Alexander McQueen
No. 13 Climax is listed among the notable works of Alexander McQueen, a British fashion designer and photographer whose career produced a body of work that drew sustained critical attention.
McQueen was born in Lewisham in March 1969, a United Kingdom citizen who attended Rokeby School before going on to study at Central Saint Martins. From that educational foundation he worked as a fashion designer, and at times as a photographer, accumulating a body of work that included the collection Dante alongside No. 13 Climax and the eponymous label Alexander McQueen.
Over the course of his career, McQueen received formal recognition that included the Commander of the Order of the British Empire and The Fashion Awards. These honors acknowledged his standing within the profession he had pursued since his years of education. His work as a fashion designer was conducted in the English language, and his output spanned both design and photography across multiple named collections and projects. The label bearing his own name, listed among his notable works, served as a distinct creative undertaking within that larger body of output.
McQueen died on 11 February 2010 in Mayfair, London. Among the concrete works he left behind, the label Alexander McQueen stands alongside Dante and No. 13 Climax as named projects formally associated with his practice as a designer and photographer educated at Central Saint Martins and honored with the Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Quotes by Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen's insights on:
There is something sinister, something quite biographical about what I do – but that part is for me. It’s my personal business. I think there is a lot of romance, melancholy. There’s a sadness to it, but there’s romance in sadness. I suppose I am a very melancholy person.
For a long time I was looking for my perfect equilibrium, my mojo. And now I think I’m getting there: I’ve found my customer, my silhouette, my cut.
Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive. I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there’s no room for fault. But I don’t expect to turn things around all by myself. I’m not a saint.
Rap music’s been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn’t.
When I’m dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.
My relationships with producers or photographers – these are relationships that took years.
I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I’ve always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it’s late.
The explosion of museum exhibitions is only a mirror image of what has happened to fashion itself this millennium. With the force of technology, instant images and global participation, fashion has developed from being a passion for a few to a fascination – and an entertainment – for everybody.