Alexander McQueen
Blood Beneath the Skin
by Andrew Wilson
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Pub Date Sep 01 2015 | Archive Date Sep 01 2015
Description
When forty-year-old Alexander McQueen committed suicide in February 2010, a shocked world mourned the loss. McQueen had risen from humble beginnings as the son of an East London taxi driver to scale the heights of fame, fortune, and glamour. He designed clothes for the world’s most beautiful women and royalty, most famously the Duchess of Cambridge, who wore a McQueen dress on her wedding day. He created a multimillion-dollar luxury brand that became a favorite with celebrities including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.
But behind the confident facade and bad-boy image, lay a sensitive soul who struggled to survive in the ruthless world of fashion. As the pressures of work intensified, McQueen became increasingly dependent on the drugs that contributed to his tragic end. Meanwhile, in his private life, his failure to find lasting love in a string of boyfriends only added to his despair. And then there were the dark secrets that haunted his sleep…
A modern-day fairy tale infused with the darkness of a Greek tragedy, Alexander McQueen tells the complete sensational story, and includes never-before-seen photos. Those closest to the designer—his family, friends, and lovers—have spoken for the first time about the man they knew, a fragmented individual, a lost boy who battled to gain entry into a world that ultimately destroyed him.
“There’s blood beneath every layer of skin,” McQueen once said. Andrew Wilson’s biography, filled with groundbreaking material, dispels myths, corrects inaccuracies, and offers new insights into McQueen’s private life and the source of his creative genius.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781476776736 |
| PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Carol C, Reviewer
In this well-written and comprehensive biography, the author shows us the personal side of Lee "Alexander" McQueen as well as his genius in the fashion world.
McQueen came from a poor background, the youngest of six children. From a very early age, he showed his affinity for drawing and was always perceived as a different individual. He shared his Mother's love of geneology and was greatly influenced by it.
Abused as a young boy, this perhaps led to his sexuality or at least to his inability to find love. He had a love for the dark side of life that included the drugs that led to his downfall.
No one can dispute his genius in designing and it was a sad loss for the fashion world when he committed suicide.
Reviewer 204997
Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin is well written and comprehensive, with McQueen’s family and friends talking in depth, publicly, about Lee for the first time it would be difficult not to be.
McQueen is my favourite fashion designer, so it was interesting to see the juxtaposition between Lee’s private life and his more public persona as Alexander McQueen. Andrew Wilson delves into how Lee’s experiences and the secrets he kept manifested themselves in his designs.
This book will appeal to people who are interested in the fashion industry in general as well as McQueen fans.
The last chapter and the foreword reduced me to tears with the level of detail they shared about the McQueen’s final hours and how he ultimately ended his life.
I knew the method of death he chose and I know this is a biography, one that is marketed as “the first definitive biography” of the designer, but I still wasn’t expecting the scenes that were described. They played on my mind for days afterwards and a part of me still hasn’t recovered from reading them.
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