RIP Alexander McQueen CBE : 1969 - 2010

[dioramour]

Harper's Bazaar Mexico - No.5 Junio 2010

Thank you Mirik
What a strong and handsome portrait of Lee!

 

[ouimademoiselle]

the true genious... rest in peace

 

[ad111714]

The McQueen book is just a desperate try to make some money with him. I recommend the L'officiel McQueen special. It had more pictures, editorial pcitures and it was cheaper.

I agree, the L'Officiel special is quite good!

 

[ad111714]

McQueen tribute

After McQueen's shocking death, I decided to shoot a couple of tribute pictures (personal work using self-made clothing) inspired by his outstanding aesthetics that surely influenced so many of us...

I'd like to share them here & hope you like them.

 

[CHUCK BERRY]

Rest in peace_

 

[dioramour]

McQueen Tribute

"After McQueen's shocking death, I decided to shoot a couple of tribute pictures (personal work using self-made clothing) inspired by his outstanding aesthetics that surely influenced so many of us...

I'd like to share them here & hope you like them." ThomasSing.

The influence is beautifully apparent.
Your photographs are gorgeous!
I'm sure that Lee McQueen would be very flattered.
Thank you for your posting these.

 

[chasingGaby]

a brilliant designer, a very influential and inspirational icon in fashion.
McQueen you are truly missed.

 

[diamondsandstuds]

I miss him so much. Especially during fashion week..

 

[LoraV]

He made a huge step foward for today's fashion, showed so much creativity and a clear vision. True style, new shapes and patterns. It will never be the same & no one can replace him.
Still can't believe he is gone.
R.I.P. <3

 

[apriliciate]

beacause McQueen and his genius idea, lady gaga won the best video "bad romance" at MTV VMAS

can't believe he is gone now..
R.I.P

 

[holaloha]

I'm still deeply saddened by the loss of the greatest designer of our time. He was truly a visionary and well be deeply missed.

Rest In Peace
Alexander McQueen

 

[hautechild]

From Vogue.co.uk about today's memorial at London Fashion Week:

A MEMORIAL service for Lee Alexander McQueen took place at 11am this morning in St Paul's Cathedral.
Addresses were given by Anna Wintour, Shaun Leane (who described their relationship as like that of Bill Sykes and the Artful Dodger), Suzy Menkes and Annabelle Nielson, while Jonathan Akeroyd - ceo of Alexander McQueen - and Philip Treacy contributed to the prayers.
Bjork, dressed as an angel, gave a poignant and outstanding performance of Gloomy Sunday. The London Community Gospel Choir also performed and the congregation, which included Lee's close friends and family as well as many of the fashion industry's most recognised faces - including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell - sang Amazing Grace, I Vow To Thee My Country and Jerusalem.

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/100920-alexander-mcqueen-memorial-service.aspx

 

[rox_yr_sox]

See here for more on the memorial

 

[Flashbang]

Fashion elite remembers McQueen in London service

By GREGORY KATZ (AP) – 1 hour ago

LONDON — They came in sky-high heels and huge dark sunglasses and even managed to flash a little cleavage from their deep black mourning outfits.

The world's fashion elite gathered beneath the magnificent dome of St. Paul's Cathedral Monday to celebrate the legacy of Alexander McQueen, the troubled British designer who took his own life in early February.

The crowd included a Who's Who of fashion central: American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, designer Stella McCartney, "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker, and dozens of other McQueen devotees.

The event brought London Fashion Week to a halt — no one wanted to show a collection while the giants of the industry were marking the passing of McQueen, an iconoclast who was Britain's most celebrated, controversial and outrageous designer.

Those who could wore McQueen outfits, including some with his signature tartan. Many women wore his beautiful black shoes, some offset with the gold chains and the impossibly high heels he favored.

Wintour, elegant in a black and gold ensemble, said McQueen was never satisfied with his work and always vowed to do better, even when he had broken new ground with one of his shocking and sophisticated shows. She said he was happiest in his studio, where he often worked all night, falling asleep with his dog on a couch.

