Alexander McQueen

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2006 survey of English taste, AngloMania, one of the first exhibits was a coat McQueen designed for David Bowie. It was based on the Union Jack. Tattered and decayed, it looked like something a victim of a drowning might have worn. Deeper into the exhibition were examples of McQueen’s work in black cottons, silks and laces. With large, exoskeleton jewellery along jawbones and spines, his figures looked like the bride and companions to the Grim Reaper. And there they were, preying upon a mannequin of Queen Victoria (Victoriana always provided visual cues for McQueen to plunder). Standing against the great works of other British designers, McQueen’s was the only work to face, and perhaps for a time face down, the final reckoning. One of his most popular designs was a silk-screened scarf with a dramatic series of skulls.