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Alexander McQueen ‘s death has inspired an outpouring of tributes from the fashion world. (Also, thanks to Kate Moss, we learned his real first name.) Anna Wintour’s statement: “We are devastated to learn of the death of Alexander McQueen, one of the greatest talents of his generation. He brought a uniquely British sense of daring and aesthetic fearlessness to the global stage of fashion. In such a short career, Alexander McQueen’s influence was astonishing – from street style, to music culture and the world’s museums. His passing marks an insurmountable loss.” WSJ Magazine editor-in-chief Tina Gaudoin recalls that McQueen interrupted his first interview with her in the mid-’90s to feed his dog half a Big Mac. He was “a man who could take a silhouette and subvert it with his unique combination of tailoring and extravagance,” Gaudoin writes. Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan writes that McQueen “represented the kind of volatile imagination that transforms clothes into a cultural tapestry, intensely personal therapy and political provocation.” In The New York Times , Eric Wilson notes that McQueen was “a tailor of the highest order, making impeccably shaped suits that were also surprisingly commercial.” The NYT ‘s Cathy Horyn writes on the Runway blog that McQueen “was enormously creative and intelligent – and funny and rude and fearless. He said what he thought – a rarity in the fashion establishment – and very often he could wind you up, toy with you, pull a bit of wool over your wide, innocent eyes.” Vanity Fair ‘s David Kamp recalls interviewing McQueen and Isabella Blow (“Issie,” he calls her) in 1996 for the magazine’s Cool Britannia issue, writing that the pair had a “mercy, loopy eloquence… at the end of the day, they were not fashionista cartoon characters but human beings whose lives contained as much drudgery and hard work as they did fabulousness and plumage.” Tommy Hilfiger says McQueen “was a young genius who crossed between Couture and Punk Rock with reverence.” Kate Moss is sad , but doesn’t want people to think that people can start ringing her up for comments on McQueen’s death: “Kate is shocked and devastated at the tragic loss of her dear friend Lee McQueen. Her thoughts are with his family at this sad time. We would also ask that Kate’s privacy is respected.” McQueen’s first show, in the early ’90s, was in a run-down London warehouse; the theme was Hitchcock’s The Birds ; and he introduced his famous “bumsters” pants, a Harper’s Bazaar editor recalls. Marc Jacobs CEO Robert Duffy Tweeted that he and Jacobs were crying earlier today, and told each other how much they love each other. Blackbook put together a list of some of McQueen’s most iconic designs and moments, including the lobster claw shoe and when Michelle Obama wore his clothes. Marie Claire fashion director Nina Garcia said, “We have lost one of the most talented and visionary designers of our time.” And Marie Claire EIC Joanna Coles called him “greatly talented and complicated.”

Read more here:
The Alexander McQueen Tributes