ご冥福をお祈りします。

既報の通り、アレキサンダー・マックイーンが40歳で自らの命を絶ちました。

勿論、メディアを通してしか知りえなかった彼ですが、
彼のようにチャレンジングで――、社会に訴えかける アバンギャルドなスタイルは、
そのデビュー以来――、時に波紋を呼んで酷評されたり、時に称賛を浴びるという――、
これほど評価の振れ幅の大きい人もいないだろうな――、と思うくらいでした。

多くのクリエーターは（勿論、時に違う道を志向する人たちはいます）、
名前の認知や、或る報酬を求め、グローバルで広範な広がり――、
或いはボリュームを求めようとする――、
その一方でそこに便乗しようとする、ビジネスだけではない様々な人たちがいます。

そこに【人】の才能――、という有限で、目に見えない能力に依存する世界の限界と、
製品を受け入れる市場――、生活者の動向に大きく左右されます。


以下、Herald TribuneのSuzy Menkes の記事を転載しながら――、
このビジネスは本当に難しさ――、厳しさを増しているのだと感じます。
心からのご冥福をお祈りします。


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Alexander McQueen, Dark Star of International Fashion
By SUZY MENKES
Published: February 11, 2010
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Throughout Thursday, reports of the suicide of Alexander McQueen, the dark star of international fashion, had swirled across the Internet, a medium that the brilliant British creator had embraced with vigor.

The death of the iconoclastic designer, known by his first name, Lee, shocked the world of fashion and the arts as the autumn/winter 2010 fashion season opened in New York. The runway show for his McQ by Alexander McQueen line, scheduled for Thursday night in New York, was canceled.

His death at age 40 also may force the industry to examine the current environment in which a generation of young designers is under unprecedented pressure to expand each fledgling brand.

Mr. McQueen’s most recent Twitter messages, which were removed after news of his death, were filled with foreboding. On Feb. 3 he had announced the death one day earlier of his mother, Joyce, who was front row at all his shows. Then, on Feb. 7, using an expletive, he said it had been an “awful week...but now I have to some how pull myself together....”

Rising to fame in the 1990s, Mr. McQueen was unique in his raw vision combined with intricate craftsmanship. Skulls, bones and images of death were embedded in his work, as was a sense of the evil, smoky, Victorian history of London’s East End, where he was born in 1969, the son of a cab driver.

An irreverent and upstart attitude was part of his character, evidenced by the cheeky comments he embroidered inside a jacket made for Prince Charles while he was apprenticed to a tailor in Savile Row.

The early McQueen shows were a wild roller coaster of imagination and showmanship that went from the designer pulling his pants down to “moon” the audience, to stage effects like spraying ink jets of paint onto his models or covering the catwalk with storms of snowflakes.

Inspired by nature, from predatory birds to writhing snakes, the designer skillfully folded exotic prints or fanciful feathers into a fashion lexicon that included plaid and tweed from his family’s Scottish heritage.

Although often accused of a violent attitude to women, whom he recently dressed in carapaces and fetish-like shoes, Mr. McQueen had a love/hate relationship with beauty. Much of his work, built on precise tailoring linked to a soaring, romantic softness, was elegant in a skewed way.

Those skills first were spotted by Isabella Blow, an aristocratic British eccentric who was his mentor and helped bring him to the notice of Bernard Arnault and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, where he was made the designer for Givenchy in 1996. Mr. McQueen then was poached by the Gucci group, which supported and developed his own label.

Robert Polet, chief executive of Gucci Group, said Thursday, “I worked closely with Lee for the last five years. His creative force was inspiring to me and all those who were fortunate to know and work with him.

“Lee’s passing will be mourned deeply. He has left us too soon; he had so much more to give, but the legacy he leaves us is a rich one and one that we will cherish and honor.”

Ms. Blow continued to champion the designer’s work until her own suicide in 2007. That loss and a sense of guilt permeated Mr. McQueen’s psyche, although some of his recent work was his most joyous: The extraordinary high-tech show he developed with ShowStudio to stream live on the Internet last October ― only to have his brand’s Web site crash when Lady GaGa tweeted that her new single would debut during the event ― and his menswear show in Milan in January, when Art Nouveau wallpapers were inspiration for both the show’s backdrop and prints on the clothing. That show had the ebullient designer responding to cheers from the audience.

But it would be unjust if Mr. McQueen were remembered mainly for his awesome presentations, which were often collaborations with “Brit” artists like Jake and Dinos Chapman.

For the designer was a 21st century romantic whose soaring imagination, dipped into the dark side, made a mark on fashion history.



【転載】Herald Tribune International web
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/fashion/12iht-mcqueen.html?hpw