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Fashion Diary: Alexander McQueen, an Appreciation

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Alexander McQueen, the fashion world's reigning provocateur, was found dead Thursday morning at his home in London. He was 40.

The police have not released an official report on the cause of death, but his press representatives at KCD Worldwide said it appeared to be suicide.

McQueen's death comes days after his mother's death on Feb. 2 and just a few weeks before he was due to present his fall women's collection in Paris.

As a designer, he was not only a technical genius -- as comfortable tailoring an Edwardian-inspired suit as draping a kimono with a 25-foot train -- but a creative genius too. His theatrical runway productions were frequently controversial, casting models as witches and mental patients.

“A gifted iconoclast, who could just as easily be creating art as fashion" was how Mimi Avins, then the Los Angeles Times' fashion editor, described McQueen upon seeing his clothes for the first time in 1996.

An East Ender and the son of a London cabbie, the designer -- whose first name was Lee -- completed his studies at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in 1994. He apprenticed on Savile Row, where, legend has it, he sewed a subversive message into the sleeve of a jacket destined for Prince Charles.

From 1996 to early 2001, he had a rocky tenure as head designer of the French fashion house Givenchy. It was so rocky, in fact, that he sold a stake of his own business to the rival Gucci Group. Soon, McQueen's gothic aesthetic became a favorite of Hollywood celebrities who wore his skull-print scarves as often as his evening gowns. Cameron Diaz wore a fuchsia dress by the designer at the recent Golden Globe Awards.

With his runway collections inspired by influences such as Dante's “Inferno" and the Salem witch trials, McQueen always thumbed his nose at convention (and, occasionally, the fashion industry). And lately, he was at the forefront of combining fashion and new technology.

For the women's runway show in Paris in October, he webcast his sci-fi fantasy live through a collaboration with director Nick Knight and ShowStudio.com, turning it into an unmediated international event that included the debut of a new song by Lady Gaga.

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