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- ALEXANR MCQUEEN, BRAND, GAY, DEAD, BODY, CAREER & NET WORTH
- DIGNED FOR DTCTNFOR A TIME, STARTG THE EARLY 1990S, ISABELLA BLOW AND ALEXANR MCQUEEN WERE SEPARABLE—FASHN ME AND MASTER—LOVERS WHOUT THE SEX. THEY SHARED SOMETHG ELSE: A SELF-LOATHG SO TENSE WOULD VOUR THEM BOTH, WH BLOW’S SUICI 2007 AND MCQUEEN’S 2010. IN AN ADAPTATN OM HER NEW BOOK, CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVAS, MREEN CALLAHAN REVEALS HOW TWO GREAT BRISH TALENTS LOST THE BATTLE OF THEIR LIV.BY MREEN CALLAHANAUGT 7, 2014SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEFROM THE BEGNG OF HIS REER, 1992, ALEXANR MCQUEEN FED HIMSELF AS A SIGNER WHO TRAFFICKED RNCH, FILTH, AND PERVERSN SO HEIGHTENED WAS ALMOST FUNNY. HE WAS AN OUTSIR, AND HE REVELED , BUT ONLY THREE YEARS LATER, HE WAS LOSG HIMSELF.HE HAD JT SHOWN HIS TUMN-WTER 1995–96 LLECTN, “HIGHLAND RAPE,” AND WAS HIS BREAKOUT: HIS MOLS STORMED THE NWAY WH BARE BREASTS, WEARG SLASHED TARTAN AND LACE AND PUNK-ROCK BBER PANTS. IT MA MCQUEEN A STAR, AND NOW HE WANTED TO F WH THE FASHN PEOPLE HE’D ONCE RIDICULED: HE’D ALREADY HAD HIS TEETH FIXED, AND WOULD LATER HAVE LIPOSUCTN ON HIS STOMACH AND LOSE THE WATTLE UNR HIS CH.HE TOOK TO LIFE AT HILL, ISABELLA AND DETMAR BLOW’S UNTRY PILE, AND ISSIE (AS SHE WAS ALWAYS KNOWN TO CLOSE IENDS), A BLUE-BLOOD STAR-MAKER WHO’D DISVERED MCQUEEN WHEN HE WAS JT A STUNT, MA SURE FALNS WERE ON HAND FOR HER BIRD-OBSSED PROTéGé. HIS IENDS FOUND ALL SO PRETENT: LEE MCQUEEN, THE BDRIVER’S SON, TRYG TO HAB THE GRANUR OF HIS NEW, MORE FASHNABLE FIRST NAME—ACTUALLY, WAS HIS MIDDLE NAME, AND WAS ISSIE WHO SUGGTED HE ADOPT . FAR MORE REGAL, SHE SAID.HE AGREED.HIS OLD IENDS, WHO STILL LLED HIM LEE, KNEW MCQUEEN WOULD SOON BE GONE. “I REMEMBER HIM TELLG ME THAT SOMEONE AT BRISH VOGUE SAID THAT WE SHOULD SPL UP,” SAYS HIS THEN BOYIEND, ANDREW GROV. “THAT WOULD BE BETTER FOR HIS REER.”MCQUEEN WAS HAPPIT SOHO’S GAY BARS, HANGG OUT WH PROSTUT. HE’D ALSO BEGUN SPENDG TIME NEW YORK, CRASHG WH HIS IEND THE FASHN SIGNER MIGUEL ADROVER. THEY’D H CLUBS THE MEATPACKG DISTRICT, OR GO TO BOWERY BAR, WHERE THEY’D SOMETIM SEE MARC JABS, THEN LLAPSE ADROVER’S BASEMENT APARTMENT THE EAST VILLAGE.BACK THE U.K., THE NCE NTUED. HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO BEG THE KD OF FASHN PERSON THAT HE LOATHED—MANDG, MATERIALISTIC, STAT-OBSSED. MCQUEEN ALSO TOLD DETMAR AND ISSIE HOW HE LIKED TO BE GRAD, HOW ONE PARTNER MA HIM HAVE SEX WH ANOTHER MAN WHILE HE WATCHED—THAT HE DIDN’T LIKE BUT THAT PLAYED TO HIS SENSE OF VICTIMIZATN.“HE WAS VERY ATTRACTED TO PEOPLE BEG ABED,” SAYS DETMAR BLOW. WHEN HE WAS YOUNGER, THERE WAS MUCH ABOUT LEE MCQUEEN THAT WAS BUOYANT AND LIGHT, SENSIVE AND RG. NOW THOSE ASPECTS WERE RECEDG.ACRDG TO MCQUEEN’S OLD IEND CHRIS BIRD, AFTER ISSIE NFID HER ABILY TO NCEIVE, MCQUEEN, WHO ULD BE WILLFULLY CEL TO THOSE HE RED FOR MOST, LATER TURNED TO DETMAR AND SAID, “I’VE HEARD YOU’VE BEEN SHOOTG BLANKS.” HE’D SEE HER SHUFFLG HIS WAY TEARS, UNDONE BY HER LATT CRISIS, AND SAY, “HERE MAD OLD ISSIE.”“LEE WASN’T THE NICT PERSON TO HER, BUT SHE LOVED HIS GENI,” SAYS SIGNER JULIEN MACDONALD, ANOTHER ISSIE DISVERY. “HE WAS SO CRAZY. ONE MUTE HE’D BE A WONRFUL PERSON, AND THE NEXT HE’D BE TELLG PEOPLE TO PISS OFF.”MANY OF MCQUEEN’S IENDS SPECTED HE WAS BIPOLAR; OVER THE YEARS, ISSIE WOULD ALSO STGGLE WH THE DISORR.“THE SIGNS WERE THERE ALL ALONG,” GROV SAYS, BUT THE HIGHS AND LOWS WERE EASILY BLAMED ON THE MAD SH TO PLETE LLECTNS. ALICE SMH, HIS FIRST PUBLICIST AND LONGTIME IEND, ALSO THOUGHT MCQUEEN MIGHT BE BIPOLAR. “HE WAS EXTREMELY VIVAC SOMETIM, AND OTHERS HE ULD HARDLY SPEAK.” SHE RELLS SEEG HIM AND ISSIE AT A CENTRAL SAT MARTS FASHN SHOW SOMETIME AFTER “HIGHLAND RAPE,” SI BY SI THE ONT ROW, STARG TO SPACE. SMH WENT OVER TO SAY HI, AND MCQUEEN, SUNGLASS, IGNORED HER.“I REMEMBER THKG, MY GOD, WHAT’S HAPPENED TO HIM?”AFTER “HIGHLAND RAPE,” EVERYTHG LEE MCQUEEN HAD BEEN WORKG TOWARD BEME REAL. HE WAS NAMED DIGNER OF THE YEAR BY THE BRISH FASHN COUNCIL. HE HAD THE MOST PRTIG SLOT AT LONDON FASHN WEEK, SHOWG LAST. LOUIS VUTON MOëT HENNSY WAS CIRCLG.LVMH WAS FORMED 1987 WHEN THE FASHN AND CHAMPAGNE PANI MERGED. BERNARD ARNLT, THE C.E.O., WAS MOST TERTED EXPANDG THE NEW PANY’S FASHN HOLDGS AND REVIVG S MTIT HO. BY 1996, ARNLT WAS NSIRG ALEXANR MCQUEEN FOR GIVENCHY.MCQUEEN WAS BREAKG A LTLE UNR THE STRS. HE WAS SEEKG RELIEF HARD DGS AND ANONYMO SEX AND HAD LOST MANY OF HIS OLD IENDS.AFTER HER LAST ENUNTER WH MCQUEEN, ALICE SMH WAS SURPRISED WHEN HE VED HER TO A GATHERG. “COME TO MY PARTY … LOADS OF CHARLIE,” THE VE READ. SMH SHOWED UP, AND THE STYLIST KATIE GRAND WAS THERE, BUT HARDLY ANYONE ELSE, MAYBE 15 PEOPLE THE SOCIALE ANNABELLE NEILSON’S VERNO NOTTG HILL FLAT. MCQUEEN WAS DOG KE THE BATHROOM; WHEN HE WAS OUT THE LIVG ROOM, EVERYONE WAS DANCG STRENUOLY, TRYG WAY TOO HARD TO HAVE FUN. HE ULDN’T HI HIS DISGT.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLER“I REMEMBER GOG UP TO HIM AND SAYG, ‘ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?’ ” SMH SAYS. “AND HE SAID, ‘I’M FE, I’M FE.’ . . . HE JT GOT BLACK MOODS, AND HE ULDN’T SHAKE THEM OFF.”THE SAME WAS TE OF ISABELLA. SHE’D BEEN AT LOOSE ENDS SCE THE FALL OF 1994, WHEN BRISH VOGUE SILED HER: SHE WAS FAR TOO MERCURIAL AND EXTRAVAGANT, HAVG N UP THE BUDGET ON ONE SHOOT TO NEARLY $130,000. “SHE WOULD SAY, ‘I’M SO UNHAPPY. I’M SO UNHAPPY,’ ” PLUM SYK, HER FORMER ASSISTANT, TOLD NEW YORK MAGAZE. “AND I’D SAY, ‘BUT WHAT ABOUT DETMAR? WHAT ABOUT THIS FABULO THOAND-ACRE TATE? WHAT ABOUT YOUR GEO FLAT TOWN?’ AND SHE’D SAY, ‘BUT, PLUM, I HAVEN’T GOT A CHILD.’ ”TO THE FASHN PRS, ISSIE AND MCQUEEN STILL PRENTED THEMSELV AS SEPARABLE, THE ME AND THE MASTERMD. AND MCQUEEN DID LOVE HER. SHE WAS HIS MOST ARTICULATE AMBASSADOR, EXPLAG HIS POT OF VIEW AS HE NEVER ULD. “WHAT ATTRACTED ME TO ALEXANR,” SHE TOLD HARPER’S BAZAAR 1996, “WAS THE WAY HE TAK IAS OM THE PAST AND SABOTAG THEM WH HIS CUT TO MAKE THEM THOROUGHLY NEW. . . . HE IS LIKE A PEEPG TOM THE WAY HE SLS AND STABS AT FABRIC TO EXPLORE ALL THE EROGENO ZON OF THE BODY.”IT WAS SIAR TO THE WAY THEY SCRIBED THEMSELV: LOVERS WHOUT THE SEX. “DANTE,” THE SHOW HE STAGED A CHURCH SPALFIELDS, WOULD BE DITED TO HER.MCQUEEN WANTED THE JOB AT GIVENCHY AND CLARED HIMSELF A NVERT TO LUXURY. “I THK PEOPLE WANT THAT NOW,” HE SAID. “THEY DON’T WANT TO LOOK AS THOUGH THEY BOUGHT ALL THEIR CLOTH A THRIFT SHOP.”WH “DANTE,” MCQUEEN ED MASKS THAT REFERENCED THE RELIG INOGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHER JOEL-PETER WK, SHEATHG HIS MOLS ARY ATS AND RSETRY, THEIR PALLID FAC SLASHED WH CRIMSON LIPSTICK. WRG THE NEW YORK TIM, AMY SPDLER SCRIBED “DANTE” AS A BATN OF “BLUEBLOOD AND HOT BLOOD.” MCQUEEN, SHE SAID, “BROUGHT THE EXCEMENT, EDGE AND THEATRICS HE IS KNOWN FOR BUT ADD A WONRFUL FOURTH ELEMENT FOR THE FIRST TIME: MATURY.”