The injured bully Alexander McQueen

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Injured bully Alexander McQueen

“When I started putting on my shows, I tried to show the journalists what they didn’t want to see at all: hunger, blood, poverty,” McQueen once said. - You look at this whole "fashion party" in their expensive outfits and dark glasses and you understand that they have no idea about what is happening in the world. Their interests are limited to fashion. I spend money on my shows to show these people a different side of life. Let them feel hatred and disgust - that's fine with me. I will know that I have awakened at least some feelings in them. " That was all of him. Bully, maximalist, explosive character and fantastic talent. However, he was very vulnerable. Since childhood, he is not like everyone else, he is used to defending himself.

Lee's childhood: quickly burn the bridges

Nothing, he'll show them some more. He will have the last laugh. Lee sighs convulsively and begins, to the laughter of the offenders, to pack the textbooks they have scattered into the bag. The boys run away, having lost interest in him, and he continues to fantasize that he will become famous, and then it will come to these dumbass who is the idiot. Early eighties, school in a poor area of London. Here the boys were laughing heartily at the black sheep - a sensitive boy who painted princesses and was not interested in football. Lee Alexander McQueen was the sixth child in the family. The son of a simple taxi driver. His grandfather was also a taxi driver, and everyone expected that young Lee would become, if not a taxi driver, then at least a plumber or electrician - understandable, respected professions.

And at the age of three he already drew his first dress. Subsequently, his father more than once tried to talk to him like a man, and his admonitions only infuriated young Li.

- I'll leave the house! - he shouted somehow.

And at 16 he kept his promise.

The only thread connecting with the family was the relationship with the mother. Joyce has always been her son's best friend and never laughed at his "strange" hobby for fashion.

So, in 1986, the young individualist dropped out of school and left home. He made a living as an apprentice in a tailor shop on Savile Row. It was a great experience: politicians and crowned persons dressed here. Lee learned from the masters and entertained himself as best he could.

Either he will sew a piece of paper with the words “McQueen was here” into the lining of an expensive jacket, or write in chalk on a jacket made for Prince Charles, “I am a bitch” (this is what they thought of the royal family in the quarter where Lee was born).

Study and first takeoff

Subsequently, he studied a lot more. In s famous college art and design. Saint Martin (Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design), he was taken, even despite the lack of primary education. We looked at his work and immediately enrolled. After a while, he no longer only studied, but also taught. A resounding success came with the defense of his thesis in 1991. Lee was 23 years old. McQueen's first author's collection was called Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims.

Several important events take place in the life of an aspiring fashion designer during this show, in which models demonstrate revealing trousers that reveal a hollow between the buttocks, and leather clothes splashed with mud and blood.

The defile was seen by Isabella Blow. She was delighted and bought the entire collection.

She also wrote a good review that gave the beginning fashion designer a start in life. She also gave him his famous name.

- Lee is a name for a karateka, and you are a fashion designer! - this is how her first advice sounded, to which, like all subsequent ones, he immediately heeded.

You need to understand what this meant for a brawler, accustomed to listening only to himself. Isabella became one of McQueen's closest people - and there weren't that many of them.

On a great voyage

- If you don't like my show - go to …! - he shouts to reporters.

McQueen always knew his own price. After working for several years for famous fashion designers (Japanese designer Totsuno, Italian fashion designer Gigli), the young and talented "bad boy of big fashion" founds his own brand. He will not create in line with the tendencies invented by someone. He will create his own.

The first collections - Highland Rape, Gothic - finally establish McQueen's reputation as one of the most interesting designers in the world. When the fashion designer was 27, he was invited to work at Givenchy fashion house. It was a scandal in a noble family! (However, Givenchy's owners were counting on a little refreshing scandal). The fashion house, whose face was once the sophisticated Audrey Hepburn, is headed by some ill-mannered dork! "I have not seen a single movie with this Hepburn," McQueen immediately told reporters. And he added that the opinions of the boss and clients are important to him, and the rest, as usual, can go through the forest.

So, he was recognized as his own in the world of haute couture. The clothes created by McQueen were popular with people and instantly became popular. But it cannot be said that he himself was delighted.

- My clothes are not for everyone. I'm not going to create clothes “for everyone”, because I don't like everyone,”he once made another statement.

And yet his dresses were sold like hotcakes. Naomi Campbell, Bjork, Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker were his regular clients.

Men and women

McQueen never hid the fact that he was not interested in women. "Straight from my mother's womb, I went to a gay pride parade." "The pink sheep of the family" - as he jokingly called himself.

McQueen's personal life was never shared. It is only known that in 2000 he entered into a civil marriage with the British documentary filmmaker George Forsythe. They celebrated the "wedding" in Ibiza, on the yacht of the Prince of Gambia. In an interview, he emphasized that sexual promiscuity is alien to him: he believes in monogamous relationships and puts trust at the forefront.

He was always devoted to women. “I always try to create a level playing field for women and men,” he says. - I'm a male feminist. I don't want a woman to look like a weak, naive creature wrapped in a cloud of chiffon. Let others do it. My woman must be strong to withstand any pressure on her. I have three sisters, and I have repeatedly had the opportunity to observe all the suffering that men brought them. This is probably the roots of my feminist sentiments."

Some journalists attributed to him an affair with Isabella Blow. These rumors were once again stirred up after she committed suicide in 2007. McQueen, already grief-stricken, was finally pissed off, but it was not possible to "get him to talk" even then.

“They don't know anything about our relationship,” he snapped.

Care

Recent years have generally been generous in strikes. On such blows, after which it is not immediately possible to rise.

First Isabella's suicide.

Then a break with his beloved George Forsythe. He did not elaborate on this, but tweets suggest that McQueen had personal problems.

And on February 2, there was also the death of an adored mother.

He tried to force himself to move on. “We need to pack up and complete the collection,” he tweeted a couple of days before his suicide. But he never managed to "get it together."