Alexander McQueen and Gareth Pugh: Two fashion icons

Alexander McQueen and Gareth Pugh are two designers from England that share a similar design aesthetic yet they both had a different career in the industry. One initially inspired by Death and Rebirth and the other by the reconstruction of the human body. One strong shared commonality between the two is that they viewed fashion as a performance art, and never failed to express that in their runway shows.

Alexander McQueen named ‘Lee Alexander McQueen’ was born on March 17^th, 1969 in Lewisham, London. As a designer, he was inspired by many topics, and through his rich emotional life, he was encouraged to create many outlandish yet refined runway looks and collections.   In his young life he enjoyed drawing clothing and studying art. He had a very artistic mind and was able to put that to use after he learned the trade however it was by the trade that he was able to better pursue being a ‘fashion designer’ because he learned how to construct clothes well. At 16 he dropped out of high school and he found work on Savile Row, a street in London’s Mayfair district famous for offering made-to-order men’s suits.  

After working many years as a tailor on Savile Row he then pursued design by enrolling at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design, and received his M.A. in 1992. He was inspired by Death and Rebirth and with that came a fascination for skulls. While studying he was able to hone his focus on ‘fashion design’ specifically. His thesis based on ‘Jack the Ripper’ was spotted by stylist Isabella Blow whom bought his entire collection. Four years out of design school, he then began working for Givenchy, a French haute couture line owned by Louis-Vuitton.  Gareth Pugh, on the other hand started a bit younger than his predecessor McQueen, as he designed costumes at the age of 14 for the National Youth Theatre.

Gareth Pugh was also born in London and through his experience designing as a teenager, he continued to pursue fashion. He enrolled at City of Sunderland College and finished his degree at Central Saint Martins in 2003.  His final thesis was inspired by balloons. He took that inspiration and applied it to the human form by accentuating models joints and limbs, a technique that he continued to use.  Like McQueen, Pugh’s work was also seen by someone already in the industry. The fashion editor (find name of person) of Dazed and Confused magazine placed one of his designs on the front cover. Both designers gained experience from a young age and this led to their interest in design. After putting in their best creative effort in their designs, they gained a head start in the industry.

McQueen designed for his own brand, but a lot of the work from his early years were at Givenchy. Commercially for his own brand, he created a pant called ‘bumster’ which were fit to expose the back of one’s waistline. This design became popular because he aspired to achieve the elongation of the torso, which many found appealing.  His first runway looks were created from the sheer appreciation of fashion as an art with attention to the body’s form. As he grew in his practice as a designer he was able to work with a variety of fabrics and an exploration of many themes that were displayed on the runway as a performance. In his shows you could see his storytelling ability and the element of suspense that he wanted to leave viewers with.  Many of his themes were expressed with drama and extravagance.

During many of his runway shows he aimed to break the mold of what a fashion show should be like. For him, it was most certainly a performance art.  One of his early run-way shows in 1995 entitled ‘The Highland Rape’ was very controversial. It was such a success that he was then sought after to design for Givenchy.  For this show, he was inspired by his Scottish heritage and the war between Scotland and England. Being British but of Scottish heritage, he personally saw Scotland in a poor light and wanted to express his emotions of this war through this show. Some critics thought he was romanticizing the idea of ‘Rape’, however he used the historical reference and expressed it as the performance art that he believed fashion to be. His two themes here was history and destruction, and he played with that in a variety of ways. First his use of fabric, by using ‘tartan’ which was a traditional Scottish fabric that he got from his family, and experimenting with the deconstruction of garments so that they appeared torn as women walked down the runway as if they had been raped.  The shows controversy sparked a lot of critics to say he was celebrating rape, however he later also shared that he has seen his sister experiencing domestic violence when he was younger. Along with the historical reference, he also used this show to heal his emotional wounds in a creative way and ultimately empower women.

Another example of McQueen empowering women in his runway shows was when he featured an already famous athlete Aimee Mullins who became a double amputee. As she walked down the runway with hand carved prosthetic legs, not only was she given opportunity to be empowered but McQueen was showing us his experimentation with the body and how it can be displayed. It played around with this a lot in his collections, not only for his own brand but for Givenchy.  McQueen’s work for Givenchy set the brand apart as he brought Britain to Paris and in the show. His first ‘haute-couture’ collection entitled ‘The Search for the Golden Fleece’ he again showed the power of the woman by creating very well-tailored dresses that were inspired by the golden royal logo. After this experience of designing for Givenchy, he also took that inspiration to his own brand.  As a designer he utilized his garment construction skills and attention to shape to accentuate the body. Many of his garments were empowering to the women’s form and he utilized themes of death and rebirth which inspired his use of darker colored fabrics, lace and the like. Gareth Pugh’s work was similar to McQueen as they had an artistic flair and professional tailoring ability that took them to fame. Gareth Pugh was born on August 31^st 1981 In Sunderland, England. As a child in school, he enjoyed his art classes. At the age of 14, he enrolled in a summer camp at the National Youth Theatre where he learned to design costumes, he did this for two more summers.  After this experience, he had found his passion. After High school, he enrolled at City of Sunderland College with an interest in pursuing sculpture but he decided to pursue fashion design, and finished at Central Saint Martins in 2003.  After graduation he interned in Paris at Revilon, a luxury brand. While interning, he met Michelle Lamy, a fashion consultant that was responsible for branding the label.  After working with her, she assisted him in choosing more high-end fabrics like cashmere, leather and mink to his collections.