manson and says that Marilyn Manson stole his style from him, amongst other things....if anyone knows where to find this rare gem of a video please advise.
edit: VERY NICE again mrbeuys, that picture was when i fell in love with amq and that is exactly how i remember him. the video of that rules - i WILL find it.

[zamb]

I am still processing this, still trying to make sense of it all...........
I know that what I am doing is an effort in futility, but I am doing it non the less. Never before has the death of a stranger had such a lingering, wounding effect on me such as this. I am asking myself why, what could have been done.............but I guess in the end, nothing could have been really done. I am a believer that there are times when some things are just written in stone. Immutable, unchangeable, just meant to be, and this just might be one of them.
My first knowledge of Alexander McQueen came though an article, that in a way had changed my life. It was an article in an October(?) 1997 issue of US. Vogue magazine. The magazine was given to me by an older, elegant lady by the name of Mrs Brown, who was the director of a beauty school that occupied the adjacent space to my studio as a young designer starting out in Jamaica. She was always wonderfully dressed, elegant, polished and as a Jamaican, spoke perfect English in complete sentences. As a Christian I guess its kind of challenging to say that I had a really big romantic attraction to her, the way she moved her hands to express herself, the way her lips moved to form those perfect words that she spoke. she wasn't wealthy, but she was really cultured, and would have made a perfect client for a creative like McQueen.
I clearly remember the title of the article in that magazine she gave me. It said; "Desperately seeking the next Yves, Karl or Calvin". It was a story about how Mr Bernard Arnault, president of LVMH, had made a slew of fashion appointments which had forever changed the face of fashion. He had effectively reshaped the face of fashion from an industry of old semi-mom and pop business lead by creative eccentrics and frustrated, repressed Artists to one of the kind of developing multi billion dollar conglomerates which we now know. It was that article, among other things that made me believe that I too could accomplish great things if I moved away from Kingston-Jamaica and was willing to work hard and commit myself to my craft the way McQueen as a boy of humble beginnings like myself did.
Arnault had appointed Marc Jacobs to Louis Vuitton, Micheal Kors to Celine, Narciso Rodriguez to Spanish leather house Leowe, John Galliano to Givenchy, and then after one season, to Christian Dior. This led to a slew of chess moves by other companies, that sent Margiela to Hermes, Stella McCartney to Chloe, Berardi was courted by Balenciaga, then they appointed Josephus Thimister and ultimately present creative director Nicolas Ghesquire.
Gaultier upon being passed over for the job at Dior, launched his own Couture house. Never before in the history of fashion was there so many appointments of upstart talent, to prestigious luxury houses that gave these great and not so great creative talents the financial means and corporate backing to allow their creative abilities to flourish.
The moving of Galliano from Givenchy to Dior Made way for McQueen at Givenchy, after making an impressive name for himself on the London fashion scene as it's creative, irreverent master, the appointment to Givenchy validated his impressive and unmatched talent and propelled him among the elites of his generation. I didn't always like his work, but being a fair man, I never denied that he was, in my mind, the most boundlessly creative visionary I have ever seen in fashion. Although Theyskens and Chalayan were more personal favorites of mine, and only Gaultier came close in the breath and scope of references and ideas he expressed in his work, no one and I mean absolutely no one, not a single other designer, was able to consistently put on the Caliber of shows and the expression of ideas Alexander McQueen was able to consistently produce every six months. Sometimes the ideas were disturbing, sometimes the ideas he expressed offended my deep religious and philosophical beliefs, but there was no denying that he was able to present his vision in a way that brought out some kind of emotional response in every viewer who ever came across his work. Viewing his collections the way they were presented, was an experience that was more that just about looking at clothes, it was about experiencing the greatness (and sometimes the bad parts of it) that is possible by the mind us human beings.
As a believer that man was made in the image of a boundlessly great God, I always believed that humans are capable of staggeringly great things, maybe the reason why I really did love and respected McQueen was because his work to me had been a demonstration of the heights of greatness that is possible by the human mind, and he accomplished that in a medium that I loved, in a profession that made him effectively a colleague of mine and the best of his contemporaries.
I am really sad to see him go, because at 40 years old, surely in that great mind of his, there was certainly an abundance of untapped possibilities that we will never get a chance to see. Fashion will surely miss him, he was truly great and we did love him. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones who will have to endure this great tragedy, this monumental and irreplaceable loss. To me he a was a colleague, a fellow worker in this industry, a great one. To them he was a son, a brother, a friend. I guess they will feel it more than I do, but may God grant them the grace, and compassion needed to deal with this great loss..................
Lee we loved you, we will forever miss you, we thank you for the joys and sometimes anger you brought out in us..............
you were exceedingly great, and great will be your absence. this world of fashion and life in general will just not be the same without you......................................

[Fade to Black]

thanks for posting that heartfelt tribute, zamb.

as an aside, i would like to offer the possibility that perhaps with this great and sudden shift in the order of creativity as we know it, the emptiness may soon propel you and other like-minded individuals of artistic vision to push forward even harder, bolder and farther, and to set a greater example, not just in the work, but also as people who go about day to day life mindful of general conduct and composure, for future generations of people who will be much like the you and me of present throwing ideas back and forth in this virtual salon.