Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/468853
his year, one of fashion's most original voices, Alexander McQueen, will be recognized with no less than two books, one museum show and a play being released in London. Each of these cultural pieces serve as a reminder of how McQueen, the bad boy of British design, remains a force in fashion, even five years after his untimely suicide. In February, veteran fashion reporter Dana Thomas publishes her new book, "Gods and Kings," a doorstop-sized delight on McQueen and fellow fashion wunderkind John Galliano. Then, in the fall, British journalist Andrew Wilson releases his own biography of the designer. Furthermore, this spring, London's Victoria and Albert Museum will host a restaging of 2011's "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty," the landmark exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art that attracted over 650,000 visitors, making it the eighth most-visited exhibit in the museum's history. Perhaps Kate Middleton will open the show—after all, she helped shore up McQueen's reputation just months after his death by choosing his onetime assistant (and successor) Sarah Burton to design her wedding dress. So how has Alexander "Lee" McQueen remained such a potent force in fashion, his company thriving rather than dissipating in his wake? For one thing, according to the Fashion Institute of Technology's Valerie Steele, his artistry transcended seasonal styles. 76 BAL HARBOUR From "Gods and Kings," clockwise from left: John Galliano, Amanda Harlech and André Leon Talley, 1996; Shalom Harlow spray-painted by robots in McQueen's "No. 13," 1999; a dress from McQueen's "Widows of Culloden" collection, 2006; Naomi Campbell in McQueen's first show for Givenchy wearing Philip Treacy's sheep-horn hat; McQueen in 2003. T IMAGES COURTESY OF PENGUIN PRESS