Alexander McQueen: The Life and the Legacy
“This book should be required reading for anyone who plans on a career as a fashion designer.”
There has been no book like Alexander McQueen: The Life and Legacy that so clearly and so definitively delves into the mind of Alexander McQueen, probably the greatest designer of the 21st century, whose talent will probably never be surpassed in the annals of fashion history.
Alexander McQueen: The Life and Legacy is the most authoritative and exhaustive coverage of this designer’s life, as abbreviated as it was. Ms. Watt has assembled colleagues and friends of the late designer, and all of them contribute to the telling of his life story. Accompanying every chapter is a quote by the late designer that sets the stage for that particular segment.
Through all the remembrances and retellings of each person’s interactions with the late designer, the reader is consumed by a life inhabited by a simple guy who happened to be so extraordinarily talented and so bright and so steeped in his commitment to his craft that one can’t help but think that Mr. McQueen perhaps gave away too much of himself with every collection. Or perhaps he met his end when his one true love left this earth and he realized that he could no longer give to his métier with his mother gone.
The format of the book is broken down in time periods, then show by show, starting with his very first show at Central Saint Martin’s. This format has been the outline for many books about the designer, but Ms. Watt tells his story like no one has before. She astounds us by explaining each show and why and how and and who—the details that have not been offered in previous texts.
What is most interesting is that Alexander McQueen: The Life and Legacy is about the written word and not the included photographs, and yet the photos are superbly chosen and aptly illustrate the theme of each chapter of his life. In essence, this is not a photo-centric book but a photographic book whose words give genuine insight into the life and mind of a genius.
Daphne Guinness, a muse and confidante of the designer, says it best in the foreword:
“It is quite plausible that McQueen would have gone on to yield as profound an impact on another creative stage as he did on that of the fashion world . . . I genuinely believe he would have been determined to master and challenge their disciplines in that same defiant, obsessive way he worked with clothes.”
It’s a crying shame we’ll never know.