Fashion world bids farewell to Alexander McQueen

Supermodel Kate Moss and movie star Sarah Jessica Parker were among the elite of the fashion world who attended a memorial service for British designer Alexander McQueen at St Paul's Cathedral on Monday.

McQueen committed suicide in February aged 40 shortly after the death of his mother. He took a mix of cocaine, tranquilisers and sleeping pills before hanging himself at his London flat, an inquest concluded.

"I loved him," Moss, dressed in black and wearing dark sunglasses, said outside the cathedral where Britons have mourned such national figures as Horatio Nelson and Winston Churchill and marked the end of two world wars.

When asked to sum up McQueen's career, Parker added: "One of a kind, very ... The service was bitter-sweet - perfect."

McQueen was one of the world's most provocative and revered designers, and shows featuring his "Highland Rape" and "Dante" collections were considered classics.

Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of US Vogue, gave an address during which she paid tribute to the mercurial personality and design genius of a boy from the gritty east end of London who rose to the heights of A-list stardom in the fashion world.

She recalled the dramatic impact of McQueen's designs by recounting the story of his Dante collection, featuring models wearing the "bumster" trousers worn well down the hip, hitting the catwalk in New York in the late 1990s.

"One (model) turned to give me an extremely prominent close-up of her mostly naked back view," Wintour told a congregation of more than a thousand people. "Well, after that collection it was a done deal. Everybody lowered their trousers everywhere."                                                                                   

Icelandic singer Bjork, dressed in giant angel wings and a silver helmet, performed a haunting song called "Gloomy Sunday", which talks in the first person about deciding "to end it all".

Afterwards, bagpipers dressed in tartan kilts played on the stairs outside the cathedral as guests, the famous, the friends and family of Alexander streamed out into the sunshine.

"I think Alexander would have loved every minute of it," Hilary Alexander, fashion director for the Telegraph newspaper, said as she left the memorial.

Born in a working class area of London, McQueen left school at the age of 16 and gained an apprenticeship at the traditional Savile Row tailors Anderson and Sheppard, moving on to neighbouring Gieves and Hawkes.

The former British Designer of the Year winner eventually gained a masters degree in fashion design from London's prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

McQueen had an ability to shock and his autumnwinter 1995 collection "Highland Rape" which featured dishevelled looking models in torn clothing was considered a classic example.

The following year, McQueen was named head designer at the staid Paris couture house Givenchy. His first collection for the French atelier was not widely considered to be a success.

But he went on to establish his own label and become part of the Gucci stable of brands owned by French retailer and luxury goods group PPR, drawing in fans, customers and fame and earning a place at the top table of fashion.