Alexander McQueen has long been known for his famous provocative collections.
The son of a London taxi driver, he began working on Saville Row at the age of 16, before studying at London’s St. Martin’s College.
Legendary style queen Isabella Blow was so impressed by his by his first student collection that she bought every piece.
McQueen launched his own label and soon had the fashion world talking about his controversial collection called Highland Rape, featuring models who looked as if they’d been brutalized.
In the first few collections, he would allow TV cameras to only shoot the back of his head during interviews. In 1996, he was appointed the head designer of the house of Givenchy, which he left in 2000.
Now he is cashing on the commercial market and this fall, he will launch McQ, a younger, denim-based collection for both men and women.
Check out his interview on the eve of receiving an honorary doctorate from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University recently.
