The Life of Alexander McQueen

 Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969, in Lewisham, London.His father, Ronald, was a cab driver, and his mother, Joyce, taught social science. Alexander's parents barely made enough to support Alexander and his 5 siblings. At the age of 16 Alexander dropped out of highscool, to work on ens tailore suits. He worked first with the tailor shop Anderson and Shephard, and then moved to nearby Gieves and Hawkes. Alexander decided to continue working on his design career by moving to Milan for  short amount of time where he worked as a design assistant to Italian fashion designer Romeo Gigli. Alexander returned to London where he enrolled at Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design, and received his M.A. in fashion design in 1992. One of Alexanders collections was later noticed by stylish Isabella Blow, who would become one of his lifetime friend and helped him with his work. Soon after he earned his degree Alexander started his own business designing clothes for women.
Only four years out of design school, McQueen was named Chief Designer of Louis Vuitton-owned Givenchy, a French haute couture fashion house. He worked there from 1996 to 2001. He had elebrate fashions showcased at his fashion snows. In 2000 Guicy(another fashion label) bought 51% of his private company and provided the capitaol for him to expamnd his comapny. McQueen opened boutiques in New York, Milan, London, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. With the help of Gucci's investment, McQueen had become even more successful than he was before. In 2007, Alexanders longtime friend, Isabella Blow committed suicide. Alexander dedicated his 2008 Spring/Summer line to Blow, and said that her death "was the most valuable thing I learnt in fashion." Around three years later on February 2nd, 2010 McQueen's mother, Joyce passed away. Then just a day before her funeral, McQueen was found dead in his apartment.The cause of death was determined to be suicide. Alexander McQueen's rise from lower-class high school dropout to internationally famous designer is a remarkable story.  Longtime co-designer Sarah Burton took over the still-operating Alexander McQueen brand, it is very successful to this day. Alexander was a magnificent fashion designer, with a style that wowed even some of the most famous and talented designers.He is still inspiring designers today with his bold fashion and remarkable taste.