Wintour and others hinted at his dark side. She spoke of his sometimes "savage tongue" and the discomfort he felt with the social niceties required by the fashion world.

"We always forgave Alexander," she said after describing how McQueen failed to show up for his first-ever American Vogue photo shoot and then told editors there that he couldn't care less about the magazine — one of the fashion industry's most influential publications.

She said that only later did she find out that McQueen had not come to the photo shoot because he was receiving unemployment benefits and didn't want to jeopardize his payments by appearing to be financially successful in the magazine.

Wintour said McQueen grew up in the hardscrabble East End of London not far from St. Paul's and never strayed far from his beloved London roots.

"As a child he loved nothing more than sitting on the roof top and watching birds fly by," she said. "His final collection was a battle between dark and light. His was an 18-year career of harnessing his dreams and demons. But he has left us with an exceptional legacy, a talent that soared like the birds of his childhood above us all."

No one spoke directly about the reasons behind his suicide, but it was clear from the eulogies that McQueen had been a complex, occasionally tormented individual who was often unable to enjoy his rare gift.

He had a history of depression and was said to be devastated by the loss of his mother, who died on Feb. 2. McQueen's body was found in his London apartment nine days later.

Even his close friends admitted he was almost as quick with a straight-to-the-guts insult as he was with a deeply felt compliment.

"He was a designer with an unparalleled vision of the future, but he was dragged down by his demons," said International Herald Tribune fashion editor Suzy Menkes. "McQueen was a mix of the savage and the romantic."

She drew a laugh commenting on the "misogynistic" quality of one of McQueen's last pair of shoes, the notorious "lobster claws" with 10-inch (25-centimeter) heels favored by Lady Gaga. Indeed, one model wearing McQueen high heels did take a tumble on the cobbled stones outside the cathedral.

Icelandic singer and actress Bjork, wearing an unusual McQueen outfit complete with mock wings, sang "Gloomy Sunday," a dark song dealing with death and loss popularized by American singer Billie Holiday.

Jewelry designer Shaun Leane spoke about his long, intense friendship with McQueen — making a joke about how McQueen would have enjoyed the grand setting for his service — and leading hatmaker Philip Treacy read one of the prayers.

After the service, a lone bagpiper — reflecting McQueen's Scottish roots — led the mourners out of the cathedral, joining other pipers on the steps of the venerable building, a 17th century masterpiece designed by Christopher Wren.

"It was beautiful, but very intense," said model Jade Parfitt afterward. "I'm at a loss for words."

Associated Press

 

[Nicolasa]

LONDON FASHION WEEK
Alexander McQueen is Honored at a Memorial Service

By CATHY HORYN
Published: September 20, 2010

About 1,000 people, some in homage plumes, nearly all in raven black, gathered here today in St. Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the life of Alexander McQueen, a man whose genius remained resiliently set against the minor and the conventional.

Alluding to his artistic nature, one that was often deeply troubled but which reliably found joy in beautiful clothes and presenting them in extraordinary settings, Suzy Menkes, the fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, one of four speakers, said of St. Paul’s: “It would have been his ultimate venue.”

The memorial service for Mr. McQueen, who committed suicide on Feb. 11, started promptly at 11 a.m. under the cathedral’s soaring dome as two choirs led the clerical procession past Mr. McQueen’s father, Ronald, and family members on one side, and his friends and professional colleagues seated in a facing semicircle. They included the designers Stella McCartney and Hussein Chalayan, Sarah Jessica Parker, the models Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, and Daphne Guinness, who was somberly outfitted in McQueen tailoring with a black feather-shaped hat.

In his opening address, the Rev. Canon Giles Fraser acknowledged the two distinct spheres of influence on the designer. “When he needed support and solace, he found it in his family,” the Rev. Fraser said. “Which is why, despite the dazzle of his world, he never forgot his East End roots and how much he owed to his loved ones.”

The Thanksgiving service was elegant, strict and full of the English pomp and circumstance to which Mr. McQueen was unquestionably not immune. A nephew, Mark McQueen, read from John 14. The London Community Gospel Choir performed “Amazing Grace” as a collection was taken to benefit, among other charities, the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home; several speakers referred to Mr. McQueen’s fondness for animals, in particular his three dogs. Prayers were read by another nephew, Gary Hulyer, as well as a friend of Mr. McQueen’s, the milliner Philip Treacy, and Jonathan Akeroyd, the chief executive of the McQueen company.

