If there is just one brand that breaks all the fashion codes it would be Alexander McQueen's, a rebellious British stylist who gave his name to his label.

Creation of the brand Alexander McQueen

Lee Alexander McQueen, better known as Alexander McQueen, discovered his passion for fashion at a very young age. When he was only 16 years old, Alexander started to work in renowned haute couture boutiques, such as: Anderson & Sheppard.

Afterwards, he went to Italy, more precisely to Milan and worked for the designer Romeo Gigli. The young man studied and worked simultaneously. He enrolled in the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

For his graduation project, he drew and presented his own collection that he called Jack the Ripper (in reference to the famous serial killer). The fashion journalist Isabella Blow, working for Vogue magazine at the time, bought the full clothing line. And thanks to her gesture, the brand Alexander McQueen was created in 1992 in London. The journalist subsequently became his fashion advisor and moved him forward.

In 1996, Givenchy employed him as a designer. However, his different style did not comply with the brand's image and values. He resigned from the company in 2001 and devoted himself exclusively to his own brand company.

Brand success

The brand owes its success to the atypical and even controversial style of its creator. Indeed, this latter broke all the conventional codes of fashion by organizing shows just as extraordinary as his personality is.

He made Aimee Mullins, a double amputee, walk on the runway with wooden prosthetic legs. Moreover, at the end of the 1999 fashion show, Alexander depicted on stage two robots painting over a white dress with spray paint. That was his proper way to finalize a design in front of the fashion show spectators. Alexander McQueen's shows were more like a performance rather than simple runway models walking on a catwalk.

As well as in 2004 fashion show, the runway constituted a chessboard where top models moved around like pawns.

Iconic goods by Alexander McQueen

Besides the first clothing line that propelled him forward and made him famous, Alexander McQueen created several extraordinary elements thereafter. Such as the Armadillo Boot, a key piece that means in Spanish: tattoo shoes. They are also called Alien shoes because they are both uncomfortable and unwearable to the extent that plenty of models have refused to wear them.

Fortunately, such an eccentric person as Alexander McQueen exists! And the pair of shoes got famous thanks to the singer Lady Gaga who agreed to wear the 30 cm high heels in her music video Bad Romance.

Alexander McQueen, now

Unfortunately, the designer perished on February 11^th, 2010. Ever since, it is his artistic director, Sarah Burton, who replaced him by taking the lead of Alexander McQueen's Company.

The British designer became quickly famous and renowned in the same year, namely by designing the wedding dress of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton. 

The style of the brand

Although the designer and creator of the brand is gone. By being at the head of the brand Alexander McQueen. Sarah Burton maintained and perpetuated, throughout her own designs, the transcendent notoriety of the beloved “l'enfant terrible”. Which corresponds to his nickname in English: the British bad boy.

Hence, the fascinating identity of the brand is not lost so that McQueen's fans and customers would be satisfied forever!