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The closing act that opened the show

Posted Feb 11, 2010

A season started while an era ended. In the timeline of fashion some news are for an hour, other stick for life; on the first day of this latest round of fashion weeks, the incomprehensible death of one of our most beautiful modern minds, British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, became the latest of those defining moments...

It started as a discreet knock on the office door, then the news were delivered and things took the surreal quality they always do under those circumstances. This happened at a Milan fashion house and as shock caused things to come to a halt, it was the entire fashion industry and every lover of beauty that was getting tears in their eyes. British legend Alexander McQueen had passed away, allegedly taking his life for reasons no one could fathom. Some blamed grief (a deceased mother, a best friend and muse's saddening death...), others observed that some of his latest extraordinary visions might have offered an insight into a somewhat haunted mind.

His vision and presence shall undoubtedly outlast his tragically short life; he is one of the great few to whom sheer talent has granted eternal life, well past our collective shock, well beyond the lifespan of his onirical dresses. Anna Dello Russo told us she liked garments who "carry dream with them" and somehow when thinking back to Alexander McQueen's designs it is the exact thought that comes to mind... Swide joins the rest of the world in thanking ths great man for the seeds of dream his creations planted into our minds, with many more springs to come.

Natalia in Alexander's magical Oyster dress, shot by Peter Lindbergh.

 

Photo credits: Getty Images

B&W shot courtesy of Peter Lindbergh for Harper's Bazaar

 

TAGS: alexander mcqueen suicide fashion designer britsh designer fashion legend cbe isabella blow natalia vodianova peter lindbergh oyster dress

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