When Alexander McQueen was the creative director of Givenchy And respect was a matter of creativity

During his career, Alexander McQueen had more than one empire. An eponymous brand, whose aesthetic and narrative codes continue to be deeply tied to his unique experiences; a maison with a burdensome historical-cultural heritage, still fueling the expectations of the entire fashion system as we know it today; and the creative direction of Givenchy under the LVMH conglomerate headed by Monsieur Arnault. A role that, perhaps, should be more correctly defined as an adoption. These were the same years when, to provide a minimal historical context, Rei Kawakubo was showcasing the controversial collection “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body”, Martin Margiela presented one of his most conceptual collections inspired by Stockman atelier mannequins, Nicolas Ghesquière took the reins of Balenciaga, and Marc Jacobs of Louis Vuitton.

It was 1996: McQueen had recently graduated from Central St Martins in London, the academy from which John Galliano also came, who was the creative director of Givenchy until that year. McQueen had already gained two work experiences, besides having already launched his brand in 1992. In 1986, after seeing a TV report about the lack of apprentices on Savile Row, he decided to approach the royal tailors directly and got a job; a few years later, he was in Milan, working as a pattern cutter for designer Romeo Gigli - «Alexander McQueen appeared before me one morning in Corso Como», recounts the Italian designer. «I took him under my wing. One day I had him make a man's jacket. I had him redo it 4 or 5 times. On the final fitting, I removed the lining and inside the garment, I found he had written in large black marker “Fuck you Romeo”» - He was 27 when he became the creative director of Givenchy. «Someone like him, coming from a working-class family, known for his crazy, iconoclastic creations, was chosen by one of the most prestigious Parisian maisons: all the English celebrated the event as if they had won the World Cup» recalls Ian Bonhôte, one of the directors of the documentary focused on the life of the designer released in 2020.

Moving to the field of prêt-à-porter, it is with the FW99 collection that McQueen gave shape and substance to what has gone down in history as “Cyborg Couture”: computerized Swarovski studs, microchip patterns, dresses made of circuits and LEDs in collaboration with Studio Van der Graaf fueled the batteries of the upcoming millennium. «It wasn’t a fashion show, it was performance art» as Vogue wrote about the SS99 Ready-to-Wear collection, etched in everyone's collective memory for the robot blitz that, armed with only paint, spattered the body of model Shalom Harlow helpless in a strapless broderie anglaise dress, cinched at the waist by a leather belt. In one of his last Couture collections for Givenchy, FW99, McQueen conceived a sort of art exhibition made of fiberglass mannequins illuminated only by spotlights - taking inspiration from a 19th-century painting by Paul Delaroche depicting the execution of Lady Jane Gray, a great-granddaughter of Henry VIII. In 2001, when the liaison came to an end, McQueen had already secured a commercial deal with the Gucci Group, which acquired a 51% majority stake in his brand. Thus, fashion’s hooligan could continue to love fashion in his own way.