Royal Flush: The fashion industry after McQueen
Royal Flush: The fashion industry after McQueen
Erika Wilkins
Spectrum Editor
Four days ago, the fashion industry lost one of its brightest stars. Lee Alexander McQueen’s death means the loss of one of the last couturiers of the 21st century and is a source of strife for all who bore witness to his irrefutable genius. With his life’s work now at its end, and fashion week in full swing, the question remains: Where does this leave the fashion industry?
McQueen was more than a fashion designer; he was an entertainer. He, like pioneers before him, rejected the idea of fashion standing alone. He knew that the most consequential of works drew from more than a singular source. With that as his seemingly constant mindset, he approached his designs, collections and runway presentations as opportunities to fuse past with present, east with west and the rejected with the accepted.
“Haute Couture relies on designers pushing the envelope and McQueen pushed it in a direction which acknowledged fashion’s past yet was clearly focused on the future … He understood that couture fashion is like a dream in which anything is possible. McQueen forced the fashion industry to redefine beauty by mixing ethereal with traditional” said Jacqueline Mullins, an adjunct fashion merchandising professor.
With the help of music video director Sam Gainsbury, McQueen put on fashion’s most extravagant shows. From futuristic robots spray painting garments as they came down the runway in his fall 1999 show to catwalks flanked by built-to-scale stuffed animals, his mind was an endless well of innovation. In a Style.com video surveying his spring 2009 Ready-to-Wear show, fashion industry high society praised McQueen’s visual prowess as extraordinary. But it’s not just Vogue editors and fellow designers who are mourning this loss.
Fashion design student Krishna Knott said, “McQueen’s greatest contribution to the fashion industry was his originality. Sometimes fashion can seem like everything has been done before—it’s very ’80s, very ’20s, very 1800s. He created a category all his own, uniquely McQueen. He is an inspiration to young fashion designers in that regard—you can break the mold. I cannot imagine anybody being able to fill McQueen’s awe-inspiring shoes, yet I still want his aesthetics and company to live on in his absence.”
Never again will an expectant audience sit and await the cheery descent of the designer famed for overt sexuality, low-rise pants, and vintage revolution.
Head of both fashion merchandising and design, professor Karen Videtic said, “He was known as the ‘bad boy’ of fashion with many outrageous collections … but exquisitely made … true haute couture.”
