Christine Tjia

Although McQueen's style ain't my personal style but I hv always admire his work, especially those out of the world designs that only this talented British fashion designer could think of.
Lee McQueen was born in the heart of the East End of London in 1970. Changing his name to Alexander, he launched his fashion career. Although he desperately wanted to go to art school, he signed up for an apprenticeship at Savile Row tailor Anderson & Sheppard to learn tailoring and pattern making. The legend has it that he left his distinctive mark in the form of hand-written obscenitie: in the lining of a jacket for Prince Charles, heir to the British throne.

He was the creative director of his own label and had been awarded four times as the British designer of the year and his label was bought out 51% by Gucci. His flagship stores are in London (of course!), New York, Milan, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Franchised stores are in Istanbul and Moscow.

The label is known for its dramatic and gorgeously constructed pieces, combining a uniquely British sense of daring and aesthetic fearlessness with French couture to the global stage of fashion. His works influenced a whole lot of designers and his outrageous designs knows no boundaries. Every single inspired, original, stunning, brilliant and jaw dropping detail was Alexander Mcqueen.

He designed the famous 'bumster' trousers, (think hipsters but with an even lower waistband) in his Spring 1995 collections, which showed the 'cleavage' of the model's buttocks. I was utmost impressed by the most recent lobster claw shoes collection for Spring 2010: the otherworldly 12" tall towering stilettos. How those McQueen models made it down the runway is beyond me. Respect is due.

What is more devastating is that despite all his success thus far, creatively, critically and commercially, his greatest achievements lay ahead of him. The future would be whatever he hoped to make of it. It is such a tragedy that such artistic genius has left us too soon. McQueen will be indescribably missed.