Alexander McQueen

Born in the East End of London in 1970, the son of a taxi driver, Alexander McQueen fast rose through the fashion ranks to become one of the leading lights of international design.

He graduated from Central St Martins College of Art & Design in 1991, with a display of such flair and innovation that he was immediately awarded an apprenticeship with Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard. He went on to work for Romeo Gigli and Koji Tatsuno, before opening his own studio in East London. Having introduced his label, McQueen managed to secure tabloid headlines with the launch of his infamous, low-cut 'bumsters', while his beautifully crafted and often outrageous designs attracted a small but fiercely loyal clientele, including such influential fashion figures as stylist Isabella Blow, who was sitting on the front row of his MA show. She wore one of the outfits he presented in a Vogue shoot in November 1992 and has championed his work ever since.
In October 1996, McQueen was named Best British Designer of the Year for the first time. Days later, he was also named John Galliano's successor as the new chief designer at Givenchy. What recommended him to the 40-year-old French couture house was his "brilliant creativity and technical mastery". In 1997, a year in which he produced four collections for Givenchy and two for his own label, McQueen shared the Best British Designer award with Galliano. But it is McQueen's carefully propagated image - as the raspberrying bad boy of fashion - which made him a star in his own right, winning him such rock 'n' roll clients as David Bowie and The Prodigy's Keith Flint.

Arriving at Givenchy, McQueen had the hubris to slam its founder, Hubert de Givenchy, as "irrelevant". As if in response, his first collection for the couture house wasuniversally slated even by McQueen himself. "I know it was crap," he told US Vogue in October 1997, promising to make amends the following season.

Despite the shock tactics, however, McQueen is roundly recognised as a highly innovative designer, with superb tailoring skills particularly by his new bosses at the Gucci Group. In December 2000, shortly after McQueen voiced his malaise with LVMH, Gucci confirmed that it had acquired 51 per cent of McQueen's own-name business, enabling him at last to loose himself from the Givenchy contract he claimed had constrained his creativity.

Alexander McQueen, 3rd Floor, 58-60 Rivington Street, London EC2.