Born Lee McQueen at London’s East End on March 17, 1969, he changed his name to Alexander McQueen when he launched his fashion career. At age 16, McQueen apprenticed at Saville Row with Anderson & Sheppard, worked for Koji Tatsuno and Romeo Gigli before he launched his own label in 1992.

In 1996, McQueen was hired by LVMH’s Bernard Arnault to head the design team at Givenchy. It caused an uproar in Paris where Hubert de Givenchy was considered royalty of French design. The Paris press considered McQueen a “commoner.”

Questions of whether or not McQueen’s talents and qualifications were good enough were dispelled after he dazzled Paris with his impeccable tailoring skills and hard-edged urban style.

In 2001, the designer left Givenchy and launched his own label “Alexander McQueen” with support from the Gucci Group. He opened his first store in New York in September 2002.

Alexander McQueen had been called everything from the English John Paul Gaultier to a Picasso in Cloth. He is a fashion pioneer and likes pushing things to the edge. He questions the accepted concept of fashion and beauty, and his runway shows reflect that.

Some see his techniques as shock inspired, some just call them radical ideas. In one of his couture shows, he used clear mannequins lit from the inside to show the clothes instead of using runway models. The mannequins were mounted on movable floors and their appearance on the stage was choreographed, giving a feeling of movement.

McQueen also uses the runway for political statements, such as his “Highland Rape” show that scandalized London in 1995.

He describes himself as the “pink sheep of the family” and is rumored to have written obscenities in the Prince of Wales’ jacket lining while an apprentice at Anderson & Sheppard.

Because of these avant-garde ideas, Alexander McQueen has been nicknamed by the French press “enfant terrible” meaning “bad child”. Bad or not, no one can deny McQueen’s genius! He has won the British Designer of the Year Award four times (1996, 1997, 2001, 2003), as well as the CFDA Designer of the Year (2003).

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