“FASHN IS A VAMPIRIC THG”ON OCTOBER 14, 1996, LVMH ANNOUNCED THAT ALEXANR MCQUEEN, NOW 27 YEARS OLD, WAS TAKG OVER AS HEAD SIGNER AT GIVENCHY. HIS APPOTMENT LEFT FOUNR HUBERT GIVENCHY DISNSOLATE. “I FD A TOTAL DISASTER, AND I SUFFER,” HE SAID, “BUT WHAT N I DO?”WHEN MCQUEEN TOOK THE JOB AT GIVENCHY, ISABELLA ASSUMED THAT SHE’D BE NAMED THE HOE ME, THAT MCQUEEN WOULD PUT HER ON SALARY. HE GAVE HER NOTHG. SHE WAS HEARTBROKEN.“SHE GAVE LEE EVERYTHG,” SAYS JULIEN MACDONALD. “ALL HER MONEY, ALL HER TIME, ALL HER ENERGY. SHE TRODUCED HIM TO EVERYBODY. AND THEN, WHEN HE WENT TO GIVENCHY AND HE HAD MONEY, HE TOLD HER TO PISS OFF. HE HAD LNS, SHE WAS PENNILS, AND HE GAVE HER NOTHG. HE JT SHUT THE DOOR.”ISSIE, HOPEFUL ALL WOULD BE MA RIGHT, TRIED TO KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT, BUT NOT LONG AFTERWARD, WHILE BEG TERVIEWED, SHE GOT DNK AND THE TTH ME OUT.“THE ROLE OF A ME IS CHANGG,” SHE SAID. “IF ALEXANR SOME OF MY IAS HIS SHOW, AND HE HAS, I DON’T GET PAID; HE DO.”MCQUEEN WAS FUR. HIS GREAT BASELE FEAR WAS THAT EVERYONE HE KNEW, EXCEPT HIS MOTHER, WAS G HIM. ISSIE WOULD ASK, “DO YOU REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS? YOU KNOCKED ME UP”—THE MOST POIGNANT METAPHOR A CHILDLS FASHNISTA ULD NJURE. AND MCQUEEN WOULD SAY, “THAT WORLD IS GONE, ISSIE.”FOR SOMEONE WHO WOULD SOON S DOWN WH CHARLIE ROSE AND CLARE, “FASHN PEOPLE ARE NOT THAT TELLIGENT,” MCQUEEN HAD NO PROBLEM ADAPTG. HE WAS NNG AROUND WH KATE MOSS AND NAOMI CAMPBELL, BELLA FRD, AND ELTON JOHN. HE HATED TAKG THE EUROSTAR, SO LVMH OFTEN FLEW HIM AND HIS TEAM BACK AND FORTH—MERCIAL, NOT PRIVATE. THEY GAVE HIM A DRIVER AND AN APARTMENT PARIS, WHICH HE SHARED WH HIS CREW. THOUGH MCQUEEN’S OFFICE WAS QUE SMALL—AT ABOUT 8 BY 12 FEET, WAS THE SIZE OF A WALK- CLOSET—HE SEEMED HAPPY JT TO HAVE ONE.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLERHE SET TO WORK IMMEDIATELY; HE HAD THREE MONTHS TILL HIS BUT AT GIVENCHY, WHICH HAD BEE A FASHN-WORLD FIXATN. WAS THIS HELLN PABLE OF GOG MERCIAL?MCQUEEN’S BUT WON MIXED REVIEWS. HE “LEFT HIS DIENCE LD AND NFED WH HIS FIRST SHOW FOR GIVENCHY,” WROTE AMY SPDLER THE NEW YORK TIM. BUT HEATH BROWN THE TIM WAS LDATORY: “THE GAMBLE HAS PAID OFF,” HE WROTE. “MCQUEEN PHED THE BOUNDARI OF FASHN TO S LIMS.”AFTER THAT FIRST SHOW, LEE MCQUEEN WAS GONE. HE WAS ALEXANR NOW, THE IMPERIAL GENI.“GIVENCHY WAS THE POT WHERE LEE STARTED TO CHANGE, ON MANY LEVELS,” SAYS SIMON COST, HIS THEN SET SIGNER. “THE STRS VOLVED DOG PRêT-à-PORTER, UTURE, AND HIS OWN LABEL WAS PRETTY HORRENDO.” COST, LIKE OTHERS BEFORE HIM, BEGAN TO SPECT MCQUEEN WAS BIPOLAR. “HE WAS UP AND DOWN A LOT MORE, HARR TO WORK WH,” COST SAYS. “THE PEOPLE WHO PERHAPS ANSWERED BACK OR SAID ‘DON’T BE RIDICULO’ WOULD DISAPPEAR.”WHEN KATE BETTS TERVIEWED MCQUEEN FOR AN AMERIN VOGUE PROFILE, HE L TO HER. THE HEADLE SUBSEQUENTLY ASKED, “DO ALEXANR MCQUEEN HAVE ENOUGH TALENT TO KEEP GIVENCHY GOG?” BETTS WROTE THAT HIS LATT LLECTN WAS “ALMOST REVOLTG.” HE WAS THE THRO OF A PERSECUTN PLEX.“IT’S LIKE HLER AND THE HOLOT,” MCQUEEN TOLD NEWSWEEK. “HE STROYED LNS OF PEOPLE BEE HE DIDN’T UNRSTAND. THAT’S WHAT A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE DONE TO ME, BEE THEY N’T UNRSTAND WHAT I DO.”FEELG ABANDONED BY MCQUEEN, ISSIE FOUND A NEW PROTéGé, AMERIN SIGNER JEREMY STT. IT WAS LIKE TNTG AN OLD LOVER WH A NEW ONE, AND STT IMPLIED THAT MCQUEEN WAS THREATENED: “ISABELLA TOLD ME HE THREW AN ASHTRAY AT HER AND SAID HE WANTED TO KILL ME,” STT SAID. “BUT I DON’T KNOW THAT I BELIEVE . SHE WAS ALWAYS TALKG ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE AND HOW THEY DID HER WRONG.” HE WAS 24 YEARS OLD, AS BRASH AS MCQUEEN, HIS TOP ROW OF TEETH ENSED A GOLD GRILL THAT SPELLED J-E-R-E-M-Y. THE FASHN PRS LOVED HIM.IN 1997, THE INPENNT RAN A PROFILE OF STT LLED “MOVE OVER MCQUEEN—HERE COM THE KANSAS RANGER.” STT WAS PERFECT FOR ISSIE AT THE MOMENT, AND HER ARTFUL FETS, THE IA SHE’D LOVE ANOTHER SIGNER AS MUCH, IF NOT MORE, KEPT MCQUEEN G AROUND. HE STILL LENT HER SOME PIEC, WHICH SHE FOUND A PATHETIC METAPHOR FOR THEIR RELATNSHIP. “HE LIK TO E THE CLOTH AS POWER OVER ME,” SHE WOULD LATER SAY, BUT OM MCQUEEN’S PERSPECTIVE, ISSIE HAD BEE A BOTTOMLS P OF NEED: THERE WAS NO SATISFYG HER, AND SHE WAS SELF-STCTG.“SHE’D MA SOME PRETTY RASH AND NOT GREAT CISNS ABOUT HER OWN REER,” SAYS CHRIS BIRD. “SHE’D GONE ON HOLIDAYS AND NOT RETURNED. SHE WASN’T TURNG UP FOR WORK AND GETTG FIRED AND SHE PUTS HER HOPE ON LEE. . . . HIS STCT WAS ‘I WANT TO BE MY OWN PERSON. I WORKED BLOODY HARD FOR THIS.’ ”THE LER PHILIP TREACY, ANOTHER ISSIE DISVERY, WAS WORRIED, TOO: MORE AND MORE SHE WANTED HATS THAT VERED HER FACE. SHE WAS NEVER A BETY, BUT SHE HAD STYLE AND JOIE VIVRE; NOW SHE WAS SUDNLY LOOKG VERY OLD AND TIRED, WH HUGE BAGS UNR HER EY. MCQUEEN SUGGTED PLASTIC SURGERY. INSTEAD, SHE WENT TO PHILIP FOR HATS AND GAVE THE PRS A TORTURED EXPLANATN: “FASHN IS A VAMPIRIC THG,” SHE SAID. “THAT’S WHY I WEAR THE HATS, TO KEEP EVERYONE AWAY OM ME. THEY SAY, ‘OH, N I KISS YOU?’ I SAY, ‘NO, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THAT’S WHY I’VE WORN THE HAT. GOODBYE.’ I DON’T WANT TO BE KISSED BY ALL AND SUNDRY.”ISSIE AND MCQUEEN: HERE WERE TWO OF THE FASHN DTRY’S MOST FLUENTIAL, BET BY SO MUCH SELF-LOATHG AMID SO MUCH BETY THAT THEY WERE ALIENATG IENDS AND LLEAGU, SABOTAGG THEMSELV, AND, THE SIGNER’S SE, GRADG HIMSELF. MCQUEEN TOLD DETMAR THAT HE NEED TO BE ABED SEXUALLY: “DETMAR, THAT’S THE WAY I WANT .”“I THK THE WAY HE TRIED TO METABOLIZE [HIS PA] WAS BY HAVG SEX,” SAYS BIRD. “HIS PERSONAL RELATNSHIPS WERE VERY VOLATILE.”FOR ALL THEIR DYSFUNCTN, ISSIE HAD ALWAYS KEPT THE DOOR OPEN FOR HIM AT HILL: THERE, MCQUEEN ULD DO WHAT HE LIKED WH WHOMEVER HE LIKED, AND WOULD STAY BEHD THOSE WALLS. WHEN ME TO THAT, ISSIE WOULD NEVER JUDGE.“CAN EVERYBODY NOT GIVE LEE ANY DGS?”IN 1997, FOR THE SEND TIME TWO YEARS, THE BRISH FASHN COUNCIL NAMED MCQUEEN DIGNER OF THE YEAR (AN HONOR HE SHARED WH JOHN GALLIANO). NO NUMBER OF ACLAS ULD SWAY HIS TRACTORS: “HIS ONLY EFULNS,” VIVIENNE WTWOOD SAID LATER, “IS AS A MEASURE OF ZERO TALENT.” YV SAT LRENT LLED HIM A “TALENTLS UPSTART.”AS TURNED OUT, MCQUEEN HATED FRANCE. HE ULD BARELY SPEAK THE LANGUAGE. HE WAS UNR PRSURE TO TURN A PROF.“THE UTURE LLECTNS WERE AMAZG,” SAYS MACDONALD, WHO SUCCEED MCQUEEN AT GIVENCHY. “THE READY-TO-WEAR—NOBODY BOUGHT THE CLOTH. IF YOU LOOKED AT THE FIGUR, WAS A DISASTER.”BEHD CLOSED DOORS, MCQUEEN’S CNS WAS LCIFYG. A BOYIEND HAD RECENTLY TRIED TO M SUICI, AND MCQUEEN’S REACTN, BIRD SAYS, WAS ALARMG: “LEE SAID, ‘HOW DARE HE TRY TO KILL HIMSELF MY FUCKG HOE?’ ”MCQUEEN WAS NOW NSTANTLY ON KE, EVEN ASKG ERIC LANU, THEN HEAD PRS OFFICER AT GIVENCHY, FOR HELP.“HE WOULD LL TO ASK FOR CERTA ‘VAM SUBSTANC,’ ” LANU SAID THE DOCUMENTARY MCQUEEN & I. “I’M NOT TALKG ABOUT VAM C, I’M TALKG ABOUT E.” MCQUEEN ALSO TOOK UP CIGARETT, WHICH SHOCKED EVEN HIM. “I NEVER SMOKED MY LIFE UNTIL I STARTED AT GIVENCHY,” HE SAID. HE NSUMED AS MUCH AS KATE MOSS AND MARC JABS, TWO PACKS A DAY.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLER“IT WAS LIKE, ‘CAN EVERYBODY NOT GIVE LEE ANY DGS?’ ” MACDONALD SAYS. “HE WAS PLETELY OFF HIS HEAD. HE WAS, LIKE, TAKG KE, TAKG E—HE WAS JT UNNTROLLABLE. IN A MAD WAY, A STATE, I THK. THE STORI YOU ED TO FD OUT. . . . OH GOD, THAT GUY REALLY NEED HELP.”MCQUEEN, THE PTHS OF SELF-PY, BEME OBSSED WH PHYSIL IMPAIRMENTS AND DISABILY. THIS BEME THE THEME FOR YET ANOTHER BREAKTHROUGH, HIS SPRG-SUMMER 1999 SHOW, “NO. 13.”THE PARALYMPIAN AIMEE MULLS, A DOUBLE AMPUTEE, WALKED WOON PROSTHETICS. FOR THE FALE, SHALOM HARLOW STOOD ON A ROTATG PLATFORM, SWIRLG WHE AS TWO ROBOT ARMS SPLATTERED HER WH SPRAY PAT.“THE TRIUMPH OF LONDON’S FASHN WEEK,” SUZY MENK WROTE. “MCQUEEN PTURED THE RAW AGGRSN OF BRPOP AND THE SWAGGERG SHOWMANSHIP OF THE ART SCENE.” MCQUEEN AGREED. “IT WAS MY BT SHOW,” HE WOULD SAY, “THAT MOMENT WH SHALOM!” HE LATER SAID HE WAS SO MOVED THAT HE WEPT.AS UAL, MCQUEEN WAS WORKG OUT HIS OWN MONS ON THE NWAY, AND “NO. 13” WAS A PLA PICTN OF HOW HE SAW HIMSELF: HOBBLED, DISABLED, A PUPPET ON A PESTAL VANDALIZED BY TOMATONS.“ANGER MY WORK REFLECTED ANGST MY PERSONAL LIFE,” HE WOULD LATER TELL MENK.HE WANTED OUT OF GIVENCHY. HE’D LOST WEIGHT, DYED HIS HAIR, AND ROLLED WH ROCK STARS AND ROYALTY, YET HE WAS SURE THAT THE FASHN ELE WERE MOCKG HIM, THE FAT EAST ENR WHO THOUGHT HE WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR FRENCH UTURE.ISSIE TOOK CRED FOR WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. AS LREN GOLDSTE CROWE WR HER BOOK ISABELLA BLOW: A LIFE FASHN, SHE WAS SEATED NEXT TO TOM FORD AT A DNER MAY 1999 AND TOLD HIM, “YOU SHOULD LOOK AT ALEXANR.” FORD, THEN CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT GUCCI GROUP, WAS TERTED: NOT ONLY WAS MCQUEEN THE MOST REVOLUTNARY SIGNER OF HIS GENERATN, BUT POACHG HIM ULD BE THE BT REVENGE AGAST BERNARD ARNLT, WHO’D RECENTLY ATTEMPTED A HOSTILE TAKEOVER OF GUCCI GROUP. FORD AND C.E.O. DOMENI DE SOLE SUCCSFULLY FOUGHT THAT OFF BY PERSUADG THE FRENCH NGLOMERATE PLT-PRTEMPS-REDOUTE TO JECT $3 BILLN TO THE PANY, LATER ACQUIRG YV SAT LRENT AS WELL.MCQUEEN WENT TO THE PRS: “FIRE ME!” HE SAID.GUCCI MA HIM AN OFFER: FOR A 51 PERCENT STAKE, MCQUEEN WOULD ONLY HAVE TO PRODUCE FOR HIS OWN HOE. THE ONE VEAT: MCQUEEN HAD TO MAKE CLOTH THAT WOULD SELL. IN LATE 2000 HE OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED HIS FECTN TO GUCCI GROUP.“TALK ABOUT BE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU,” MCQUEEN SAID. “I BLOODY CHEWED UP AND SPAT OUT.”“THE LONELIT PLACE ON THE PLA”WHILE HE SEEMED TO BE STABILIZG PROFSNALLY, MCQUEEN WAS A WRECK HIS PERSONAL LIFE. HE’D MET A NEW MAN, GEE FORSYTH, WHO, AT 22, WAS SEVERAL YEARS YOUNGER THAN MCQUEEN AND HAD NEVER BEEN EXPOSED TO THE FASHN DTRY. HE WAS SADNED BY WHAT HE SAW. “THE FASHN WORLD IS THE LONELIT PLACE ON THE FACE OF THE PLA,” FORSYTH TOLD THE MAIL ON SUNDAY. “IT’S A SHALLOW WORLD FULL OF PARTY PEOPLE AND PARTY ‘IENDS.’ LEE KNEW THAT.”HIS LATG MOOD SWGS WERE SHGGED OFF AS A GENI’S ECCENTRICY: THERE WAS THE NIGHT MCQUEEN TOOK FORSYTH TO DRKS PARIS, DNER SPA, THEN DANCG AMSTERDAM. THERE WAS THE LOUNGG AT HOME, WATCHG A DOCUMENTARY ON AI, WH MCQUEEN CIDG THAT SHOULD BE THEIR NEXT TRIP—AND THERE THEY WERE, ON A PLANE 48 HOURS LATER. TWO DAYS MORE AND THEY WERE OVER , LLG NAOMI CAMPBELL TO MEET UP FOR NEW YEAR’S. MCQUEEN AND FORSYTH “SPENT THREE DAYS PARTYG AND TAKG DGS,” FORSYTH SAID. “NAOMI DIDN’T DO ANY KE EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS SURROUND BY PEOPLE WHO WERE.”ISSIE WAS FUR THAT MCQUEEN WAS THROWG AWAY MONEY WHILE PAYG HER NOTHG, BUT SHE WAS MORE UPSET BY HIS DG E. “THIS BOY SHE LOVED—THIS IS HER CREATIVE GENI, AND WHAT IS HE DOG?,” DETMAR SAYS. “HE’S SHOVELG ; HE’S STROYG HIMSELF.”MCQUEEN AND FORSYTH WERE UALLY PARTYG WH KATE MOSS, SADIE FROST, ANNABELLE NEILSON, AND THE HEIRS DAVIA TAYLOR.“IT WAS A VERY CTUO, CLIQUEY WORLD,” SAID FORSYTH THE MAIL ON SUNDAY. “THEY WERE HARD-RE—STAYG UP FOR DAYS, EHER DRKG OR TAKG DGS, SOME S BOTH. . . . PEOPLE HAD A LOT OF MONEY SO THEY NEVER HAD TO STOP.”THE TWO HAD BEEN DATG FOR ABOUT SIX MONTHS WHEN MCQUEEN ASKED FORSYTH TO MARRY HIM. THEY WANTED A SMALL CEREMONY, BUT KATE AND ANNABELLE TOOK OVER, LIVERG THEM TO A MASSIVE YACHT STOCKED WH SOMETHG LIKE $30,000 WORTH OF CHAMPAGNE. IN ATTENDANCE WERE MANY OF KATE’S IENDS: SADIE FROST AND JU LAW; NOEL GALLAGHER’S THEN WIFE, MEG MATHEWS; AND ACTRS PATSY KENS. THE PRIT BARELY SPOKE ENGLISH. THE WHOLE THG SEEMED LS LIKE A WEDDG THAN ANOTHER EXCE TO PARTY.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLER“EVERYONE WAS EATG AND DRKG AND TAKG DGS,” FORSYTH SAID. “THERE WERE NO FAY. IT WAS ALL PARTY PEOPLE.… IN THE FASHN WORLD THERE WERE VERY FEW PEOPLE WHO SAID, ‘THERE’S SOMEONE WHO NEEDS LOOKG AFTER.’ ”ISABELLA WOULD HAVE GLADLY DONE SO, HAD SHE BEEN WELE. SHE WAS SPENDG CREASG AMOUNTS OF TIME PARIS, RENTG MCQUEEN’S OLD APARTMENT THE MARAIS. BY THE END OF 2002, SHE AND DETMAR HAD SEPARATED.FOR MONTHS ISSIE HAD BEEN SLIDG TO A EP, TRACTABLE PRSN—TRYG ANTIPRSANTS TO NO AVAIL, TALKG OPENLY ABOUT SUICI. SHE HAD DRAWN UP A WILL, WHICH—ACRDG TO A NEW YORKER PROFILE AROUND THAT TIME—CLUD PROVISNS FOR HER HEAD TO BE SEVERED AND SENT TO HER FATHER’S TATE, AND HER HEART TO BE MAILED TO DETMAR.“YOU KNOW HOW HARD IS TO LIVE WH SOMEONE WHO’S TRYG TO M SUICI ALL THE TIME?” DETMAR SAYS. “IT’S REALLY FUCKG HARD.”ISSIE TOOK FORT THE SMALL THGS. TOM FORD GAVE HER A V.I.P. TAXI PASS TO E PARIS; SHE SLEPT A BED ONCE OWNED BY FREDDIE MERCURY; SHE WAS STILL A ONT-ROW PRENCE NONPAREIL. FOR THE OPENG OF “WHEN PHILIP MET ISABELLA,” A 2002 EXHIBN OF TREACY’S WORK FOR HIS MENTOR, ISABELLA WORE AN ENORMO, SEMI-TRANSLUCENT RED DISK ON HER HEAD.BUT NOTHG AND NO ONE WAS AS IMPORTANT AS MCQUEEN, AND WHEN HE TOOK TOM FORD UP ON HIS OFFER TO JO GUCCI GROUP, ISSIE ALLOWED HERSELF TO THK THAT MAYBE NOW HE’D PAY HER BACK SOMEHOW. HE DIDN’T. SHE WAS SO BTER SHE TOLD DETMAR THAT “WHEN SHE’S DYG ’S NOT [] A MCQUEEN.”“PARIS FOR COUTURE, LONDON FOR SUS, AMERI FOR PSYCHIATRIC HOSPALS”FOR HIS SPRG-SUMMER 2001 SHOW, “VOSS,” MCQUEEN STAGGERED THE TERROR—LIBERATELY STARTG AN HOUR LATE, FORCG HIS DIENCE TO S AROUND AN ENORMO REFLECTIVE PERSPEX BOX. WHAT BETTER REVENGE THAN TO MAKE ALL THE HORRIBLE FASHN PEOPLE PARE THEIR LOOKS, MAYBE FD THEMSELV, AS MCQUEEN HAD, FALLG SO SHORT?“I WAS LOOKG AT ON THE MONOR, WATCHG EVERYONE TRYG NOT TO LOOK AT THEMSELV,” MCQUEEN SAID. IT WAS HIS GREATT RETRIBUTN.AND THEN, SUDNLY, THE LIGHTS WENT OFF, AND THE GIANT BOX WAS L OM WH, HIS MOLS—WHO ULDN’T SEE OUT—GOG CRAZY AGAST THE GLASS, SHEATHED WHE PS, SOME WH STUFFED BIRDS AMG THEIR FAC. THE SHOW CLOSED WH THE LLAPSE OF A BOX WH THE BOX, REVEALG A NAKED MOL, FLH SPILLG OVER, HER HEAD ENSED A MONIC GRAY MASK. SHE WAS HOOKED UP TO A BREATHG TUBE AND VERED MOTHS, THE TABLE A REPLI OF JOEL-PETER WK’S SANARIUM.THE GUARDIAN, THE INTERNATNAL HERALD TRIBUNE, THE NEW YORK TIM ALL RAVED.