11 Feb 2010, Posted by admin in OFW Blog, 0 Comments

Tragic death of British fashion icon Alexander McQueen

The British fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead at his London home at the age of 40.

McQueen was an inspiration to the Oxford Fashion Week team. His pioneering approach to new fashion at a young age embodied the ethos of our events.

His death is a devastating blow to the fashion world and to British fashion. Designers around the world have been, are, and will continue to be inspired by his life’s work.

Born in London in 1969 as the youngest of six children, McQueen left school at the age of 16 and was offered an apprenticeship at the traditional Saville Row tailors Anderson and Shephard, then at neighbouring Gieves and Hawkes.

At 20 he was employed by the designer Koji Tatsuno. A year later McQueen travelled to Milan where he worked as a design assistant to Romeo Gigli. He returned to London in 1994 where he completed a master’s degree in fashion design at Central St Martins College. His degree collection was famously bought in its entirety by Isabella Blow, a leading figure in the fashion world who died in 2007.

Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue, said McQueen had influenced a whole generation of designers.

“His brilliant imagination knew no bounds as he conjured up collection after collection of extraordinary designs,” she said.

“At one level he was a master of the fantastic, creating astounding fashion shows that mixed design, technology and performance and on another he was a modern-day genius whose gothic aesthetic was adopted by women the world over. His death is the hugest loss to anyone who knew him and for very many who didn’t.”