Today, the world lost a visionary. A little more than a week after the death of his mother, and just two years after his earliest champion, Isabella Blow, committed suicide, fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen took his own life. He was 40.
Since Issy bought his entire first collection back in 1994, McQueen had grown both as a designer and as an artistic force, not just for designers, stylists, and magazine editors, but spanning the scenes of art, film, and especially music. His vision reflected and simultaneously surpassed the constructs of stage and costume, moving from film to runway to the red carpet with the help of his loyal celebrity following, including Rihanna, Liela Moss, Madonna, and Sarah Jessica Parker, just to name a few. The British designer’s aesthetic consistently reflected the music avant-garde, blurring the borders between runway and reality.
That is, if you can consider the worlds of Björk and Lady Gaga “reality.” McQueen designed the iconic, Japanese-inspired ensemble Björk wore for the cover of her 1997 opus Homogenic:
Lady Gaga wore head-to-toe McQueen in the music video for her hit “Bad Romance,” including his infamous lobster-claw “Armadillo” stilettos:
And for his Spring 2010 collection, McQueen drew inspiration from James Cameron’s Avatar, pioneering a style that can only be described as out of this world:
Jennifer Mae Harris pays homage to all things fashion on her blog Haute Headed.
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