“UP UNTIL MR. MCQUEEN’S GLOR CRACK-UP, THERE WAS NO DISCERNABLE REASON TO GET OUT OF BED FOR THE LONDON SHOWS,” SAID *THE NEW YORK TIM’*S CATHY HORYN, WHO WENT ON TO LL MCQUEEN “A GREAT SIGNER WHO IS NOT ONLY MAKG BETIFUL CLOTH, BUT ALSO RPONDG, LIKE AN ARTIST, TO THE HORROR AND SANY NTEMPORARY CULTURE.”MCQUEEN WAS ALSO WORKG THROUGH PERSONAL TRMAS. HIS RELATNSHIP WH GEE DIDN’T LAST LONG.THOUGH STILL TRANGED OM ISSIE, MCQUEEN WAS HEARG THGS. HER BARE BREASTS SPILLED OUT OF HER TOP DURG LUNCH WH A PRADA EXEC, YET SHE NTUED THE NVERSATN AS IF NOTHG HAPPENED. HER UNRWEAR ME UNTIED AT A UTURE SHOW, SO SHE STEPPED OUT OF AND KEPT GOG. SHE TRODUCED THE DUCHS OF YORK TO A PHOTOGRAPHER BY SAYG, “THIS IS DONALD. HE HAS AN ENORMO CK.”IN THE SUMMER OF 2003, ISSIE SOUGHT TREATMENT AT LONDON’S PRRY, THE FASHN WORLD’S MENTAL-HEALTH CLIC OF CHOICE; KATE MOSS WENT THERE FOR REHAB 1998. ISSIE HAD NO MONEY, AND MCQUEEN PCHED MORE THAN $8,000. HER DOCTORS PUT HER ON LHIUM, AND WHEN SHE WAS RELEASED, SEPTEMBER, SHE WAS NEARLY TATONIC. SHE BEGAN ELECTROSHOCK TREATMENTS, WHICH ONLY SEEMED TO SPEED UP THE CYCLG OF HER MANIA AND PRSN.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLERDETMAR, WHO HAD NEVER REALLY LEFT ISABELLA, TRIED TO PERSUA HER TO GO TO THE UNED STAT AFTER HE HAD HAD A NVERSATN WH ANDREW SOLOMON, WHO’D WRTEN THE NOONDAY DEMON ABOUT HIS OWN BATTL WH PRSN.“HE SAID TO ME, ‘DETMAR, PARIS FOR UTURE, LONDON FOR SUS, BUT AMERI FOR PSYCHIATRIC HOSPALS.’ ” BUT ISSIE DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE: LONDON WAS WHERE HER IENDS AND FAY WERE, AND SHE NEVER LOST HOPE THAT MCQUEEN WOULD E BACK TO HER.AS ISSIE PENSATED, DIFFERENT DOCTORS WERE LLED UPON, DIFFERENT DGS TRIED, ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY RUMED, YET NOTHG WORKED. SHE TRIED TO KILL HERSELF AT LEAST THREE TIM THREE MONTHS: OVERDOSG ON PILLS, WRECKG A R, AND EVENTUALLY THROWG HERSELF OFF AN OVERPASS KNOWN AS SUICI BRIDGE, SMASHG BOTH ANKL. SHE WAS TOLD SHE’D NEVER WEAR HEELS AGA.SHE WAS STUTNALIZED AND PLACED UNR THE RE OF DR. STEPHEN PEREIRA, WHO WOULD ALSO TREAT MCQUEEN FOR MIXED ANXIETY AND PRSIVE DISORR. ISSIE WAS NOW GOG SO FAR AS TO BURN HER VAGA WH L CIGARETT, A LERAL FORM OF SELF-ABE FOR SOMEONE WHO ULDN’T HAVE THE BABI SHE SO BADLY WANTED.“EVERYBODY KNOWS I’VE FUCKED UP,” SHE’D SAY.ON MAY 5, 2007, ISSIE GUZZLED WEED KILLER, THE SAME WAY DETMAR’S FATHER HAD MTED SUICI 30 YEARS EARLIER. SHE WAS SHED TO THE HOSPAL, WHERE SHE GREW IRRATED THAT THE NURS DIDN’T REGNIZE HER: “GOOGLE ME!”WHEN HER DOCTORS TOLD HER SHE’D BE AD WH WEEKS, SHE WAS RELIEVED; SHE’D TOLD HER SISTER LAVIA, “I’M WORRIED THAT I HAVEN’T TAKEN ENOUGH.” SHE’D GTED AS MUCH AS 20 TIM THE AMOUNT NEED TO KILL HER.SHE SAT BED AND WAED TO DIE, AND THOUGH MANY STORI CIRCULATED AFTER HER ATH ABOUT ISSIE HER SILVER LAMé LGERIE NEXT TO STACKS OF FASHN MAGAZ, SMOKG CIGARETT AND WEARG RED LIPSTICK, NONE OF THEM WERE TE. SHE SAT UP BED A PUBLIC HOSPAL, DRSED TTON, ON A DRIP—NOTHG GLAMORO ABOUT . “IT’S BULLSH TO PRETEND OTHERWISE,” DETMAR SAYS.WHEN THEY HEARD ISSIE WAS DYG, THOSE CLOST TO HER, CLUDG PHILIP TREACY, ME TO SEE HER. MCQUEEN WAS NOT AMONG THEM.ON AUGT 6, 2011, NEW YORK’S METROPOLAN MM OF ART TOOK THE UNPRECENTED STEP OF REMAG OPEN UNTIL MIDNIGHT: SUCH WAS THE RPONSE TO “ALEXANR MCQUEEN: SAVAGE BETY” THAT PEOPLE LED UP FOR HOURS, SNAKG DOWN FIFTH AVENUE ON THE EXHIBN’S FAL TWO DAYS. IT BROUGHT AN TIMATED $15 LN OVER THREE MONTHS AND BEME THE EIGHTH-MOST-POPULAR SHOW THE MM’S HISTORY.LEFT UNSAID WAS A BTAL TTH: “SAVAGE BETY” WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN MOUNTED HAD ALEXANR MCQUEEN NOT BEEN FOUND AD THE YEAR BEFORE, AT AGE 40, ON FEBARY 11, 2010, JT A FEW WEEKS BEFORE HIS NEXT SHOW PARIS.THE DTRY HAD LONG SCE E TO REGARD MCQUEEN AS AN ENDLS GENERATOR OF FANTASTIL IAS, THE STAED QUALY OF HIS OUTPUT HAVG LONG CEASED TO AMAZE. YET HE WAS THE FIRST FASHN SIGNER WHOSE ATH FELT LIKE A LARGER CULTURAL, GENERATNAL LOSS, ON THE LEVEL OF KURT COBA’S SUICI OR THE ACCINTAL ATHS OF RIVER PHOENIX AND HEATH LEDGER: THE WERE ORIGALS ALL.IN THE YEARS BEFORE HIS SUICI, MCQUEEN, HIS WAY, TRIED TO MAKE AMENDS, SHOWG UP AT A CHRISTMAS PARTY THROWN BY SIMON COST. HE SAW HIS OLD IEND CHRIS BIRD, AND A RARE MOMENT OF VULNERABILY REVEALED THAT HE WAS H.I.V.-POSIVE. “I JT SORT OF SAID TO HIM, ‘WELL, THAT WAS BLOODY STUPID, WASN’T ?’ AND HE JT SAID, ‘YEAH.’ ”MOST EVERYONE WHO KNEW LEE IS NVCED THAT HIS SUICI WAS A RASH IMPULSE BROUGHT ON BY DARKNS AND DGS, BY THE RECENT ATH OF HIS BELOVED MOTHER, BUT AS DR. PEREIRA TTIFIED AT THE QUT, MCQUEEN HAD TRIED TO KILL HIMSELF TWICE BEFORE, 2009. HE HAD FELT ISOLATED BY FAME, LET DOWN BY PEOPLE HE LOVED, EXISTENTIALLY PRSED AFTER THE TRIUMPH OF A SHOW, A FAILURE EVERY WAY EXCEPT PROFSNALLY. HIS MOTHER’S ATH, HIS PSYCHIATRIST SAID, LEFT HIM FEELG THAT “THERE WAS VERY LTLE TO LIVE FOR.”ON FEBARY 10, TWO DAYS BEFORE HIS MOTHER’S FUNERAL, MCQUEEN DID AN INTER SEARCH: “WHEN SOMEONE SLS THEIR WRIST HOW LONG DO TAKE FOR THEM TO DIE?” HE DID ENOUGH KE TO KILL HIMSELF THREE OR FOUR TIM OVER, SWALLOWED SOME SLEEPG PILLS, THEN TOOK HIS DRSG-GOWN RD AND TRIED TO HANG HIMSELF THE SHOWER. HE FAILED. HE GRABBED A CLEAVER AND ANOTHER KNIFE, THEN WENT TO HIS CLOSET. HE LOOPED HIS FAVORE BROWN BELT AROUND HIS NECK, SLASHED HIS WRISTS, AND HUNG HIMSELF, LEAVG BEHD A NOTE THAT READ PART:MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLERPLEASE LOOK AFTER MY DOGS. SORRY, I LOVE YOU. LEE.PS BURY ME AT THE CHURCH.IN HIS FLAT, PRI OF PLACE, WERE TWO PORTRAS OF ISSIE BY STEVEN MEISEL. “IT WAS THE MOST VALUABLE THG I LEARNED FASHN, HER ATH,” MCQUEEN TOLD THE NEW YORK TIM 2009, MONTHS AFTER HIS OWN TWO FAILED SUICI ATTEMPTS. “ISABELLA WAS SO STRONG HER PUBLIC IMAGE BUT ULDN’T STAND HER GROUND HER PERSONAL LIFE. I KNOW THE OTHER SI. SHE WOULD SAY THAT FASHN KILLED HER, BUT SHE ALSO ALLOWED THAT TO HAPPEN A LOT OF WAYS.”DIGNED FOR DTCTN: ALEXANR MCQUEEN AND ISABELLA BLOW’S FRIENDSHIP PHOTOS1 / 12CHEVRONCHEVRONMCQUEEN DROPS HIS PANTS ON THE NWAY AT HIS SHOW TO REVEAL HIS AMERIN-FLAG BOXERS. AND LATER THAT YEAR LVMH ANNOUNCED THAT MCQUEEN, JT 27 YEARS OLD, WOULD BEE THE HEAD SIGNER FOR GIVENCHY. ISABELLA ASSUMED SHE’D BE NAMED THE HOE ME, AND BE PUT ON SALARY. BUT HE GAVE HER NOTHG AND SHE WAS HEARTBROKEN. “SHE GAVE LEE EVERYTHG,” SAYS SIGNER JULIEN MACDONALD. “ALL HER MONEY, ALL HE TIME, ALL HER ENERGY. SHE TRODUCED HIM TO EVERYBODY. AND THEN, WHEN HE WENT TO GIVENCHY AND HE HAD MONEY, HE TOLD HER TO PISS OFF. HE HAD LNS AND SHE WAS PENNILS, AND HE GAVE HER NOTHG. HE JT SHUT THE DOOR.”MREEN CALLAHAN
ALEXANR MCQUEEN, BRAND, GAY, DEAD, BODY, CAREER & NET WORTH
I went straight to my mother’s womb onto the gay para”. ”McQueen was happit Soho’s gay bars, hangg out wh prostut. It’s really rare to e across another gay guy that thks the same as you.
People don’t believe there are gay people out there who jt want to settle down. Buy the latt issue of Gay Tim.
A queer history of fashn | Dazedâ¬…ï¸ Left Arrow*ï¸âƒ£ Asteriskâ StarOptn Slirsâœ‰ï¸ MailExGay Pri 'Kgs and Queens 3', 1989Photograph by Joyce CulverFashn theorist Valerie Steele m the history of clothg through an LGBTQ lens. It featur ntributns by some of the world’s most acclaimed scholars of gay history and fashn.
