On February 11th, 2010, Lee Alexander McQueen took his own life. His untimely death devastated the fashion industry and left a huge gaping hole where creativity once was. He was a recipient of numerous awards including "British Designer of the Year" which he won four times between 1996 and 2003 and the CFDA's "International Designer of the Year" in 2003. When Gucci Group (which owns 51%) and Jonathan Akeroyd, CEO of "Alexander McQueen", sat down to choose the new creative director of the brand they unanimously chose Sarah Burton.
Burton is a graduate of Central St. Martins, McQueen's alma
mater. She started working for him in 1996 as an intern and was invited to stay with the company. Eventually she became the head designer for the more commercial line, "McQ" and directed McQueen's final collection, which was about 80% finished when he took his own life. As newly appointed creative director, Burton has designed the Resort 2011 womens and menswear collections respectively.
Can Sarah Burton fill McQueen's shoes? Can anyone replace the designer who starts their own line? Designers sell their name to investors all the time. Sometimes they remain creative director but not forever. Eventually someone else is appointed and the brand often morphs, sometimes changing a lot and other times remaining true to the original vision. When a designer relinquishes complete control of their company is their work still a collection of creative ideas or does it simply become a line of potentially profitable wares?
I fell in love with McQueen's work when I saw his fall 2009 womenswear collection. His designs were truly thought provoking and even created conflict, with some people calling the collection "misogynistic", "meaningless" and "ugly". He challenged the expectations we have of models on the runway, played with proportion and scale and yet had a creative concept that was still beautifully constructed. As I looked through his other work in the safety of my cubicle at my internship, I realized how lucky I was to find this person who could express his unique perspective through garment production. This is why fashion is great. Occasionally it means something to someone.
McQueen is also credited with creating noteworthy trends. In "Six ways Alexander McQueen changed fashion", Rajini Vaidyanathan, writing for BBC News, lists low rise pants or "bumsters" as McQueen called them, skull prints, tailoring, theatrical runway shows, eccentric models like the Paralympian, Aimee Mullins and unique silhouettes as the most influential. Since "bumsters" were featured as early as 1996, it wouldn't surprise me if McQueen really had something to do with the hip-hugging style we've all come to hate despite its popularity. A lot of people who don't study fashion don't realize that everything you're wearing has an origin. It began somewhere. When we realize what McQueen has contributed to the last 20 years of fashion, we can admit designers like that don't come along every day.
"I believe in that one on one sell. I don't really believe in flooding the market with loads of goods that don't mean much... you lose your identity." -Lee Alexander McQueen
Sounds to me like the aforementioned quote is spoken by a person who loves quality. A person who french presses his coffee, not a person who eats McDonald's. While I respect Sarah Burton's ability to carry on, to me, the label is no longer an artistic development, simply a name we can sell to others. Along with the "Alexander McQueen" perfume, body lotion and handbags, which can be found at Saks, Neiman Marcus, etc., I feel the rest of the clothing will be Sarah Burton's happy meal version as a commercial designer. Jonathan Akeroyd, chief executive of the brand has stated in regards to McQueen's death, "...we are ready to enter a new phase in the brand's history." Is Akeroyd looking to supersize "Alexander McQueen"?
What is fashion really about... making clothes or making money? Lee Alexander McQueen's artistic genius or Sarah Burton's more marketable "McQ" viewpoint with fries?
I'm sure plenty of people share your concern for McQ's success and for McQueen's memory to not be disgraced, probably even Burton herself. It doesn't seem like it'll ever be the same once the designer dies. No one will argue that Versace hasn't been the same since Gianni's tragic death, but sometimes I'm not sure if we say that because it's true (and relevant), or because we've made a place for him in our hearts and are unwilling to allow a "step-designer" come in and break our glass slippers. I like that you posed the question, it made me think from an outside perspective of things.
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