Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen was founded in London in 1992 by Lee Alexander McQueen (1969-2010), the East London cab driver's son who left school at sixteen, apprenticed on Savile Row at Anderson & Sheppard and Gieves & Hawkes, worked briefly for Romeo Gigli in Milan, and then enrolled at Central Saint Martins where his MA collection was bought in entirety by Isabella Blow. He was 23. McQueen's tenure produced some of the most theatrical and technically virtuosic runway shows ever staged — Highland Rape (1995), No. 13 (1999, the robot-spray-painting finale), Voss (2001, the mental-asylum set with Michelle Olley reveal), Plato's Atlantis (2010, the Armadillo shoes and Lady Gaga's Bad Romance debut). He was also a brilliantly precise tailor with deep Savile Row training, capable of producing both shock and silhouettes that flattered the body. Gucci Group (now Kering) acquired a 51% stake in 2000; McQueen took his own life in February 2010. Sarah Burton, his longtime right hand, was named creative director immediately and delivered Kate Middleton's wedding dress (2011) within months — a moment of cultural inheritance under impossible circumstances. Burton led the house for thirteen years until her 2023 departure for Givenchy. Seán McGirr (formerly JW Anderson) took over in late 2023 and continues the house's tradition of finding ways for British craft theatre to feel contemporary.