DIGNED FOR DTCTNFOR A TIME, STARTG THE EARLY 1990S, ISABELLA BLOW AND ALEXANR MCQUEEN WERE SEPARABLE—FASHN ME AND MASTER—LOVERS WHOUT THE SEX. THEY SHARED SOMETHG ELSE: A SELF-LOATHG SO TENSE WOULD VOUR THEM BOTH, WH BLOW’S SUICI 2007 AND MCQUEEN’S 2010. IN AN ADAPTATN OM HER NEW BOOK, CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVAS, MREEN CALLAHAN REVEALS HOW TWO GREAT BRISH TALENTS LOST THE BATTLE OF THEIR LIV.BY MREEN CALLAHANAUGT 7, 2014SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEFROM THE BEGNG OF HIS REER, 1992, ALEXANR MCQUEEN FED HIMSELF AS A SIGNER WHO TRAFFICKED RNCH, FILTH, AND PERVERSN SO HEIGHTENED WAS ALMOST FUNNY. HE WAS AN OUTSIR, AND HE REVELED , BUT ONLY THREE YEARS LATER, HE WAS LOSG HIMSELF.HE HAD JT SHOWN HIS TUMN-WTER 1995–96 LLECTN, “HIGHLAND RAPE,” AND WAS HIS BREAKOUT: HIS MOLS STORMED THE NWAY WH BARE BREASTS, WEARG SLASHED TARTAN AND LACE AND PUNK-ROCK BBER PANTS. IT MA MCQUEEN A STAR, AND NOW HE WANTED TO F WH THE FASHN PEOPLE HE’D ONCE RIDICULED: HE’D ALREADY HAD HIS TEETH FIXED, AND WOULD LATER HAVE LIPOSUCTN ON HIS STOMACH AND LOSE THE WATTLE UNR HIS CH.HE TOOK TO LIFE AT HILL, ISABELLA AND DETMAR BLOW’S UNTRY PILE, AND ISSIE (AS SHE WAS ALWAYS KNOWN TO CLOSE IENDS), A BLUE-BLOOD STAR-MAKER WHO’D DISVERED MCQUEEN WHEN HE WAS JT A STUNT, MA SURE FALNS WERE ON HAND FOR HER BIRD-OBSSED PROTéGé. HIS IENDS FOUND ALL SO PRETENT: LEE MCQUEEN, THE BDRIVER’S SON, TRYG TO HAB THE GRANUR OF HIS NEW, MORE FASHNABLE FIRST NAME—ACTUALLY, WAS HIS MIDDLE NAME, AND WAS ISSIE WHO SUGGTED HE ADOPT . FAR MORE REGAL, SHE SAID.HE AGREED.HIS OLD IENDS, WHO STILL LLED HIM LEE, KNEW MCQUEEN WOULD SOON BE GONE. “I REMEMBER HIM TELLG ME THAT SOMEONE AT BRISH VOGUE SAID THAT WE SHOULD SPL UP,” SAYS HIS THEN BOYIEND, ANDREW GROV. “THAT WOULD BE BETTER FOR HIS REER.”MCQUEEN WAS HAPPIT SOHO’S GAY BARS, HANGG OUT WH PROSTUT. HE’D ALSO BEGUN SPENDG TIME NEW YORK, CRASHG WH HIS IEND THE FASHN SIGNER MIGUEL ADROVER. THEY’D H CLUBS THE MEATPACKG DISTRICT, OR GO TO BOWERY BAR, WHERE THEY’D SOMETIM SEE MARC JABS, THEN LLAPSE ADROVER’S BASEMENT APARTMENT THE EAST VILLAGE.BACK THE U.K., THE NCE NTUED. HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO BEG THE KD OF FASHN PERSON THAT HE LOATHED—MANDG, MATERIALISTIC, STAT-OBSSED. MCQUEEN ALSO TOLD DETMAR AND ISSIE HOW HE LIKED TO BE GRAD, HOW ONE PARTNER MA HIM HAVE SEX WH ANOTHER MAN WHILE HE WATCHED—THAT HE DIDN’T LIKE BUT THAT PLAYED TO HIS SENSE OF VICTIMIZATN.“HE WAS VERY ATTRACTED TO PEOPLE BEG ABED,” SAYS DETMAR BLOW. WHEN HE WAS YOUNGER, THERE WAS MUCH ABOUT LEE MCQUEEN THAT WAS BUOYANT AND LIGHT, SENSIVE AND RG. NOW THOSE ASPECTS WERE RECEDG.ACRDG TO MCQUEEN’S OLD IEND CHRIS BIRD, AFTER ISSIE NFID HER ABILY TO NCEIVE, MCQUEEN, WHO ULD BE WILLFULLY CEL TO THOSE HE RED FOR MOST, LATER TURNED TO DETMAR AND SAID, “I’VE HEARD YOU’VE BEEN SHOOTG BLANKS.” HE’D SEE HER SHUFFLG HIS WAY TEARS, UNDONE BY HER LATT CRISIS, AND SAY, “HERE MAD OLD ISSIE.”“LEE WASN’T THE NICT PERSON TO HER, BUT SHE LOVED HIS GENI,” SAYS SIGNER JULIEN MACDONALD, ANOTHER ISSIE DISVERY. “HE WAS SO CRAZY. ONE MUTE HE’D BE A WONRFUL PERSON, AND THE NEXT HE’D BE TELLG PEOPLE TO PISS OFF.”MANY OF MCQUEEN’S IENDS SPECTED HE WAS BIPOLAR; OVER THE YEARS, ISSIE WOULD ALSO STGGLE WH THE DISORR.“THE SIGNS WERE THERE ALL ALONG,” GROV SAYS, BUT THE HIGHS AND LOWS WERE EASILY BLAMED ON THE MAD SH TO PLETE LLECTNS. ALICE SMH, HIS FIRST PUBLICIST AND LONGTIME IEND, ALSO THOUGHT MCQUEEN MIGHT BE BIPOLAR. “HE WAS EXTREMELY VIVAC SOMETIM, AND OTHERS HE ULD HARDLY SPEAK.” SHE RELLS SEEG HIM AND ISSIE AT A CENTRAL SAT MARTS FASHN SHOW SOMETIME AFTER “HIGHLAND RAPE,” SI BY SI THE ONT ROW, STARG TO SPACE. SMH WENT OVER TO SAY HI, AND MCQUEEN, SUNGLASS, IGNORED HER.“I REMEMBER THKG, MY GOD, WHAT’S HAPPENED TO HIM?”AFTER “HIGHLAND RAPE,” EVERYTHG LEE MCQUEEN HAD BEEN WORKG TOWARD BEME REAL. HE WAS NAMED DIGNER OF THE YEAR BY THE BRISH FASHN COUNCIL. HE HAD THE MOST PRTIG SLOT AT LONDON FASHN WEEK, SHOWG LAST. LOUIS VUTON MOëT HENNSY WAS CIRCLG.LVMH WAS FORMED 1987 WHEN THE FASHN AND CHAMPAGNE PANI MERGED. BERNARD ARNLT, THE C.E.O., WAS MOST TERTED EXPANDG THE NEW PANY’S FASHN HOLDGS AND REVIVG S MTIT HO. BY 1996, ARNLT WAS NSIRG ALEXANR MCQUEEN FOR GIVENCHY.MCQUEEN WAS BREAKG A LTLE UNR THE STRS. HE WAS SEEKG RELIEF HARD DGS AND ANONYMO SEX AND HAD LOST MANY OF HIS OLD IENDS.AFTER HER LAST ENUNTER WH MCQUEEN, ALICE SMH WAS SURPRISED WHEN HE VED HER TO A GATHERG. “COME TO MY PARTY … LOADS OF CHARLIE,” THE VE READ. SMH SHOWED UP, AND THE STYLIST KATIE GRAND WAS THERE, BUT HARDLY ANYONE ELSE, MAYBE 15 PEOPLE THE SOCIALE ANNABELLE NEILSON’S VERNO NOTTG HILL FLAT. MCQUEEN WAS DOG KE THE BATHROOM; WHEN HE WAS OUT THE LIVG ROOM, EVERYONE WAS DANCG STRENUOLY, TRYG WAY TOO HARD TO HAVE FUN. HE ULDN’T HI HIS DISGT.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLER“I REMEMBER GOG UP TO HIM AND SAYG, ‘ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?’ ” SMH SAYS. “AND HE SAID, ‘I’M FE, I’M FE.’ . . . HE JT GOT BLACK MOODS, AND HE ULDN’T SHAKE THEM OFF.”THE SAME WAS TE OF ISABELLA. SHE’D BEEN AT LOOSE ENDS SCE THE FALL OF 1994, WHEN BRISH VOGUE SILED HER: SHE WAS FAR TOO MERCURIAL AND EXTRAVAGANT, HAVG N UP THE BUDGET ON ONE SHOOT TO NEARLY $130,000. “SHE WOULD SAY, ‘I’M SO UNHAPPY. I’M SO UNHAPPY,’ ” PLUM SYK, HER FORMER ASSISTANT, TOLD NEW YORK MAGAZE. “AND I’D SAY, ‘BUT WHAT ABOUT DETMAR? WHAT ABOUT THIS FABULO THOAND-ACRE TATE? WHAT ABOUT YOUR GEO FLAT TOWN?’ AND SHE’D SAY, ‘BUT, PLUM, I HAVEN’T GOT A CHILD.’ ”TO THE FASHN PRS, ISSIE AND MCQUEEN STILL PRENTED THEMSELV AS SEPARABLE, THE ME AND THE MASTERMD. AND MCQUEEN DID LOVE HER. SHE WAS HIS MOST ARTICULATE AMBASSADOR, EXPLAG HIS POT OF VIEW AS HE NEVER ULD. “WHAT ATTRACTED ME TO ALEXANR,” SHE TOLD HARPER’S BAZAAR 1996, “WAS THE WAY HE TAK IAS OM THE PAST AND SABOTAG THEM WH HIS CUT TO MAKE THEM THOROUGHLY NEW. . . . HE IS LIKE A PEEPG TOM THE WAY HE SLS AND STABS AT FABRIC TO EXPLORE ALL THE EROGENO ZON OF THE BODY.”IT WAS SIAR TO THE WAY THEY SCRIBED THEMSELV: LOVERS WHOUT THE SEX. “DANTE,” THE SHOW HE STAGED A CHURCH SPALFIELDS, WOULD BE DITED TO HER.MCQUEEN WANTED THE JOB AT GIVENCHY AND CLARED HIMSELF A NVERT TO LUXURY. “I THK PEOPLE WANT THAT NOW,” HE SAID. “THEY DON’T WANT TO LOOK AS THOUGH THEY BOUGHT ALL THEIR CLOTH A THRIFT SHOP.”WH “DANTE,” MCQUEEN ED MASKS THAT REFERENCED THE RELIG INOGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHER JOEL-PETER WK, SHEATHG HIS MOLS ARY ATS AND RSETRY, THEIR PALLID FAC SLASHED WH CRIMSON LIPSTICK. WRG THE NEW YORK TIM, AMY SPDLER SCRIBED “DANTE” AS A BATN OF “BLUEBLOOD AND HOT BLOOD.” MCQUEEN, SHE SAID, “BROUGHT THE EXCEMENT, EDGE AND THEATRICS HE IS KNOWN FOR BUT ADD A WONRFUL FOURTH ELEMENT FOR THE FIRST TIME: MATURY.”“FASHN IS A VAMPIRIC THG”ON OCTOBER 14, 1996, LVMH ANNOUNCED THAT ALEXANR MCQUEEN, NOW 27 YEARS OLD, WAS TAKG OVER AS HEAD SIGNER AT GIVENCHY. HIS APPOTMENT LEFT FOUNR HUBERT GIVENCHY DISNSOLATE. “I FD A TOTAL DISASTER, AND I SUFFER,” HE SAID, “BUT WHAT N I DO?”WHEN MCQUEEN TOOK THE JOB AT GIVENCHY, ISABELLA ASSUMED THAT SHE’D BE NAMED THE HOE ME, THAT MCQUEEN WOULD PUT HER ON SALARY. HE GAVE HER NOTHG. SHE WAS HEARTBROKEN.