Alexander McQueen: After Lee

[farou7a]

oh i cant wait to see it..

 

[farou7a]

Comparing Wang and McQueen is like comparing Katherine Hepburn to Megan Fox.

Most up and coming designers these days are more so like stylists than actual "designers". Wang's basic clothes could easily be found in many other New York designers such as Rag & Bone.

what a great oxymoronic example!

 

[Caffeine]

confirmed with the boutique that the new collection will show in Paris. So that's a relief.
I do hope that the brand continues. It's sad enough to see Lee go, but it gets worse when all their employees lose their jobs during an economic crisis.
I looked at one of the jackets from the spring collection in the boutique today and I sighed. I'm not sure who else can do things this amazing again. Perhaps his team can carry this forward, at least I hope it's the case.

 

[KhaoticKharma]

I think the line should end. He was a true visionary with an unparalleled thought process; the world really hasn't seen anything like it before. The ups and downs of houses like Chanel and Dior were always based on the bare bones aesthetics of those brands (Chanel- sportswear made fancy, Dior- ultra hyper feminine). But I can't pinpoint a McQueen aesthetic, because everything was cohesive but always totally new. I don't think a different designer would even have a specific idea to grab and interpret.

 

[VogueParisLover]

I can't wait to see his show. I really hope they do something grand...

But, as for the brand's future...
True, it will never be the same, because there is only one McQueen. Nobody could replicate that, and I feel that they shouldn't even try. The new designer should be very experimental, like McQueen, but have their own tastes, because I don't see how anything else could come about. If somebody should be a appointed, I feel that it should be the assistant who has been with McQueen. Definitely not a designer like Olivier Theyskens or Nicolas Ghesquiere (even though I love them both).

I am interested in seeing the McQueen brand continue on, but I fear that the outcome could have bad effects on the name McQueen and it's meaning to each and every person that originally loved it. (I hope that makes sense.)

 

[rockandroses]

Any word if the show in Paris is still going to be on March 9th? I'm really happy they decided to still show it. I'm gonna cry out of happiness/sadness.

 

[yvesmanoel]

that's amazing news! and the best way to honor his work would be to continue the line, of course. there should be no question about it. i there can be a problem if they rush the replacement and it goes wrong... let's trust the experts and cross fingers.

 

[ilaughead]

I'm still confused as to why anyone other than Gucci Group employees (for the money) and McQueen (for the legacy) would want the company to stay open...

 

[educo]

^^^ Thank You!!!

 

[Thefrenchy]

According to the Agence France Press, PPR's CEO François-Henri Pinault and Gucci Group's CEO Robert Polet will release informations regarding the future of the brand on thursday.

 

[neonsprinkles]

^ interesting.

There's going to be a lot of drama if his line continues. But if it was in his will (for his name/line to continue), then we'd have to honor it, no?...I can only hope the new designer/direction will give absolute justice to Lee McQueen's Aesthetic...

 

[ad041715]

THANK GOD they are going to show his collection, THANK GOD!!!!

I know!
I really hope his line continues. I don't want it to end abruptly. He worked so hard all those years. I just don't want it to end like this.

 

[fouroclock]

It's like a 65/35 chance, but it's for the better than the line continues. I'd think of it as more for the legacy than the money.

 

[Squizree]

The future of Alexander McQueen

The king is dead, long live the king. While the court mourns the passing of Lee Alexander McQueen, behind the scenes, courtiers must make plans.
There has, understandably, been no official indication yet on the future of Alexander McQueen – the brand, beyond the statement by Robert Polet, Gucci Group CEO: “The legacy he leaves us is a rich one, and one that we will cherish and honour.” But will they? And how?

McQueen’s mercurial talent was not easy to bottle while he lived (even literally: the reception to fragrances, Kingdom, launched on the designer’s 34th birthday in 2003, and My Queen, in 2005, was lukewarm).

As to how big the McQueen business currently is, Gucci Group clusters the financial data of its niche brands together and 2009 figures will be released tomorrow. In 2008, these brands totalled revenues of £442 million, but the McQueen slice is thought to be one of the thinnest of that pie. Polet has called McQueen stablemate Balenciaga “the fastest-growing brand in the group”, while Stella McCartney has diversified inventively into sportswear, “green” skincare, underwear and fragrances that have found plenty of fans. And McQueen? Beyond the printed dresses and skull scarves that have been flying out of stores this week, a USP included a brave positioning at the cutting edge of technology through hologram imagery and streaming catwalk shows live on the internet, this to embrace seismic changes in the fashion landscape. Had he lived, McQueen could have proved the pioneer in monetarising some sort of live-stream experience. But without his vision, that won’t happen now.

The chatter among the fashion pack is whether a show, scheduled for March 9 in Paris, will go ahead. If it does, this valediction to a lost great will pack both press and buyers alike to the rafters. As to what might be shown, one can only speculate – McQueen has not left a finished collection behind; even designers who will show at London Fashion Week, which starts on Friday, will still be rushing around, adding last-minute outfits. However, no one of McQueen’s stature, within a publicly traded group, works alone. There’s still his team, members of whom – insiders whisper – are certainly talented. Will a collaborative collection sell? For the coming season, absolutely.

