Alexander McQueen dead

McQueen is the youngest of six children and the son of a London taxi driver. He left school at 16 to apprentice at Anderson amp; Sheppard and then Gieves amp; Hawkes,two of the most revered English tailors.

He worked briefly in Italy before returning to London to pursue a masters degree from the Central St Martins,where Blow discovered his work and bought his entire thesis collection. His first shows in London,in dark underground places,were received as a break from the traditional luxury collections.

For five years,until 2001,he also was the designer of the couture label Givenchy,often drawing the ire of longtime fans of the label known for its elegant black dresses. He offended several French journalists for calling Hubert de Givenchys past work as irrelevant. That year,he sold his own label to the Gucci Group,a rival of the parent company of Givenchy,LVMH,following several conflicts with its management.

McQueens collections made audiences uncomfortable,as when he referenced the ravaging of Scotland by England by showing brutalised women in a collection called Highland Rape. Since his 2001 Paris show,he became more widely respected for designs that were seen as commentary on the often surreal,and self-referential,world of fashion.