“SHE GAVE LEE EVERYTHG,” SAYS JULIEN MACDONALD. “ALL HER MONEY, ALL HER TIME, ALL HER ENERGY. SHE TRODUCED HIM TO EVERYBODY. AND THEN, WHEN HE WENT TO GIVENCHY AND HE HAD MONEY, HE TOLD HER TO PISS OFF. HE HAD LNS, SHE WAS PENNILS, AND HE GAVE HER NOTHG. HE JT SHUT THE DOOR.”ISSIE, HOPEFUL ALL WOULD BE MA RIGHT, TRIED TO KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT, BUT NOT LONG AFTERWARD, WHILE BEG TERVIEWED, SHE GOT DNK AND THE TTH ME OUT.“THE ROLE OF A ME IS CHANGG,” SHE SAID. “IF ALEXANR SOME OF MY IAS HIS SHOW, AND HE HAS, I DON’T GET PAID; HE DO.”MCQUEEN WAS FUR. HIS GREAT BASELE FEAR WAS THAT EVERYONE HE KNEW, EXCEPT HIS MOTHER, WAS G HIM. ISSIE WOULD ASK, “DO YOU REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS? YOU KNOCKED ME UP”—THE MOST POIGNANT METAPHOR A CHILDLS FASHNISTA ULD NJURE. AND MCQUEEN WOULD SAY, “THAT WORLD IS GONE, ISSIE.”FOR SOMEONE WHO WOULD SOON S DOWN WH CHARLIE ROSE AND CLARE, “FASHN PEOPLE ARE NOT THAT TELLIGENT,” MCQUEEN HAD NO PROBLEM ADAPTG. HE WAS NNG AROUND WH KATE MOSS AND NAOMI CAMPBELL, BELLA FRD, AND ELTON JOHN. HE HATED TAKG THE EUROSTAR, SO LVMH OFTEN FLEW HIM AND HIS TEAM BACK AND FORTH—MERCIAL, NOT PRIVATE. THEY GAVE HIM A DRIVER AND AN APARTMENT PARIS, WHICH HE SHARED WH HIS CREW. THOUGH MCQUEEN’S OFFICE WAS QUE SMALL—AT ABOUT 8 BY 12 FEET, WAS THE SIZE OF A WALK- CLOSET—HE SEEMED HAPPY JT TO HAVE ONE.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLERHE SET TO WORK IMMEDIATELY; HE HAD THREE MONTHS TILL HIS BUT AT GIVENCHY, WHICH HAD BEE A FASHN-WORLD FIXATN. WAS THIS HELLN PABLE OF GOG MERCIAL?MCQUEEN’S BUT WON MIXED REVIEWS. HE “LEFT HIS DIENCE LD AND NFED WH HIS FIRST SHOW FOR GIVENCHY,” WROTE AMY SPDLER THE NEW YORK TIM. BUT HEATH BROWN THE TIM WAS LDATORY: “THE GAMBLE HAS PAID OFF,” HE WROTE. “MCQUEEN PHED THE BOUNDARI OF FASHN TO S LIMS.”AFTER THAT FIRST SHOW, LEE MCQUEEN WAS GONE. HE WAS ALEXANR NOW, THE IMPERIAL GENI.“GIVENCHY WAS THE POT WHERE LEE STARTED TO CHANGE, ON MANY LEVELS,” SAYS SIMON COST, HIS THEN SET SIGNER. “THE STRS VOLVED DOG PRêT-à-PORTER, UTURE, AND HIS OWN LABEL WAS PRETTY HORRENDO.” COST, LIKE OTHERS BEFORE HIM, BEGAN TO SPECT MCQUEEN WAS BIPOLAR. “HE WAS UP AND DOWN A LOT MORE, HARR TO WORK WH,” COST SAYS. “THE PEOPLE WHO PERHAPS ANSWERED BACK OR SAID ‘DON’T BE RIDICULO’ WOULD DISAPPEAR.”WHEN KATE BETTS TERVIEWED MCQUEEN FOR AN AMERIN VOGUE PROFILE, HE L TO HER. THE HEADLE SUBSEQUENTLY ASKED, “DO ALEXANR MCQUEEN HAVE ENOUGH TALENT TO KEEP GIVENCHY GOG?” BETTS WROTE THAT HIS LATT LLECTN WAS “ALMOST REVOLTG.” HE WAS THE THRO OF A PERSECUTN PLEX.“IT’S LIKE HLER AND THE HOLOT,” MCQUEEN TOLD NEWSWEEK. “HE STROYED LNS OF PEOPLE BEE HE DIDN’T UNRSTAND. THAT’S WHAT A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE DONE TO ME, BEE THEY N’T UNRSTAND WHAT I DO.”FEELG ABANDONED BY MCQUEEN, ISSIE FOUND A NEW PROTéGé, AMERIN SIGNER JEREMY STT. IT WAS LIKE TNTG AN OLD LOVER WH A NEW ONE, AND STT IMPLIED THAT MCQUEEN WAS THREATENED: “ISABELLA TOLD ME HE THREW AN ASHTRAY AT HER AND SAID HE WANTED TO KILL ME,” STT SAID. “BUT I DON’T KNOW THAT I BELIEVE . SHE WAS ALWAYS TALKG ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE AND HOW THEY DID HER WRONG.” HE WAS 24 YEARS OLD, AS BRASH AS MCQUEEN, HIS TOP ROW OF TEETH ENSED A GOLD GRILL THAT SPELLED J-E-R-E-M-Y. THE FASHN PRS LOVED HIM.IN 1997, THE INPENNT RAN A PROFILE OF STT LLED “MOVE OVER MCQUEEN—HERE COM THE KANSAS RANGER.” STT WAS PERFECT FOR ISSIE AT THE MOMENT, AND HER ARTFUL FETS, THE IA SHE’D LOVE ANOTHER SIGNER AS MUCH, IF NOT MORE, KEPT MCQUEEN G AROUND. HE STILL LENT HER SOME PIEC, WHICH SHE FOUND A PATHETIC METAPHOR FOR THEIR RELATNSHIP. “HE LIK TO E THE CLOTH AS POWER OVER ME,” SHE WOULD LATER SAY, BUT OM MCQUEEN’S PERSPECTIVE, ISSIE HAD BEE A BOTTOMLS P OF NEED: THERE WAS NO SATISFYG HER, AND SHE WAS SELF-STCTG.“SHE’D MA SOME PRETTY RASH AND NOT GREAT CISNS ABOUT HER OWN REER,” SAYS CHRIS BIRD. “SHE’D GONE ON HOLIDAYS AND NOT RETURNED. SHE WASN’T TURNG UP FOR WORK AND GETTG FIRED AND SHE PUTS HER HOPE ON LEE. . . . HIS STCT WAS ‘I WANT TO BE MY OWN PERSON. I WORKED BLOODY HARD FOR THIS.’ ”THE LER PHILIP TREACY, ANOTHER ISSIE DISVERY, WAS WORRIED, TOO: MORE AND MORE SHE WANTED HATS THAT VERED HER FACE. SHE WAS NEVER A BETY, BUT SHE HAD STYLE AND JOIE VIVRE; NOW SHE WAS SUDNLY LOOKG VERY OLD AND TIRED, WH HUGE BAGS UNR HER EY. MCQUEEN SUGGTED PLASTIC SURGERY. INSTEAD, SHE WENT TO PHILIP FOR HATS AND GAVE THE PRS A TORTURED EXPLANATN: “FASHN IS A VAMPIRIC THG,” SHE SAID. “THAT’S WHY I WEAR THE HATS, TO KEEP EVERYONE AWAY OM ME. THEY SAY, ‘OH, N I KISS YOU?’ I SAY, ‘NO, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THAT’S WHY I’VE WORN THE HAT. GOODBYE.’ I DON’T WANT TO BE KISSED BY ALL AND SUNDRY.”ISSIE AND MCQUEEN: HERE WERE TWO OF THE FASHN DTRY’S MOST FLUENTIAL, BET BY SO MUCH SELF-LOATHG AMID SO MUCH BETY THAT THEY WERE ALIENATG IENDS AND LLEAGU, SABOTAGG THEMSELV, AND, THE SIGNER’S SE, GRADG HIMSELF. MCQUEEN TOLD DETMAR THAT HE NEED TO BE ABED SEXUALLY: “DETMAR, THAT’S THE WAY I WANT .”“I THK THE WAY HE TRIED TO METABOLIZE [HIS PA] WAS BY HAVG SEX,” SAYS BIRD. “HIS PERSONAL RELATNSHIPS WERE VERY VOLATILE.”FOR ALL THEIR DYSFUNCTN, ISSIE HAD ALWAYS KEPT THE DOOR OPEN FOR HIM AT HILL: THERE, MCQUEEN ULD DO WHAT HE LIKED WH WHOMEVER HE LIKED, AND WOULD STAY BEHD THOSE WALLS. WHEN ME TO THAT, ISSIE WOULD NEVER JUDGE.“CAN EVERYBODY NOT GIVE LEE ANY DGS?”IN 1997, FOR THE SEND TIME TWO YEARS, THE BRISH FASHN COUNCIL NAMED MCQUEEN DIGNER OF THE YEAR (AN HONOR HE SHARED WH JOHN GALLIANO). NO NUMBER OF ACLAS ULD SWAY HIS TRACTORS: “HIS ONLY EFULNS,” VIVIENNE WTWOOD SAID LATER, “IS AS A MEASURE OF ZERO TALENT.” YV SAT LRENT LLED HIM A “TALENTLS UPSTART.”AS TURNED OUT, MCQUEEN HATED FRANCE. HE ULD BARELY SPEAK THE LANGUAGE. HE WAS UNR PRSURE TO TURN A PROF.“THE UTURE LLECTNS WERE AMAZG,” SAYS MACDONALD, WHO SUCCEED MCQUEEN AT GIVENCHY. “THE READY-TO-WEAR—NOBODY BOUGHT THE CLOTH. IF YOU LOOKED AT THE FIGUR, WAS A DISASTER.”BEHD CLOSED DOORS, MCQUEEN’S CNS WAS LCIFYG. A BOYIEND HAD RECENTLY TRIED TO M SUICI, AND MCQUEEN’S REACTN, BIRD SAYS, WAS ALARMG: “LEE SAID, ‘HOW DARE HE TRY TO KILL HIMSELF MY FUCKG HOE?’ ”MCQUEEN WAS NOW NSTANTLY ON KE, EVEN ASKG ERIC LANU, THEN HEAD PRS OFFICER AT GIVENCHY, FOR HELP.“HE WOULD LL TO ASK FOR CERTA ‘VAM SUBSTANC,’ ” LANU SAID THE DOCUMENTARY MCQUEEN & I. “I’M NOT TALKG ABOUT VAM C, I’M TALKG ABOUT E.” MCQUEEN ALSO TOOK UP CIGARETT, WHICH SHOCKED EVEN HIM. “I NEVER SMOKED MY LIFE UNTIL I STARTED AT GIVENCHY,” HE SAID. HE NSUMED AS MUCH AS KATE MOSS AND MARC JABS, TWO PACKS A DAY.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLER“IT WAS LIKE, ‘CAN EVERYBODY NOT GIVE LEE ANY DGS?’ ” MACDONALD SAYS. “HE WAS PLETELY OFF HIS HEAD. HE WAS, LIKE, TAKG KE, TAKG E—HE WAS JT UNNTROLLABLE. IN A MAD WAY, A STATE, I THK. THE STORI YOU ED TO FD OUT. . . . OH GOD, THAT GUY REALLY NEED HELP.”MCQUEEN, THE PTHS OF SELF-PY, BEME OBSSED WH PHYSIL IMPAIRMENTS AND DISABILY. THIS BEME THE THEME FOR YET ANOTHER BREAKTHROUGH, HIS SPRG-SUMMER 1999 SHOW, “NO. 13.”THE PARALYMPIAN AIMEE MULLS, A DOUBLE AMPUTEE, WALKED WOON PROSTHETICS. FOR THE FALE, SHALOM HARLOW STOOD ON A ROTATG PLATFORM, SWIRLG WHE AS TWO ROBOT ARMS SPLATTERED HER WH SPRAY PAT.“THE TRIUMPH OF LONDON’S FASHN WEEK,” SUZY MENK WROTE. “MCQUEEN PTURED THE RAW AGGRSN OF BRPOP AND THE SWAGGERG SHOWMANSHIP OF THE ART SCENE.” MCQUEEN AGREED. “IT WAS MY BT SHOW,” HE WOULD SAY, “THAT MOMENT WH SHALOM!” HE LATER SAID HE WAS SO MOVED THAT HE WEPT.AS UAL, MCQUEEN WAS WORKG OUT HIS OWN MONS ON THE NWAY, AND “NO. 13” WAS A PLA PICTN OF HOW HE SAW HIMSELF: HOBBLED, DISABLED, A PUPPET ON A PESTAL VANDALIZED BY TOMATONS.“ANGER MY WORK REFLECTED ANGST MY PERSONAL LIFE,” HE WOULD LATER TELL MENK.HE WANTED OUT OF GIVENCHY. HE’D LOST WEIGHT, DYED HIS HAIR, AND ROLLED WH ROCK STARS AND ROYALTY, YET HE WAS SURE THAT THE FASHN ELE WERE MOCKG HIM, THE FAT EAST ENR WHO THOUGHT HE WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR FRENCH UTURE.ISSIE TOOK CRED FOR WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. AS LREN GOLDSTE CROWE WR HER BOOK ISABELLA BLOW: A LIFE FASHN, SHE WAS SEATED NEXT TO TOM FORD AT A DNER MAY 1999 AND TOLD HIM, “YOU SHOULD LOOK AT ALEXANR.” FORD, THEN CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT GUCCI GROUP, WAS TERTED: NOT ONLY WAS MCQUEEN THE MOST REVOLUTNARY SIGNER OF HIS GENERATN, BUT POACHG HIM ULD BE THE BT REVENGE AGAST BERNARD ARNLT, WHO’D RECENTLY ATTEMPTED A HOSTILE TAKEOVER OF GUCCI GROUP. FORD AND C.E.O. DOMENI DE SOLE SUCCSFULLY FOUGHT THAT OFF BY PERSUADG THE FRENCH NGLOMERATE PLT-PRTEMPS-REDOUTE TO JECT $3 BILLN TO THE PANY, LATER ACQUIRG YV SAT LRENT AS WELL.MCQUEEN WENT TO THE PRS: “FIRE ME!” HE SAID.GUCCI MA HIM AN OFFER: FOR A 51 PERCENT STAKE, MCQUEEN WOULD ONLY HAVE TO PRODUCE FOR HIS OWN HOE. THE ONE VEAT: MCQUEEN HAD TO MAKE CLOTH THAT WOULD SELL. IN LATE 2000 HE OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED HIS FECTN TO GUCCI GROUP.“TALK ABOUT BE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU,” MCQUEEN SAID. “I BLOODY CHEWED UP AND SPAT OUT.”“THE LONELIT PLACE ON THE PLA”WHILE HE SEEMED TO BE STABILIZG PROFSNALLY, MCQUEEN WAS A WRECK HIS PERSONAL LIFE. HE’D MET A NEW MAN, GEE FORSYTH, WHO, AT 22, WAS SEVERAL YEARS YOUNGER THAN MCQUEEN AND HAD NEVER BEEN EXPOSED TO THE FASHN DTRY. HE WAS SADNED BY WHAT HE SAW. “THE FASHN WORLD IS THE LONELIT PLACE ON THE FACE OF THE PLA,” FORSYTH TOLD THE MAIL ON SUNDAY. “IT’S A SHALLOW WORLD FULL OF PARTY PEOPLE AND PARTY ‘IENDS.’ LEE KNEW THAT.”HIS LATG MOOD SWGS WERE SHGGED OFF AS A GENI’S ECCENTRICY: THERE WAS THE NIGHT MCQUEEN TOOK FORSYTH TO DRKS PARIS, DNER SPA, THEN DANCG AMSTERDAM. THERE WAS THE LOUNGG AT HOME, WATCHG A DOCUMENTARY ON AI, WH MCQUEEN CIDG THAT SHOULD BE THEIR NEXT TRIP—AND THERE THEY WERE, ON A PLANE 48 HOURS LATER. TWO DAYS MORE AND THEY WERE OVER , LLG NAOMI CAMPBELL TO MEET UP FOR NEW YEAR’S. MCQUEEN AND FORSYTH “SPENT THREE DAYS PARTYG AND TAKG DGS,” FORSYTH SAID. “NAOMI DIDN’T DO ANY KE EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS SURROUND BY PEOPLE WHO WERE.”ISSIE WAS FUR THAT MCQUEEN WAS THROWG AWAY MONEY WHILE PAYG HER NOTHG, BUT SHE WAS MORE UPSET BY HIS DG E. “THIS BOY SHE LOVED—THIS IS HER CREATIVE GENI, AND WHAT IS HE DOG?,” DETMAR SAYS. “HE’S SHOVELG ; HE’S STROYG HIMSELF.”MCQUEEN AND FORSYTH WERE UALLY PARTYG WH KATE MOSS, SADIE FROST, ANNABELLE NEILSON, AND THE HEIRS DAVIA TAYLOR.“IT WAS A VERY CTUO, CLIQUEY WORLD,” SAID FORSYTH THE MAIL ON SUNDAY. “THEY WERE HARD-RE—STAYG UP FOR DAYS, EHER DRKG OR TAKG DGS, SOME S BOTH. . . . PEOPLE HAD A LOT OF MONEY SO THEY NEVER HAD TO STOP.”THE TWO HAD BEEN DATG FOR ABOUT SIX MONTHS WHEN MCQUEEN ASKED FORSYTH TO MARRY HIM. THEY WANTED A SMALL CEREMONY, BUT KATE AND ANNABELLE TOOK OVER, LIVERG THEM TO A MASSIVE YACHT STOCKED WH SOMETHG LIKE $30,000 WORTH OF CHAMPAGNE. IN ATTENDANCE WERE MANY OF KATE’S IENDS: SADIE FROST AND JU LAW; NOEL GALLAGHER’S THEN WIFE, MEG MATHEWS; AND ACTRS PATSY KENS. THE PRIT BARELY SPOKE ENGLISH. THE WHOLE THG SEEMED LS LIKE A WEDDG THAN ANOTHER EXCE TO PARTY.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLER“EVERYONE WAS EATG AND DRKG AND TAKG DGS,” FORSYTH SAID. “THERE WERE NO FAY. IT WAS ALL PARTY PEOPLE.… IN THE FASHN WORLD THERE WERE VERY FEW PEOPLE WHO SAID, ‘THERE’S SOMEONE WHO NEEDS LOOKG AFTER.’ ”ISABELLA WOULD HAVE GLADLY DONE SO, HAD SHE BEEN WELE. SHE WAS SPENDG CREASG AMOUNTS OF TIME PARIS, RENTG MCQUEEN’S OLD APARTMENT THE MARAIS. BY THE END OF 2002, SHE AND DETMAR HAD SEPARATED.FOR MONTHS ISSIE HAD BEEN SLIDG TO A EP, TRACTABLE PRSN—TRYG ANTIPRSANTS TO NO AVAIL, TALKG OPENLY ABOUT SUICI. SHE HAD DRAWN UP A WILL, WHICH—ACRDG TO A NEW YORKER PROFILE AROUND THAT TIME—CLUD PROVISNS FOR HER HEAD TO BE SEVERED AND SENT TO HER FATHER’S TATE, AND HER HEART TO BE MAILED TO DETMAR.“YOU KNOW HOW HARD IS TO LIVE WH SOMEONE WHO’S TRYG TO M SUICI ALL THE TIME?” DETMAR SAYS. “IT’S REALLY FUCKG HARD.”ISSIE TOOK FORT THE SMALL THGS. TOM FORD GAVE HER A V.I.P. TAXI PASS TO E PARIS; SHE SLEPT A BED ONCE OWNED BY FREDDIE MERCURY; SHE WAS STILL A ONT-ROW PRENCE NONPAREIL. FOR THE OPENG OF “WHEN PHILIP MET ISABELLA,” A 2002 EXHIBN OF TREACY’S WORK FOR HIS MENTOR, ISABELLA WORE AN ENORMO, SEMI-TRANSLUCENT RED DISK ON HER HEAD.BUT NOTHG AND NO ONE WAS AS IMPORTANT AS MCQUEEN, AND WHEN HE TOOK TOM FORD UP ON HIS OFFER TO JO GUCCI GROUP, ISSIE ALLOWED HERSELF TO THK THAT MAYBE NOW HE’D PAY HER BACK SOMEHOW. HE DIDN’T. SHE WAS SO BTER SHE TOLD DETMAR THAT “WHEN SHE’S DYG ’S NOT [] A MCQUEEN.”“PARIS FOR COUTURE, LONDON FOR SUS, AMERI FOR PSYCHIATRIC HOSPALS”FOR HIS SPRG-SUMMER 2001 SHOW, “VOSS,” MCQUEEN STAGGERED THE TERROR—LIBERATELY STARTG AN HOUR LATE, FORCG HIS DIENCE TO S AROUND AN ENORMO REFLECTIVE PERSPEX BOX. WHAT BETTER REVENGE THAN TO MAKE ALL THE HORRIBLE FASHN PEOPLE PARE THEIR LOOKS, MAYBE FD THEMSELV, AS MCQUEEN HAD, FALLG SO SHORT?“I WAS LOOKG AT ON THE MONOR, WATCHG EVERYONE TRYG NOT TO LOOK AT THEMSELV,” MCQUEEN SAID. IT WAS HIS GREATT RETRIBUTN.AND THEN, SUDNLY, THE LIGHTS WENT OFF, AND THE GIANT BOX WAS L OM WH, HIS MOLS—WHO ULDN’T SEE OUT—GOG CRAZY AGAST THE GLASS, SHEATHED WHE PS, SOME WH STUFFED BIRDS AMG THEIR FAC. THE SHOW CLOSED WH THE LLAPSE OF A BOX WH THE BOX, REVEALG A NAKED MOL, FLH SPILLG OVER, HER HEAD ENSED A MONIC GRAY MASK. SHE WAS HOOKED UP TO A BREATHG TUBE AND VERED MOTHS, THE TABLE A REPLI OF JOEL-PETER WK’S SANARIUM.THE GUARDIAN, THE INTERNATNAL HERALD TRIBUNE, THE NEW YORK TIM ALL RAVED.