Longer term, business analysts predict that Gucci Group will shutter a brand believed to have never performed spectacularly well financially. In contrast, fashion insiders think the brand may hit bigger numbers, should it become more commercial than a rebellious, provocative, living design genius might allow.

But it should be noted that McQueen was apparently more business-minded than his bad-boy image might lead one to expect. François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Gucci Group’s parent company, PPR, recently praised the designer’s business discipline to W magazine, stating that the brand had reached “profitability as planned”, and calling the designer “not only a mature and serious creative director, but also a businessman, since he owns half of the company.” McQueen himself had expressed his desire for a lasting luxury brand, telling W he hoped it would be “here 150 years from now, after I’m pushing up daisies”. You can be sure that in the offices of Gucci Group there will be meetings to determine whether it should now construct a pedestal to a lost design genius, or not.

If this seems like another sign of how money-grubbing the modern fashion business has become, it is, in fact, nothing new. On October 27, 1957, Christian Dior’s coffin lay decked in white flowers in the church of Saint-Honoré d’Eylau, Paris, following his sudden death, aged 52. The most famous couturier in the world had died in Montecatini, Italy, where he had been undergoing a slimming cure in an effort to appeal to a young beau. (It was whispered he had choked to death on an illicit piece of chocolate).

By the time the funeral was over, Dior’s backer, the textile baron Marcel Boussac, whose fortune had funded the launch of “The New Look” in 1947, and who had become immensely wealthy, decided Dior was irreplaceable, that the house built in his name must close. So Dior licensees, all of whom stood to lose lucrative business, gathered at Dior’s HQ on Avenue Montaigne to persuade Boussac to change his mind. Nine weeks later, a 21-year-old called Yves Saint Laurent presented a collection for Dior, which the French press decreed did nothing less than “save France”.
In 1983, the real estate developer Bernard Arnault bought Boussac’s textile firm and with it acquired Dior, which he used as the cornerstone to build the luxury empire LVMH. John Galliano’s first Dior collection was in 1997, meaning he has been at its creative helm longer than the eponymous designer.

As for Alexander McQueen, speculation seems ghoulish now, but you can be sure that when it comes to the business decisions that must soon be taken, the lonely and horrible death of a troubled, brilliant man won’t be allowed to come into it.

telegraph.co.uk

 

[eternitygoddess]

As for Alexander McQueen, speculation seems ghoulish now, but you can be sure that when it comes to the business decisions that must soon be taken, the lonely and horrible death of a troubled, brilliant man won’t be allowed to come into it.

True and awful.

 

[rui]

Should the House of McQueen go on?

Now that we have lost such an innovative, powerful and beloved designer I wonder wether the house of McQueen should continue or close its doors.
Should his masterpieces be archived for us all to revel in his creative force or should it continue with someone else at the helm?
Who should take the reign?

I vote Olivier Theyskens to take the reign if the house is to continue. He may be the only one in my mind that may respectfully design collections that would embody Alexander's unique view point on fashion.

But then I ponder, should a house that was so unique and vital to the future of fashion with its constant push for bold objects of desire continue?

Will it be the same, no. So should it go on?

What do you all think?

 

[KhaoticKharma]

I can't wait to see his show. I really hope they do something grand...

But, as for the brand's future...
True, it will never be the same, because there is only one McQueen. Nobody could replicate that, and I feel that they shouldn't even try. The new designer should be very experimental, like McQueen, but have their own tastes, because I don't see how anything else could come about. If somebody should be a appointed, I feel that it should be the assistant who has been with McQueen. Definitely not a designer like Olivier Theyskens or Nicolas Ghesquiere (even though I love them both).

I am interested in seeing the McQueen brand continue on, but I fear that the outcome could have bad effects on the name McQueen and it's meaning to each and every person that originally loved it. (I hope that makes sense.)

While I wouldn't want either of those particular designer to helm McQueen, I actually think the best option would be to chose someone in that vein; a young designer that, to be completely honest, moves in and basically changes everything. Theyskens and Ghesquiere both, in my opinion, design what they want, not what necessarily fits into the original aesthetic of the house (Theyskens more so than Ghesquiere; all of his Rochas and Ricci collections just looked like Theyskens collections to me). Sometimes, abandoning the original, such as what Tom Ford did at Gucci, is what you've got to do to both continue a thriving business brand and keep creative integrity alive. Especially in a situation such as this one, where you can't easily sum up the aesthetic of the house in one or two words.

People would be pissed at first, for sure, but they'd get over it. Especially if the young designer could really prove him or herself as a new visionary.

 

[KarlBear]

I think it should close, or it will be ruined..

 

[Master Wood]

^^ I'm not entirely sure why everyone is getting excited about his collection being shown, it has not been confirmed yet and if one is referring to what was written in The Sun - one of our sloppier tabloids - You need to learn not to always believe what you read.

If the line were to continue I would hope Lee was succeeded by those who knew and loved him, or really really young blood. Someone like Theyskens at the helm would be a disaster he tends to destroy everything he touches!

 

[chloehandbags]

I think it should but, ideally, only if his assistant and design team are ready and able to take the reigns.

I don't think it would be right to bring another name in, at this stage, to change everything radically.