Alexander McQueen: The Show Will Go On

In the wake of designer Lee Alexander McQueen's tragic death, Gucci Group announced last week that they will continue on with the late designer's label. At a conference on February 17, Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet said, "We believe in the future of the brand... Lee was very proud of the people working for his company, and so am I." The eclectic British designer, if you haven't yet heard (and have been living under a rock), committed suicide two weeks ago.

McQueen graduated from the prestigious design school Central St. Martins in London and went on to design at Givenchy before founding his own labels, Alexander McQueen and McQ. He was one of the youngest designers ever to earn the title "British Designer of the Year," which he won four times, as well as "International Designer of the Year" from the CFDA. The designer thrived on the unconventional, avant-garde and theatrical: staging human chess games and projecting giant holograms of Kate Moss at runway shows and designing the infamous Alien shoes and "bumster" pants. His willingness to push boundaries earned him a reputation that transcended fashion design and established him as a true artist.

The fashion world has been up in arms about the designer and his label since hearing of his death, wondering whether the brand would live to carry on his legacy or be retired in his honor. The Alexander McQueen label has only been around for ten years and with a designer so unique, who could possibly replace him?

Scott Schumann, of the Sartorialist, said: "I was talking to a retailer yesterday who said that her McQueen business was growing faster than ever before. However, she sees no other option than to close the business of McQueen... I mean, who could possibly keep the spirit of McQueen alive? He was so unique that his replacement could never get out of that shadow."

[Right: A tribute to McQueen graces a window at Bergdorf Goodman in NYC last week.]

Others see it differently, however. Some experts say McQueen's label can probably continue, noting Christian Dior died just ten years after founding his own label. The AFP reports: "A professor of fashion, who asked not to be named, said a label needed 'a stylistic legacy, like the Chanel suit and pearls, sufficiently distinctive for it to be recognizable' in order for it to survive. He felt McQueen's 'gothic, baroque, black emotional heritage' was sufficiently intense to justify a successor continuing the label."

But who could the successor be? It remains to be seen. In the meantime, the Fall 2010 collection will still show at Paris Fashion Week, since it was essentially finished before McQueen's suicide. A tribute was also done in his memory at London Fashion Week.

Models.com rounds up some of McQueen's greatest moments here.

Mandy

Creative Director