Before Lee Alexander McQueen took his own life on February 11, 2010, he had granted one last interview with Irish fashion journalist Godfrey Deeny in late January (before the menswear shows) for Australian Harper’s Bazaar April 2010 issue. And what did we learn?
Deeny on McQueen’s inspirations:
Lee’s two favourite sources are fine artists and TV, especially nature and science-fiction programs, which he plans to watch on ginormous flatscreens in his soon-to-be-completed new townhouse on Dunraven Street.
McQueen on his Spring/Summer 2010 collection:
“I got the idea for them from H.R. Giger, and seeing Alien, and then I got a sculptor to make up a shoe so that it looked like it grew right out of the foot. Sick, ain’t I?
“The whole show was metamorphic. It was the reversal of one before that, which was Charles Darwin with the evolution of the species. This was the reverse: instead of Darwin’s theary that we come from the sea, we made it that we come from the land and go back into the sea.”
McQueen on his own fashion sense:
“I know what I want to wear. I don’t want to stand out, wearing some that is asymmetric, and covered in dandelions.”
McQueen on his most recent boyfriend:
“A bastard who went back to Australia, and I was left looking at his name,” he grimaces, pointing to a name tattooed on his right arm. Which he then turns down when I try to read the moniker and keeps that way until the end of the meal.
McQueen on his work:
“I am married to work”, though id he wants to disparage someone he calls them a :stitch bitch”. Nor has he any interest in taking over another famed house such as Hermes or Chanel. “Been there, done that,” he remarks in reference to his stint at Givenchy which ended nearly a decade a ago.
In ending, Deeny wrote about how McQueen was “desperately keen” to move into his new home and install some of his new art, walk his dogs in Hyde Park and cook a lot. With the benefit of hindsight, it is a shame that it all didn’t come into fruition, and that Deeny didn’t touch on McQueen’s relationship with the late Isabella Blow or his mother (who hadn’t passed away at the time of the interview). We may have read it all before or they weren’t allowed to be asked, but it’s a shame we couldn’t gain more into to what made the man tick.
To read the article, check out the April 2010 issue of Harper’s Bazaar Australia on newsstands in the country from today.
On a side note, although @McQueenWorld‘s Twitter account may have been taken down, but his TwitPics are still viewable.
