Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin - Softcover

Andrew Wilson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1471131807 ISBN 13: 9781471131806

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2016

Synopsis

When Alexander McQueen committed suicide in February 2010, aged just 40, a shocked world mourned the loss of its most visionary fashion designer.

McQueen had risen from humble beginnings as the youngest child of an East London taxi driver to scale the heights of fame, fortune and glamour. He designed clothes for the world's most beautiful women including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. In business he created a multi-million pound luxury brand that became a favourite with both celebrities and royalty, most famously the Duchess of Cambridge who wore a McQueen dress on her wedding day.

But behind the confident facade and bad-boy image, lay a sensitive soul who struggled to survive in the ruthless world of fashion. As the pressures of work intensified, so McQueen became increasingly dependent on the drugs that contributed to his tragic end. Meanwhile, in his private life, his failure to find lasting love with a string of boyfriends only added to his despair. And then there were the dark secrets that haunted his sleep...

A modern-day fairy tale infused with the darkness of a Greek tragedy, this book will tell the sensational story of McQueen's rise from his hard East London upbringing to the hedonistic world of fashion. Those closest to the designer - his family, friends and lovers - have spoken for the first time about the man they knew, a fragmented and insecure individual, a lost boy who battled to gain entry into a world that ultimately destroyed him.

About this title

Review:

'Explores the source of the fashion designer's genius and the links between his dark work and troubled personal life.' Irish Times

'McQueen's story is almost mythical. It has all the elements of Icarus - he flew too close to the sun and was burned by his aspirations.' Grazia 'The Alexander McQueen fashion house has been accused of distancing itself from the dark genius of its founder after biographies of him were banned from an exhibition of his work. In an interview with The Times Magazine, Wilson said "the company that bears Lee's name and now an international brand did not want to co-operate with the book."' -- The Times T2

'McQueen defied the expectations of his birth, only to be hunted down by personal demons.' The Times

'Wilson's insights offer a sensitive take on a troubled soul: from difficult beginnings in a working class family and childhood abuse at the hands of his violent-tempered brother-in-law to his prodigious talent and A-list lifestyle, hampered by depression.' -- The Times

'Wilson is the first biographer to have enjoyed the 'blessing and cooperation of the McQueen family'. His narrative interweaves scores of testimonials from former colleagues, students, friends, fellow-clubbers and sexual partners... [it] remind[s] us that McQueen s extraordinary imagination, though clouded with melancholy and spiked with savagery, changed the way we look at fashion for ever' Financial Times

'Andrew Wilson's heartbreaking biography of McQueen takes an unflinching look at the personal price McQueen paid for this supposed poetry. This seems like a fan's book at first glance written 'with the support of the McQueen family' but it's a wonderfully readable and well-researched account.' The Telegraph

'This is a deeply intelligent, fascinating book, full of insights and perceptions, and I suspect the fashion insiders won't get it because of its unflattering portrayal of their bitchy world. But everyone else will. McQueen has got in Wilson the biographer he deserves.' The Independent

'Andrew Wilson's heart-breaking biography of McQueen takes an unflinching look at the personal price McQueen paid for this supposed poetry.' -- Daily Telegraph

About the Author:

Andrew Wilson is a journalist who has written for the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Telegraph and the Observer. He is the author of the critically acclaimed BEAUTIFUL SHADOW: A LIFE OF PATRICIA HIGHSMITH, THE LYING TONGUE, HAROLD ROBBINS: THE MAN WHO INVENTED SEX and SHADOW OF THE TITANIC.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1471131807
• ISBN 13: 9781471131806
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400