“UP UNTIL MR. MCQUEEN’S GLOR CRACK-UP, THERE WAS NO DISCERNABLE REASON TO GET OUT OF BED FOR THE LONDON SHOWS,” SAID *THE NEW YORK TIM’*S CATHY HORYN, WHO WENT ON TO LL MCQUEEN “A GREAT SIGNER WHO IS NOT ONLY MAKG BETIFUL CLOTH, BUT ALSO RPONDG, LIKE AN ARTIST, TO THE HORROR AND SANY NTEMPORARY CULTURE.”MCQUEEN WAS ALSO WORKG THROUGH PERSONAL TRMAS. HIS RELATNSHIP WH GEE DIDN’T LAST LONG.THOUGH STILL TRANGED OM ISSIE, MCQUEEN WAS HEARG THGS. HER BARE BREASTS SPILLED OUT OF HER TOP DURG LUNCH WH A PRADA EXEC, YET SHE NTUED THE NVERSATN AS IF NOTHG HAPPENED. HER UNRWEAR ME UNTIED AT A UTURE SHOW, SO SHE STEPPED OUT OF AND KEPT GOG. SHE TRODUCED THE DUCHS OF YORK TO A PHOTOGRAPHER BY SAYG, “THIS IS DONALD. HE HAS AN ENORMO CK.”IN THE SUMMER OF 2003, ISSIE SOUGHT TREATMENT AT LONDON’S PRRY, THE FASHN WORLD’S MENTAL-HEALTH CLIC OF CHOICE; KATE MOSS WENT THERE FOR REHAB 1998. ISSIE HAD NO MONEY, AND MCQUEEN PCHED MORE THAN $8,000. HER DOCTORS PUT HER ON LHIUM, AND WHEN SHE WAS RELEASED, SEPTEMBER, SHE WAS NEARLY TATONIC. SHE BEGAN ELECTROSHOCK TREATMENTS, WHICH ONLY SEEMED TO SPEED UP THE CYCLG OF HER MANIA AND PRSN.MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLERDETMAR, WHO HAD NEVER REALLY LEFT ISABELLA, TRIED TO PERSUA HER TO GO TO THE UNED STAT AFTER HE HAD HAD A NVERSATN WH ANDREW SOLOMON, WHO’D WRTEN THE NOONDAY DEMON ABOUT HIS OWN BATTL WH PRSN.“HE SAID TO ME, ‘DETMAR, PARIS FOR UTURE, LONDON FOR SUS, BUT AMERI FOR PSYCHIATRIC HOSPALS.’ ” BUT ISSIE DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE: LONDON WAS WHERE HER IENDS AND FAY WERE, AND SHE NEVER LOST HOPE THAT MCQUEEN WOULD E BACK TO HER.AS ISSIE PENSATED, DIFFERENT DOCTORS WERE LLED UPON, DIFFERENT DGS TRIED, ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY RUMED, YET NOTHG WORKED. SHE TRIED TO KILL HERSELF AT LEAST THREE TIM THREE MONTHS: OVERDOSG ON PILLS, WRECKG A R, AND EVENTUALLY THROWG HERSELF OFF AN OVERPASS KNOWN AS SUICI BRIDGE, SMASHG BOTH ANKL. SHE WAS TOLD SHE’D NEVER WEAR HEELS AGA.SHE WAS STUTNALIZED AND PLACED UNR THE RE OF DR. STEPHEN PEREIRA, WHO WOULD ALSO TREAT MCQUEEN FOR MIXED ANXIETY AND PRSIVE DISORR. ISSIE WAS NOW GOG SO FAR AS TO BURN HER VAGA WH L CIGARETT, A LERAL FORM OF SELF-ABE FOR SOMEONE WHO ULDN’T HAVE THE BABI SHE SO BADLY WANTED.“EVERYBODY KNOWS I’VE FUCKED UP,” SHE’D SAY.ON MAY 5, 2007, ISSIE GUZZLED WEED KILLER, THE SAME WAY DETMAR’S FATHER HAD MTED SUICI 30 YEARS EARLIER. SHE WAS SHED TO THE HOSPAL, WHERE SHE GREW IRRATED THAT THE NURS DIDN’T REGNIZE HER: “GOOGLE ME!”WHEN HER DOCTORS TOLD HER SHE’D BE AD WH WEEKS, SHE WAS RELIEVED; SHE’D TOLD HER SISTER LAVIA, “I’M WORRIED THAT I HAVEN’T TAKEN ENOUGH.” SHE’D GTED AS MUCH AS 20 TIM THE AMOUNT NEED TO KILL HER.SHE SAT BED AND WAED TO DIE, AND THOUGH MANY STORI CIRCULATED AFTER HER ATH ABOUT ISSIE HER SILVER LAMé LGERIE NEXT TO STACKS OF FASHN MAGAZ, SMOKG CIGARETT AND WEARG RED LIPSTICK, NONE OF THEM WERE TE. SHE SAT UP BED A PUBLIC HOSPAL, DRSED TTON, ON A DRIP—NOTHG GLAMORO ABOUT . “IT’S BULLSH TO PRETEND OTHERWISE,” DETMAR SAYS.WHEN THEY HEARD ISSIE WAS DYG, THOSE CLOST TO HER, CLUDG PHILIP TREACY, ME TO SEE HER. MCQUEEN WAS NOT AMONG THEM.ON AUGT 6, 2011, NEW YORK’S METROPOLAN MM OF ART TOOK THE UNPRECENTED STEP OF REMAG OPEN UNTIL MIDNIGHT: SUCH WAS THE RPONSE TO “ALEXANR MCQUEEN: SAVAGE BETY” THAT PEOPLE LED UP FOR HOURS, SNAKG DOWN FIFTH AVENUE ON THE EXHIBN’S FAL TWO DAYS. IT BROUGHT AN TIMATED $15 LN OVER THREE MONTHS AND BEME THE EIGHTH-MOST-POPULAR SHOW THE MM’S HISTORY.LEFT UNSAID WAS A BTAL TTH: “SAVAGE BETY” WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN MOUNTED HAD ALEXANR MCQUEEN NOT BEEN FOUND AD THE YEAR BEFORE, AT AGE 40, ON FEBARY 11, 2010, JT A FEW WEEKS BEFORE HIS NEXT SHOW PARIS.THE DTRY HAD LONG SCE E TO REGARD MCQUEEN AS AN ENDLS GENERATOR OF FANTASTIL IAS, THE STAED QUALY OF HIS OUTPUT HAVG LONG CEASED TO AMAZE. YET HE WAS THE FIRST FASHN SIGNER WHOSE ATH FELT LIKE A LARGER CULTURAL, GENERATNAL LOSS, ON THE LEVEL OF KURT COBA’S SUICI OR THE ACCINTAL ATHS OF RIVER PHOENIX AND HEATH LEDGER: THE WERE ORIGALS ALL.IN THE YEARS BEFORE HIS SUICI, MCQUEEN, HIS WAY, TRIED TO MAKE AMENDS, SHOWG UP AT A CHRISTMAS PARTY THROWN BY SIMON COST. HE SAW HIS OLD IEND CHRIS BIRD, AND A RARE MOMENT OF VULNERABILY REVEALED THAT HE WAS H.I.V.-POSIVE. “I JT SORT OF SAID TO HIM, ‘WELL, THAT WAS BLOODY STUPID, WASN’T ?’ AND HE JT SAID, ‘YEAH.’ ”MOST EVERYONE WHO KNEW LEE IS NVCED THAT HIS SUICI WAS A RASH IMPULSE BROUGHT ON BY DARKNS AND DGS, BY THE RECENT ATH OF HIS BELOVED MOTHER, BUT AS DR. PEREIRA TTIFIED AT THE QUT, MCQUEEN HAD TRIED TO KILL HIMSELF TWICE BEFORE, 2009. HE HAD FELT ISOLATED BY FAME, LET DOWN BY PEOPLE HE LOVED, EXISTENTIALLY PRSED AFTER THE TRIUMPH OF A SHOW, A FAILURE EVERY WAY EXCEPT PROFSNALLY. HIS MOTHER’S ATH, HIS PSYCHIATRIST SAID, LEFT HIM FEELG THAT “THERE WAS VERY LTLE TO LIVE FOR.”ON FEBARY 10, TWO DAYS BEFORE HIS MOTHER’S FUNERAL, MCQUEEN DID AN INTER SEARCH: “WHEN SOMEONE SLS THEIR WRIST HOW LONG DO TAKE FOR THEM TO DIE?” HE DID ENOUGH KE TO KILL HIMSELF THREE OR FOUR TIM OVER, SWALLOWED SOME SLEEPG PILLS, THEN TOOK HIS DRSG-GOWN RD AND TRIED TO HANG HIMSELF THE SHOWER. HE FAILED. HE GRABBED A CLEAVER AND ANOTHER KNIFE, THEN WENT TO HIS CLOSET. HE LOOPED HIS FAVORE BROWN BELT AROUND HIS NECK, SLASHED HIS WRISTS, AND HUNG HIMSELF, LEAVG BEHD A NOTE THAT READ PART:MOST POPULARTHE TAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER WAS YEARS THE MAKG, NEW DETAILS REVEALBY SAN CASEYMELANIA’S TAKE ON DONALD TMP’S FOURTH INDICTMENT IS BASILLY “SUCKS TO BE YOU, PAL”: REPORTBY BS LEVTE CRIME, TE FAH: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE TEXAS MOM WHO STOPPED HIMBY JULIE MILLERPLEASE LOOK AFTER MY DOGS. SORRY, I LOVE YOU. LEE.PS BURY ME AT THE CHURCH.IN HIS FLAT, PRI OF PLACE, WERE TWO PORTRAS OF ISSIE BY STEVEN MEISEL. “IT WAS THE MOST VALUABLE THG I LEARNED FASHN, HER ATH,” MCQUEEN TOLD THE NEW YORK TIM 2009, MONTHS AFTER HIS OWN TWO FAILED SUICI ATTEMPTS. “ISABELLA WAS SO STRONG HER PUBLIC IMAGE BUT ULDN’T STAND HER GROUND HER PERSONAL LIFE. I KNOW THE OTHER SI. SHE WOULD SAY THAT FASHN KILLED HER, BUT SHE ALSO ALLOWED THAT TO HAPPEN A LOT OF WAYS.”DIGNED FOR DTCTN: ALEXANR MCQUEEN AND ISABELLA BLOW’S FRIENDSHIP PHOTOS1 / 12CHEVRONCHEVRONMCQUEEN DROPS HIS PANTS ON THE NWAY AT HIS SHOW TO REVEAL HIS AMERIN-FLAG BOXERS. AND LATER THAT YEAR LVMH ANNOUNCED THAT MCQUEEN, JT 27 YEARS OLD, WOULD BEE THE HEAD SIGNER FOR GIVENCHY. ISABELLA ASSUMED SHE’D BE NAMED THE HOE ME, AND BE PUT ON SALARY. BUT HE GAVE HER NOTHG AND SHE WAS HEARTBROKEN. “SHE GAVE LEE EVERYTHG,” SAYS SIGNER JULIEN MACDONALD. “ALL HER MONEY, ALL HE TIME, ALL HER ENERGY. SHE TRODUCED HIM TO EVERYBODY. AND THEN, WHEN HE WENT TO GIVENCHY AND HE HAD MONEY, HE TOLD HER TO PISS OFF. HE HAD LNS AND SHE WAS PENNILS, AND HE GAVE HER NOTHG. HE JT SHUT THE DOOR.”MREEN CALLAHAN
Dazed Digal: When you thk about how many big name signers are gay ’s actually que md-blowg. It volv the whole history of opprsn and secrecy surroundg gay sexualy, which was illegal for many years and regard as a mental illns.
So I thk gays and lbians had to be hyper aware of how to read and analyse cloth so as to drs a way that would allow them to munite wh other people but not to be regnised by a homophobic society.
And gays have been volved a lot of those.