The music included the most English of hymns, “Jerusalem.” Björk, dressed in a feathery gray and brown skirt and a parchment set of wings that framed her small, gold-capped head — presumably an allusion to the designer’s love of birds and falconry — movingly sang “Gloomy Sunday,” based on the Billie Holiday version.

Mr. McQueen, as Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, observed in her address, was a man of profound contradictions. “There was no comfort zone with Alexander McQueen,” Ms. Wintour began, noting that people could be delighted, repulsed and amazed by his fashion. Equally, he was capable of belligerent and impulsive behavior; he was famous for not showing up for appointments and grand events alike.

She recalled how he failed to appear for his first photo shoot for American Vogue, as a rising star in the early 1990s, and that she learned later that he didn’t want British welfare authorities to see him pictured in a fashion magazine, as he was then living “on the dole.”

There were to be other vanishing acts in Mr. McQueen’s career. Yet, noted Ms. Wintour — who was dressed in an embroidered McQueen coat over a bronze metallic dress — when he came bounding into the Costume Institute gala a few years ago, turned out in tartan and escorting Ms. Parker, all was forgiven.

“We always forgave Alexander,” she said.

There were only indirect references to Mr. McQueen’s private troubles, though the speakers acknowledged that creativity was his main emotional outlet, and surprisingly little mention was made of his great muse, the late Isabella Blow. Still, as guests entered the cathedral, among them the writer Plum Sykes in a McQueen black dress and peaked hat, a British editor murmured out loud, “I wish Izzy could have been here.”

The two other speakers were Annabelle Neilson and the jeweler Shaun Leane, both close friends of Mr. McQueen’s.

At the close of the service, around noon, as rays of sunshine intermittently broke through from the dome onto the checkered stone floor, a lone bagpiper walked slowly toward the congregation, playing music from “Braveheart.” He was followed by the choirs and the clergy down the center aisle, and was joined on the front steps of St. Paul’s by 20 pipers. As the guests filed out, they stood and listened on the sides, with a crowd of people watching from the street below.

nytimes.com

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Missing you in London Alexander Lee McQ.

R.I.P. & much love coming to you across the great divide xxxxxxooooooooo whoosh!

 

[Flashbang]

Lee McQueen by Björk

* By Björk

At the recent memorial for Lee McQueen at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Björk performed a powerful version of Billie Holiday's "Gloomy Sunday". Here the acclaimed artist and musician shares with GQ.com her memories of the late designer, with whom she collaborated on the cover of her album Homogenic, her outfit for "Who Is It?" and the video for "Alarm Call".

I felt Lee's raw connection with nature and birth and death was very refreshing. When I moved to London, being from Iceland, I sometimes found the self-importance in the UK's obsession with the decay of its empire boring, to insist the whole world is dying with them. This urban apocalyptic aesthetic is still a bit overdriving, a bit teenage really... it mostly just reveals its impotency.

Lee had so many ideas that he overcame this dilemma with fertility, raw gusto, sense of fun and courage. He was the kind of daredevil that looks death and birth straight in the eye. Lee managed to connect not only with the civilized part of his culture but somehow channel beyond that a more primordial energy, which is probably where me and him met.

Even though we were very different, we had in common taking inspiration from nature: building from there just gave you way more options! Even though we have our neighborhoods fading with pollution, we still have the energy of this solar system driving us through with more explosive power, fuel and potential than there ever was... it's all there for you and Lee knew that.

gq-magazine

 

[dior_couture1245]

^^Thank you for posting that. I love the way Bjork speaks/writes. I love the way she delivers a message so profound and sincere in such a natural, casual and informal way. It's incredibly genuine. I love her for that.

I feel like her and McQueen's connection was far stronger than any connection between Lee and Lady Gaga.

 

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WWD Japan



vvshu

 

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US Bazaar Fashion Week Runway Report F/W 10.11



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